Oops....

Oops....not the word that you want to hear or say when working on a project. But it is a word that I usually utter more often than I should. This particular oops was directed at the one small component that ended up with too much heat yesterday morning and melted. Oops. I would have coiled a new one and just soldered that on, but my sized mandrel was at home. Oops. So, I got five of six back components soldered on yesterday and I'll coil the replacement piece today and get that soldered on. Because I'm using coiled wire for this part, I have to make sure that it is thoroughly soldered, both the coils to themselves and the full coil to the backpiece. Otherwise, when I saw the opening later on, I'll lose coils. Not the end of the world, but I'm trying to do a fairly good job here :-)

Once I get the backplate finished, I can flip the item over and solder the bezel. Truth be told, that's the part that frightens me the most, because it is the final piece to be added and so much can go wrong. The bezels themselves were made and soldered quite a while ago and they fit well. But they are large and I have to get to the point where I make sure that the flame is appropriately bushy to heat the silver properly so that the solder will flow correctly and the bezel will adhere, but not melt. Since it is bezel wire, it is thin. And I have a road full of melted bezels in my past. But I'm determined. This project will be finished so that I can move on to the next enamel project. So, I will take torch in hand today and tomorrow and finish these up. Confidence.....it can be everything when trying for success in a project.