For Repair Shops, Goldsmiths & Custom Studios

Precision Gold Jewelry Laser Welding for Clean, Low-Heat Repairs

Different golds behave differently under the beam — 10K work-hardens, 22K melts away at the edge, rose gold cracks when it is hot and white gold loses its rhodium at the joint. This page walks through what each alloy asks of the machine, so you can pick a jewelry laser welder for the gold repairs your bench actually sees.

See Recommended Welders Start With Your Alloy

10K – 22K

Every common karat

0.1 – 2.0 mm

Controllable spot range

Matched Filler

Yellow, white and rose
Jewelry laser welder with microscope viewing system

ISO 9001 · CE · RoHS Certified Equipment

Operator Training Included

Factory-Direct Supply

Free Test Weld First

Start Here

What Type of Gold Are You Welding?

Karat sets how the metal behaves under heat. Colour sets what has to happen after the weld. Most gold repair problems trace back to one of these two.

By karat

10K

41.7% gold · most alloy metal

The hardest and least forgiving of the four. More copper and zinc means more oxide at the joint and a wider melting range, so the pulse has to be placed rather than poured.

14K

58.3% gold · the shop workhorse

The alloy most repair benches see most often, and the one most filler wire is stocked for. Comfortable to weld, but colour still varies between suppliers, so match the wire to the piece.

18K

75% gold · softer, richer colour

Flows more readily and shows colour mismatch more plainly, because there is less alloy to hide behind. Fine work here rewards a smaller spot over a stronger one.

22K

91.7% gold · softest, most fluid

Behaves closest to pure gold: very ductile, very conductive, and quick to slump at a thin edge. This is where energy that was fine on 14K will take the section away.

Four plain gold bands in a row, each a slightly different depth of yellow

By colour

Yellow gold band, curb chain and signet ring on grey suede

Yellow gold

Gold with silver and copper. The most predictable of the three to colour-match, provided the filler karat matches the parent alloy rather than just looking close in the spool.

White gold band, fine chain and claw setting on grey suede

White gold

Usually rhodium-plated over a slightly warm alloy. The plating burns off around the weld, so a white gold repair is a welding job followed by a re-plating job — plan for both.

Rose gold band, fine chain and ring on grey suede

Rose gold

High copper content gives the colour and also the difficulty: copper-rich alloys are more prone to cracking while hot, so short, low pulses beat one long one.

Metallurgy at the Bench

Why Different Gold Alloys Weld Differently

Same beam, same operator, different result — because what is mixed with the gold decides how the joint takes heat.

Alloy What it does under the beam What to change at the machine
10K yellow High base-metal content oxidises readily and the melting range is wide, so the pool is sluggish and dirty-looking if the shielding is poor. Keep argon coverage tight and work in more, smaller pulses rather than one heavy one.
14K yellow Predictable pool, moderate conductivity. Colour differences between batches show up at the seam more than the weld itself does. Match the filler to the piece, not to the label on the spool. Test on a hidden area first.
18K yellow Softer and more fluid, with less alloy to mask a colour difference. Thin sections move sooner than on 14K. Drop the energy and tighten the spot before reaching for more power.
22K yellow Close to pure gold: very conductive, very ductile, and quick to slump at an edge or a fine wire. Lowest usable energy, shortest pulse, and stop the pass earlier than instinct says.
White gold The alloy underneath is not white — the rhodium plating is. Heat removes the plating around the joint and leaves a warmer halo. Nothing at the machine fixes this. Weld it, finish it, then re-plate.
Rose gold Copper-rich, so it is more prone to cracking while the metal is still hot, especially on a section that is being held under tension. Short low pulses, let it cool between passes, and support the piece so the joint is not being pulled open.
Use Cases

Gold Jewelry Repair Applications

The six gold jobs that most often decide whether a shop buys a welder. Each one links to the page that covers it in full.

Gold ring shank cut open on a bench block ready for sizing
Ring resizing

Closing a sized shank with filler of the same karat
Macro of a broken gold chain link
Chain & clasp repair

Rejoining links thin enough to melt on the second pulse
Macro of a worn claw on a gold setting
Prong retipping

Rebuilding a worn tip with the stone still set
Macro of a hairline crack running across a band
Crack repair

Filling a stress crack without opening it further
Macro of gas porosity in a gold casting
Casting porosity

Filling gas pits that keep reopening as you polish
Gold bezel cups, gallery wire and sheet offcuts laid out for assembly
Custom fabrication

Tacking components before committing to the joint
The Real Difficulty

What Makes Gold Jewelry Repair Difficult?

Not the joint — the metal around it. Five things that turn a five-minute weld into a remake.

Gold pulls heat away

Gold is one of the most conductive metals on the bench. Energy that stays put in steel spreads out in 22K, which is why the same setting behaves differently on two pieces.

Thin sections move first

A worn claw tip or a fine chain link can be a few tenths of a millimetre. The edge reaches melting before the joint does, so the limit is the section, not the machine.

Colour has to match, not just hold

A joint that is mechanically fine but a shade off reads as a repair under a shop light. On gold, colour matching is half the job and it happens when you choose the filler.

Old solder is still in there

Most pieces coming in for repair have been repaired before. Lower-melting solder left in the joint behaves nothing like the parent alloy and will show as a different colour or a crack.

Porosity opens up

Gas pits trapped in the original casting do not show until heat brings them to the surface. Filling them is normal work, but it needs filler and patience, not more power.

You are working blind without optics

A prong tip is well under a millimetre across. What the viewing system cannot resolve, the operator cannot place energy on, whatever the laser is capable of.

For gold jewelry repair, precise control matters more than simply choosing the highest laser power.

Spools of gold, rose gold, silver and steel filler wire on a bench
Filler

Matching Filler Metal Matters

Laser welding lets you add metal of the same karat and colour as the piece, so the joint is the parent alloy rather than a lower-melting solder sitting in a gap. That is the whole reason a laser repair finishes differently from a soldered one — and it only holds if the wire on the bench actually matches the piece in the hand.

Wire is sold by karat and colour, but two 14K yellow spools from two suppliers can still read differently against a customer's ring. Test on an inconspicuous area before committing to the visible joint.

How the filler gets chosen

1
Identify the alloy

Karat, colour and whether the piece has been repaired before. A hallmark is a starting point, not an answer.

2
Pick the closest wire

Same karat, same colour family. Where the piece sits between two spools, the warmer one usually blends better after polishing.

3
Test out of sight

A short pass on the inside of a shank or under a gallery tells you the colour match before the visible joint does.

4
Weld, then finish

Build the joint in passes, then file and polish as you would any joint. White gold goes on for re-plating from here.

Comparison

Laser Welding vs. Torch Soldering for Gold Jewelry

Both belong on a working bench. What changes is where the heat goes and what ends up sitting in the joint.

Torch soldering setup with a piece on a charcoal block and flux
Read the full comparison
Laser welding Torch soldering
Heat Delivered in millisecond pulses to a spot you aim at under magnification. Applied to the area, and the piece as a whole comes up with it.
Metal in the joint Filler of the same karat and colour as the piece. Solder, which melts lower than the parent alloy by design.
Set stones Often workable in place, judged piece by piece before any energy goes near. Usually means unsetting first, then setting again afterwards.
Finishing File and polish the joint; no second alloy to blend out. File and polish, plus disguising a solder line that reads a different colour.
Where it still wins Fine, local, close-to-stone work and rebuilding worn metal. Long seams, large joins and jobs where a flowing joint is what you want.
Learning curve Days to be useful, and parameter storage carries the settings forward. Years of bench time, already sitting in most goldsmiths' hands.
Diagnostics

Why Did the Gold Weld Go Wrong?

Six results that come back from a gold bench, and the cause worth checking first.

Problem
The weld reads a different colour
Possible cause

Filler karat or colour family does not match the parent alloy, or the piece is 14K from a different supplier than the wire.

Problem
Pinholes appear as you polish
Possible cause

Gas porosity already in the casting has been opened by the heat. It needs filling in passes, not a heavier pulse.

Problem
A crack runs beside the weld
Possible cause

Old solder left in the joint, a copper-rich rose alloy cracking while hot, or a piece held under tension while it cooled.

Problem
The edge melted away
Possible cause

Spot too large or energy too high for the section thickness — most often on 18K and 22K, where the same setting was fine on 14K.

Problem
The joint sits proud and will not blend
Possible cause

Too much filler laid down in too few passes. Building lower and finishing more usually costs less time than dressing a mound back.

Problem
A warm halo on white gold
Possible cause

The rhodium plating has burned off around the joint, showing the alloy underneath. Expected on white gold — the piece goes for re-plating.

Buying Brief

What to Look for in a Gold Jewelry Laser Welder

Each specification below is written as what it changes on a gold bench, rather than what it says on a datasheet.

Adjustable spot, 0.1 – 2.0 mm
Lets you put energy on a claw tip a few tenths of a millimetre across without touching the shoulder beside it.
Adjustable pulse width, 0.1 – 5.0 ms
A long soft pulse for thin 22K, a short one for depth in 10K. This single control is what separates gold work from steel work.
Repeatable low energy
Gold repair lives at the bottom of the range. Steadiness down there matters more than how high the peak goes.
Microscope or HD CCD viewing
Decides how small a feature the operator can aim at. A CCD screen also lets a second person see the joint before you commit.
Parameter storage
14K yellow, 18K white and 22K each want their own settings. Recalling a proven one beats re-dialling per job and keeps two operators consistent.
Argon shielding and fume extraction
Keeps oxide out of the pool on high-alloy golds, and keeps the bench workable when the machine runs all day.
Read the full buying guide
Match the Job to the Machine

Gold Repair Application Matrix

Which controls each gold job leans on. Read across your most common work, then take that row to the model comparison.

Gold job Spot size Pulse width Low-energy steadiness Filler handling Optics
Ring resizing Medium Medium Lower Critical Medium
Chain & clasp Critical Critical Critical Lower Critical
Prong retipping Critical Critical Critical Critical Critical
Crack repair Medium Critical Medium Medium Medium
Casting porosity Medium Medium Medium Critical Medium
Custom fabrication Medium Medium Medium Medium Medium
Batch production Medium Medium Critical Medium Medium

Critical means the job usually fails on this control before it fails on anything else. It is a way of ranking what to compare, not a specification.

Stage by Stage

Gold Repair Cases — Before, Weld Area, After

The three views worth photographing on any gold job, shown here on a sized shank. Send us your own piece and we will weld it and send the same three views back.

Before Gold ring shank cut open on a bench block before welding
The joint as it arrives

Shank cut and opened for sizing. Worth recording the karat, the colour and any earlier repair before anything is switched on.

Weld area Macro of a shank joint being welded, sparks at the seam
Filler going in, pass by pass

Matched wire built up in passes rather than one heavy one. This is the view that tells you whether the colour is going to match.

After Two finished gold bands after filing and polishing
Filed and polished back

The same filing and polishing any joint needs. How well it finishes down depends on the alloy, the joint and the operator.

Gold rings and a chain packed in a small box ready to send for a test weld
Judge It On Your Own Work

Request a Free Gold Welding Test

Specifications only take the decision so far. Send a piece in the alloy you repair most — 10K, 14K, 18K, 22K, yellow, white or rose — and we will weld it on the model we would recommend for your bench and send it back with the before, weld area and after views.

  • Tell us the alloy, the job and how much of it you see in a month
  • We weld it on the model that fits, not the largest one
  • You judge the colour match and the finish in your own hand
Request a free weld test Ask a question first
Common Questions

Frequently Asked Questions

What repair shops ask before they put a laser welder on a gold bench.

10K, 14K, 18K and 22K in yellow, white and rose, along with platinum and sterling silver on the same machine. What changes between them is the setting, not whether it can be done: higher karats are softer and more conductive, so they want less energy and a shorter pulse than the same job in 10K.

Colour matching comes from the filler, not the laser. You weld with wire of the same karat and colour family as the piece, so there is no second alloy in the joint the way there is with solder. Two spools sold as the same karat can still read differently, which is why a test pass on an inconspicuous area is part of the job.

Often, and it is judged piece by piece. A pulsed laser heats a small area for milliseconds, which is what makes working near a set stone practical at all — but the stone type, the setting style and how far the joint sits from the girdle all go into that decision before any energy is used. Heat-sensitive stones such as opal and emerald take extra care or come out first.

Usually the opposite. Most gold repair happens at the bottom of the energy range, on sections a few tenths of a millimetre thick. What decides the outcome is how small and how steady the spot is and how finely the pulse can be shaped — a higher ceiling adds headroom for thicker work, but it does not make fine work easier.

Because most white gold is rhodium-plated over an alloy that is not truly white. Heat at the joint removes the plating locally, leaving a warmer halo. That is expected rather than a fault, and the piece goes for re-plating after finishing — worth quoting for at the counter so it is not a surprise.

Operator training comes with the machine, and parameter storage means a proven setting can be recalled rather than re-found. How quickly a bench gets productive depends on the operator and the work — the fastest way to find out is to send a piece for a test weld before you commit.

Tell Us What Gold Your Bench Repairs

Send the alloys and the jobs you see most, and we will point you at the model that fits — and weld a piece of yours first if you want to see it.

Request a Quote Free Gold Welding Test