It depends on the alloy...but you can safely say around 1150 degrees Fahrenheit for a good high silver rod (say, in the 50% to 60% range), unless you mix in cadmium, which requires really good ventilation (but can get the melting temperature down to 1115 or so). More common and cheaper alloys with less silver hover around 1250 degrees. Flow temperature, which is what you really care about, tends to be about 1300 degrees for a lot of these allowys, except for those containing cadmium and a few others (there are some 56% alloys with a touch of tin that have very small ranges between melt and flow temps (this is often, but not always, a good thing)).
Still well below the melting points of brass and bronze rods, which start at around 1500 degrees Fahrenheit and head up to 2000.
Scott Minneman San Francisco, CA USA
-----Original Message----- From: classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org [mailto:classicrendezvous-bounces@bikelist.org] On Behalf Of r cielec Sent: Thursday, November 19, 2009 9:37 PM To: Classic Rendezvous Subject: [CR] Temperature for Silver ?
Ahoy !
What is the approximate temperature at which silver melts, with respect to
frame building?
Thank you.
Regards,
Richard Cielec
Chicago, Illinois; U.S.A.