anyone make jewelry?

[Samuel]

here is a ring that I turned from stainless and then formed. http://tsukamakishi.com/stainlessring.html


Samuel

[Tony]

morning gang,
got it in my head to try to make a piece of jewelry... specifically, a ring. (i have a lathe ... now i've never made jewelry before and was hoping for some suggestions.

all i can think of is: turning and buffing some nice material. at most i could cut some fine grooves in it and rub a crayon in there for excitement.

but every ring design i think of, ends up looking like a wedding/engagement ring. and thats the last message i wanna send!

anyone ever make a ring that didnt look like a wedding band? or have any ideas? i have a lathe and a mill. oh, and a few welders too

-tony

[jfsmith]

Tony,
Try making the ring wide and to fit the middle finger, thats a cocktail ring. You can make them from 304 stainless to be on the less expensive side or from Palladium if you want to be on the expensive side.

Remember these metal don't have the malleability of gold or other soft metals, so you may have to cut them in the back for expansion.

I have make lots of rings, they aren't that hard sometimes it's the polishing work that take all of the time.

Jerry

[tenfingers]

Tony,
I made a ring a while back when I came home without a birthday present for my wife and needed something quick.

While I was cutting it off (before I learned to keep the gibs tight and surface speeds low), the cut-off tool chattered and I noticed it made an interesting surface. So I made a ring with two smooth sides and a rough chattered groove in the middle. My wife actually liked it.

10F

[ibewgypsie]

I learned to cast by casting jewerly.
I'd carve it in wax, pour investment around it and cast.

I have made rings from blocks w/my mill. I made a large "T" ring for a local biker. I wondered why he wanted a single initial, then I saw the branded drunk with the large "T" red mark on his forehead.

Milling ? What comes to mind is my cnc w/joystick.. Carving with a 2hp dremel tool?

------------------
David Cofer, Of:
Tunnel Hill, North Georgia

[This message has been edited by ibewgypsie (edited 09-25-2004).]

[x39]

I've made several belt buckles, also did a set of wedding bands out of a piece of Aquamet stainless propellor shaft for a commercial fisherman and his fiance.

[gunsmith]

Try this. Cut your ring to the desired shape and rough in your finish. Stainless is the best to start with because of the variety of finishes it takes, satin to high polish. Then with a grooving cutter or hack saw cut a couple of parallel or diagonal groves across the crown to a depth of about 1/3rd of the crown. Take some ordinary brass, copper, plastic of any color or sea shell and with care cut it to the rough snug but not bullet tight shape of the groove. Leave a little overhang on the ends and top. With the best grade epoxy glue your slugs in place in the grooves you cut. With a file bring them down to the shape of the ring and then carfuly pollish them. Most things can be polished with rough. Polish slowly so you don't overheat the ring and cause the epoxy to let go. You will be amazed at how nice this simple insert, contrast and looks.

[ibewgypsie]

The same kind of negative masking w/photo resist works well.

I saw some rings made by a friend of mine, they were about 1/16th deep etching.

You can purchase the photo-resist chemicals from any circuit board supply company. It does open up a whole new world..

Etching deep into aluminum for legend plates, is a neat selling item. It pays pretty well and not hardly anyone is doing it anymore.

THIS is how they make printing plates of counterfeiters of old. It is amazing the detail you can capture.

[HTRN]

David, Radio shack sells a kit to do circuit etching: http://www.radioshack.com/product.as...%5Fid=276-1576 for those who want to try it out. The interesting thing is that the so called resist ink pen appears to be nothing more than an ordinary Sharpie! I've heard that with an inkjet printer you can print out the image you want(mirrored, for obvious reasons), place the sheet of paper on the plate and using a hot iron, transfer the image to the plate. You then go and touch it up with a sharpie and dunk it in the chemistry. Wala! instant art! I thought about doing portraits using Corelphotopaint to convert Jpeg photos to a sketch, and do the above in aluminum and copper sheet... As for making jewelry, I was involved in a shop clean out in a Bronx High school that had among other things, a spin caster. I didn't get it, but did manage to snag a couple of books on jewelry casting. To those who want to get into it, a spin caster can be had from Ebay fairly cheap and gold can be melted with an OxyAcytl. set up. You can purchase wax ring blanks from a variety of sources and once you have the pattern, you can make it over and over again. I wanted to get into it, as NY is a huge Jewelry market, particularly for custom stuff, but it's a hard racket to get into...

HTRN

[ibewgypsie]

http://www.hosfelt.com/ click on "photo-etch" on the menu on the left..

You spray the photo-resist on there out of the pump bottle, let it dry in the dark, place your negative on top of it and expose it to sunlight, develop it (KPR solution) and you see light frosting on the protected design.

Etch in acid of your choice. Ferric Chloride is what most people use to make etched printed circuits. I have used sulphuric and hydrochloric acid. BOTH are dangerous.

My Old buddy made silk screens for his tee shirt business using the same stuff.. you develop it and wash out the non-exposed photoresist. The ink.paint in the silk screen process does not go through the clogged up developed silk holes and only goes through the pattern of non-developed screen.. Pretty cool huh? same process.. different application.

By the way, he is gone for the second time counterfieting. He will never get out of prison again. DOn't do that. He had a iQ right on up there, but was too stupid to make his money legal like..



------------------
David Cofer, Of:
Tunnel Hill, North Georgia