Help! I'm a newbie at soldering and any kind of help/advice would be greatly appreciated.

I'm having trouble soldering round, 14 kt goldfilled wire to sterling sheet. I can't seem to get the round wire flat enough to rest entirely on the sterling sheet shape. Should I sweat solder the goldfilled wire? if so, how do I get the solder only on the bottom of the wire? Should I be heating the sterling from the bottom? Please help!

It's a matter of making sure both pieces are perfectly flat and that takes some fiddling around.  I don't have any goldfill experience so I don't know what the limitations of that metal are but, if that were sterling or gold wire I would anneal it, shape it, than using a plastic or nylon mallet and a polished steel block I would tap it flat.   Same goes for the silver sheet, anneal it and working on a polished steel block, I would smack it until it was perfectly flat.  You may have to anneal a couple of times to get your pieces flat - preparation is key to any project.

I would use a tripod and heat from the bottom, use tiny pieces of silver solder along the wire.  Heat from below and using the tip of the blue flame, pull your solder along the wire (from below), the solder will follow the heat - so if you heat from above you may up end with silver solder all over your wire.  {Don't forget to flux - let the flux dry or gently heat your piece until the water in the flux bubbles away and then place your solder pallions.}

Silver is a great heat conductor, so you have to turn up the heat to get the silver up to soldering temp - especially on the tripod - that screen is a heat sink - HOWEVER, I don't have any goldfill experience - I don't know if the goldfill has a significantly different melting temp than the silver - you need to know that before starting.
 

• Are you using the wire lengthwise, as a decorative element?
• Or are you trying to solder the end of the wire perpendicularly to the sheet?

Either way, keep in mind that greater surface area contact means a better solder joint.

 
If it's lengthwise:

Form the wire to shape, then anneal it just like Loopy suggested and hammer it flat on a bench block with a plastic or rawhide mallet.

Put a piece of fine sandpaper on your bench. Lightly rub the bottom of the wire design on the sandpaper just enough to flatten it slightly. You don't need to sand until you've got half-round wire. You just need to create a bit more surface area than round wire would provide.

Then you can flip the wire over and, using flux, sweat solder a small amount along the length of the wire. Clean both pieces up in pickle.

Flux both pieces, and put the wire on your sheet. Focus the majority of the heat of your torch on the sheet, and the solder should run along the length of the wire. Pickle, and check your join. If need be, heat again to flow the solder in any areas that might've been missed.

Surface area is again your friend. I like to use a tiny ball bur  (just a smidge larger than the diameter of my wire) in my flex shaft to cut a small depression in the sheet where I'd like the wire to go.

Then, holding the piece of wire in my insulated tweezers, and using flux, I'll join a tiny blob of solder to the end. Pickle the pieces to clean them up.

Apply flux to both pieces, and heat the sheet up until the flux turns clear and glassy. Then lower the wire into the depression until the solder flows. The solder will fill up the depression, and the larger connection surface area created makes a stronger bond than just soldering a flat wire to a flat sheet.

Good luck and have fun experimenting!

~Addie~
 

Here's some more details on what I'm trying to do...I would like to frame a sterling disc with round gold filled wire. I will try annealing and flattening as you both recommended. Do you think I need to clamp the wire and disc together with a third hand? Or just rest the wire on top of the sheet on the tripod?

 Thanks for the terrific advice!

Don't use a third hand if you can help it - it's a heat sink and you may end up melting your goldfill wire trying to get the sterling up to temp.   *disclaimer - I don't have exp. w/ goldfill*  If  you don't mind a slightly flatten wire, you could put your soldered wire (frame) b/w two bench block and whack.  Otherwise, anneal and hammer with plastic mallet.

I'm such a novice at this, here goes all the questions...Do I have to anneal the wire? What does annealing do? I've never annealed my sterling wire or discs; how do I go about doing that?

 Thank you for all your help.

Annealing softens metal.

So annealing you wire will allow you to shape it (or flatten it) more easily.

Check out information on annealing in our Basics section, here. Basic information like that is also included in the back section of every issue of our magazine.

I would recommend that any newcomer like yourself should get at least one good book for beginning jewelers. Try Tim McCreigh't classic Complete Metalsmith. The information in any book would help you a bunch in your experimenting and projects.
 

Good posts very helpful, and I can only agree with the last post that Tim McCright books are are a fantastic read, and more importantly a great working reference for your bench.  I've been reading around soldering on-line (not as good as a good book) but it helps to work out the basis try  http://ezinearticles.com/?Basics-of-Soldering-Precious-Metals&id=855053  for a basic overview.