The owner of this antique earring insisted on replacing the weak worm-screw back for traditional posts. The delicate crystal mounted at the center of the petals at the front rules out torch soldering.
After removing the old back, a sterling silver post is microwelded into place. The earrings are ready to wear with greater security.
This 14k white gold heart-shaped earring is made with a hollow center. The owner prefers a screw-post backing, but as with all hollow jewelery, torch soldering is extremely risky since the heat can cause the charm to crumple inwards like an aluminum can heated on a science lab burner.
Since hollow jewelery makes it impossible to tell which areas might be paper-thin, it's best not to touch the charm even with an advanced tool like the microwelder. Instead, the procedure will simply be performed on the original post.
A threaded post is attached to a portion of the original post via microwelding. Not only are the connecting ends aligned perfectly, the gold is directly fused resulting in a union that's every bit as strong as the original post.