B e g i n n i n gB e g i n n i n g S i lv e rS i lv e r C...

B e g i n n i n gB e g i n n i n gB e g i n n i n gB e g i n n i n g

S i l v e rS i l v e rS i l v e rS i l v e r

C l a s sC l a s sC l a s sC l a s s

By Will Smith

5304 Bell Crest Drive

Antioch, TN 37013

615.366.1022

[email protected]

Will H. Smith & Associates, Inc. - Silversmith Class

5304 Bellcrest Drive (615)366-1022 Phone

Antioch, Tennessee 37013 [email protected]

RULE'S & SUGGESTION'S

SAFETY is the most important word to remember since your around flame and chemicalswhich may hurt your.

No entry into classroom without the instructor present. No exception.

Arrive promptly at scheduled class start time, and be ready to sit, listen, and work.

Remove any clothing, rings, chains, etc. Which could become tangled in machines or catchfire.

Look around to see where the fire extinguisher(s) and fire exits are located.

Never leave your torch flame burning when not in use.

Sound out to the class “torch on” when lighting torch and “torch off” when cutting off thetorch since it may make a bang and we do not want to wake the instructor.

If you are using oxygen be sure to cut the oxygen valve off before the fuel valve. Most all ofour work will be done without oxygen.

Use ONLY copper, plastic or wood tongs in pickling solutions to keep from contaminating thepickle solution. If steel gets in the pickle, future items placed in the pickle pot will turn pink.

The only time I use hot pickle is when I’m doing jewelry repair. I do not think it is healthy tobreath the acid fumes from hot pickle. If you dip the silver piece, while hot, in the pickle afew times, it will be quicker, safer, and have the same results.

Keep it simple. Design your project around your stone and vision for the completed project.Put it on paper with estimate of material & tools needed. Then discuss with instructor, toreview different methods which may be used to complete the project and to anticipate anycomplex problems which may develop. Also, consider the cost to produce and it’s completedvalue. DO NOT spend your time making something you can buy at Target for $12.ALWAYS use quality stones which accomplish your artistic vision.

Do the project as explained, but if you have other ideas, discuss them with the instructorbefore attempting a different method.

Have the instructor weigh your project (without stone) so the cost can be established.

Take pride in what you do since it will reflect your ability. Most of the time a few moreminutes measuring a stone, doing a joint, or polishing will make all the difference in how aproject look. If the instructor points out things which could be improved, realize it is to helpyou improve and not to criticize.

Be courteous, and wait your tourn for instruction and/or assistance. Feel free to askquestions or share ideas or past experience. I want you to learn as much as possible.

If your having a hard time understanding the processes, talk with the instructor during thefree time so you can receive more detail attention.

Allow at least five minutes to clean and organize your bench area at the end of each day.It will make the next morning much easier to begin again. Be sure to take your project withyou and keep it protected in a box or cloth. At end of class help clean the class room.

whs51606

Will H. Smith & Associates, Inc. - Silversmith Class

5304 Bellcrest Drive (615)366-1022 Phone

Antioch, Tennessee 37013 [email protected]

RULE'S & SUGGESTION'S (Page 2)

Where do I find tools?

From Lapidary Club Members, eBay, Dealers, and the Web

Indian Jewelers - www.ijsinc.com

FDJ Supply - www.fdjtool.com

Kingsley North - www.kingsleynorth.com

Alpha Supply - www.alpha-supply.com

Riogrand - www.riogrande.com

Where do I find Silver?

Indian Jewelers - I find them to have the lowest prices for everything

Aplha - Supply

Riogrand

Hagstoz - www.hagstoz.com

Many others, just look in the Journals or on the Web

Where do I find Information?

Most supply catalogs have wonderful helpful information inside

Society of American Silversmiths

Ganoksin

Smith’s and Lapidary Club Members

What are some good Web sites? (all start with www. Then the following address)

Silversmithing.com

Ganoksin.com - a great site

Silversmithing.homestead.com/SilverClasses1.html - a great site

Many other, just do a search for what ever your needing to know.

whs51606

The alloy of Silver called Sterling was developed by refiners who lived in the town of Easterling

Germany in the twelfth century. It was adopted by King Henry II as the Silver Standard in

England beginning in 1300. It has a Mohs’ hardness of 2.5 - 3, a specific gravity of 10.41 and a

melting point at 1640 degree F. The SS alloy is 925 parts per 1000 pure silver, the balance, 75

parts copper.

We will be using a combination of prefabricated SS sheet, wire, and bezel to design and complete

each project. You should select your best cabs for each project. We will complete two and maybe

3+, depending on time and how things go. Remember that you can purchase cast jewelry where

your stones are calibrated, so you should consider selecting a cab for which you can not purchase

findings, because of it's size and/or shape.

SAFETY will be our key word. We will be working with heat, flame, gases, chemicals, and

metals which will require our respect for the special characteristics of each. No one should light a

torch without first letting everyone in the room know that a flame will become present. Torches

should only be used for short periods, then extinguish flame by turning the gas off at torch handle,

and replace torch to secure location. While and after an item has been heated, care must be taken

to keep yourself and others from being burned. Bricks remain hot for many minutes after you

remove the flame. Flames must be directed away from any items which could be damaged or

catch fire (people, hair, paper, bench, etc.). SAFETY GLASSES WILL BE REQUIRED AT

ALL TIMES when soldering, pickling, filing, grinding, sawing, and buffing.

SAWING may be required to cut the silver sheet and wire. You will be using a “V” notched

wood block, a jewelers saw, and lubricating material when making a cut. When possible you will

use cutters or shears, but many times the saw will be required. The saw blade is very fine wire and

will brake when too much pressure is placed on it and/or when it gets hot. We will use something

like soap to drag the saw blade through to help lubricate and keep it cooler.

FABRICATING MATERIALS used will be Bezel - bezel is what holds the stone in your design,

Base - sheet or wire (what the stone sets on), Bails - sheet or wire is what the chain goes through,

Shank - sheet or wire (ring shank), Solder - sheet or wire (Hard - 1490' F, Medium - 1425' F,

Easy - 1390' F, X-Easy - 1270' F), and Flux - liquid put on joint to clean and cause solder to flow.

JOINTS must be perfect if you want them to hold. Solder does not fill gaps, only where you have

perfect joints. Solder always flows TO THE HEAT. This will require the use of files and sanding

to make them match. When your through you should not see light through the joint.

TORCHES used are Oxygen/Acetylene (two tanks), Presto-Lite/Air (one acetylene tank),

Bernz-O-Matic/Air (bottle gas), Mini Torch/Air (propane refilled), Pin Torch/Air (propane

refilled). We will use the Presto-Lite/Air for silver.

CLEANING will require the use of a pickling solution and/or an electrical cleaner. ALWAYS

use copper tongs or copper wire to retrieve items from solutions. If you do not, the solution will

become charged with iron ions or next time it will plate your item with pink iron. NOT GOOD!

BUFFING requires the use of polish and soft felt wheels. Most of the time we will do this with a

Dremel Tool or bench buff.

SILVER-SMITHING

whs51606

Heat/Temperature - Silversmith Class by Will Smith

Heat is EverythingSince your project is an assembly of different pieces held together by solder, Heat will be your

best friend most of the time, and your enemy at other times. So how do we make Heat our best

friend? By understanding and identifying different levels of temperature. The following

information should help you identify the important temperature levels:

At 1400 F or Cherry Red your in trouble so Cherry Red is a “STOP SIGN”

At 1100 F, Flux is completely Clear and active. It looks watery. If your adding the solder using

a pick, you would add it to the joint at this temperature.

At 900 F, Anneal Silver by heating until surface turns a dull red (Concord Grape), remove heat

and quench in pickle at once.

At 800 F, Flux lies against the surface and has a milky appearance.

At 800 F, the Silver surface will discolor, to a Copper color.

At 600 F, Flux becomes white and slightly puffy, and starts to work.

At 600 F, Silver will Heat Harden Sterling if held for 2 - 3 hours.

At 212 F, the Water in the Flux boils off. This is the point solder will jump off the joint.

COLOR & TEMPERATUREFine Silver will Melt at 1760 F

Sterling Silver will Melt at 1640 F

Coin Silver will Melt at 1634 F

Maximum temp. for Sterling Silver 1500 F

Hard Solder will flow at (use ONLY on fine silver) 1450 F

Fire Scale begins above 1400 F

Cherry Red indicates work is at (STOP SIGN) 1400 F

Surface Flow begins at 1400 F

Borax is fluid at 1400 F

Medium Solder will flow at (use on 1st joint) 1360 F

Easy Solder will flow at 1325 F

Extra Easy Solder will flow at 1205 F

Dull Red indicates work is at (anneal to dead soft) 1200 F

Handy Flux is liquid at 1100 F

1st Sign of Red indicates work is at 900 F

Anneal Silver ½ hard at 1st sign of Red at 900 F

Flux is milky & lies against surface at 800 F

Surface of Silver will Discolor at 800 F

Flux becomes White & slightly Puffy at 600 F

Heat Hard Sterling for 2 - 3 hours at 536 F

Water will boil in Flux at 212 F

whs51706

TORCHES

Since most Silver projects consist of larger objects, you will need a large brushy flame. Many

torches may be used, but the Prest-O-Lite Acetylene Atmosphere type is best for our work. Some

of the smaller work can be soldered using the small propane or butane torches. The

acetylene/oxygen is too hot and too focused for our work. Fuel/oxygen types are best for small

detail work where you want the heat quickly focused at a small point on the object like prongs or

ring sizing. Acetylene/Air will produce a dirty flame and help keep fire scale from object.

MELTING

Silversmithing is forming and melting silver into an object. Silver conducts heat more than any

other metal. Sterling is 925 parts per 1000 pure silver and will melt at 1640 degrees F. Because

of the surface tension silver will become a ball when melted. To weld silver to silver we must

use alloys that will melt and flow below this important 1640 F temperature. The 4 solder used to

accomplish this is: Hard melts @ 1450 F, Medium @ 1360 F, Easy @ 1325 F, and Very Easy @

1205 F. This is the melting point, but the surface tension makes it want to ball-up so we must

use a flux to relax it, eliminate oxidation, and cause the solder to flow. We will be using a

yellow Batterns Flux which is very liquid and self-pickling. It can be applied using a dispenser

or brush. A paste flux can be used where you need to hold parts together while the solder flows.

Paste is used where you are welding many joints at the same time. Most flux have borax or boric

acid as the main ingredient. It’s important to understand that solder will melt into a ball, then

relax down to a bump on top of the joint, the flow into the joint. You will need to keep you eye

on the solder to make sure you stay on the joint just a few seconds after you see the solder relax

down to a bump which will insure you get a flow through the joint. While directing the flame on

the end of the joint away from the solder, if possible you may want to let a little of the flame hit

the soldering block. This will increase the heat on the bottom side of the joint and help the

solder flow through the joint to the added heat. Remember the “STOP SIGN”.

SOLDERING BLOCKS

You will use different blocks in different ways when soldering. Your primary block will be

something that will protect your heat and flame from the objects around your bench area. This

can be concrete boards, metal, fire bricks, tile, or items designed to keep the bottom surface

insulated from the heat of the object and flame.

Sometime you may want to spread the flame evenly over the object which will require a block

which absorbs and/or reflects heat. Charcoal and magnesium blocks will accomplish this. I use

magnesium on top of tile, since it is smooth, more cost effective and allows you to pen your work

down using straight pens. You may have to use a fire brick which will work OK.

ANNEALING

Silver when worked in various ways, such as bending or pounding or forming texture will

become "work hard" and brittle (at a point in time, it may break). The wire must then be

softened (annealed) to get it back to a workable condition.

Annealing is done with a soft or low flame that is played back and forth over the silver object

until it turns a dull red, not a bright red. The work is then plunged into water or pickle. The

silver will now be softer (half hard). If it is blackened by the flame, it can be placed briefly in the

pickle to clean it or you may us a Speedbrite to clean. More info is provided in another section.

METHODS & TOOLS

Whs51706 Some of this info taken from Edward Soukup's Jewelry Making for Beginners

SOLDERING PROCEDURE

1. The metal surfaces to be soldered must be filed, sanded, ground, or scraped perfectly clean

and remain so during the entire soldering process.

2. The metal must be filed so that the two pieces or joint to be soldered together fit tightly. You

should not be able to see light between them at the joint.

3. A Flux must be applied both in and around the joint to keep the area free from oxidation. If

the Flux beads up and does not flow across the surface, the metal is not clean. Heat and pickle

until Flux flows across the surface evenly. This does not apply if using Past Flux, unless it is

very thin.

4. Very small snippets (chips) of clean solder, approximately 1/32 inch or smaller should be

placed on the joint. Consider the side where you intend to apply the heat, then place the solder

on the opposite side so solder will flow to the heat. To protect against fire scale, start with

Medium solder when possible. This will flow below the temperature that causes fire scale and

will work best and your project will look whiter when polished.

5. When applying the heat, first apply the flame 2 - 3 inche away from joint to heat the flux,

which will first boil and try to through the solder off. Once the flux is set, move the end of the

flame down to the point on the joint where you want the solder to flow to. Now apply heat

evenly considering which piece will heat quicker and which slower. Remember all pieces being

soldered must come to the melting point of the solder at the same time and should not exceed

that melting point by more than 50 degrees. Watch for the solder to melt and then to flow. After

a couple seconds, Remove the flame at once so you do not increase the silver to a higher

temperature. Never try to heat only the solder, it will not work, heat the area around the joint.

6. Always keep the flame of your torch moving either back and forth or round and round. This

will lessen the chance of melting part of your work and will heat the entire assembly evenly.

7. The flame of the torch has three parts. The blue cone coming from the tip of the torch is a

low temperature area of the flame. The middle cone is a light blue and is where the gas and air

mixture is the hottest. The area past the cone at the tip of the flame can be blue or red depending

on amount of air. This tip part of the flame should be red without much hiss (about 5 lb.. On the

regulator). It is a lower temperature which is called an reducing flame. We want to use this part

of the flame, since it will keep air away from the silver and protect against fire scale. It will also

give us more temperature control by taking longer to reach the needed temperature level.

8. At times you may get a heavy piece of silver which does not get hot enough to let the solder

flow. You may have to use a knife to scratch around the edge so it has a grove to flow around. If

this does not work, use a soldering pick to drag the melted solder around the area you want it to

flow into. If neither of these methods work, clean, pickle several times, and start over since most

likely the silver, solder, or flux has oil or dirt. If the sheet is very thick, you may want to hold

one side off the block and focus the heat into the block until it gets red hot. Then focus the flame

on to the bottom of the sheet and watch for solder to flow. When it flows, lower the sheet down

onto the block and focus flame around bezel or on top of the sheet which should cause all the

solder to flow quickly. Any time you solder sheet, once the solder flows, move project over to

the side of the block to cool before placing into the pickle. If placed in the pickle red hot, it will

cause the sheet to warp.

9. Another method for welding two pieces together is to sweat solder them together. Everything

must be clean, then you flow solder on to the joint of one piece. Then flux is applied to both

METHODS & TOOLS


pieces and placed together as desired. Then heat is evenly applied to each while watching for

signs of solder flowing which will look like little silver sweat beads around the joint. This

method is used to attach flat pieces to flat pieces, but can also be used for bezels and other

objects.

10. You start the soldering process using "Medium" solder on the first joint, the next joint you

use "Easy", the next use "Extra-Easy". Consider the proper solder as you design you object,

since you may use "Medium" for example on two or three pieces which will then be joined

together using "Easy". Some instructors use Hard and that is OK. It melts so close to the

temperature where fire scale becomes a problem and very close to where sterling silver melts. So

many problems will be eliminated if you start with Medium. When taking a class under another

instructor, use their methods so you will learn a new method, then use what ever works best for

you.

PICKLING

Heat applied to sterling silver will cause oxidation (discoloration ) due mainly to sulfur in the air

turning the copper content in the silver alloy black. To remove this coloration and the glaze from

the flux, it must be put into a pickling (mild acid) solution. This may take 2 or 3 heating and

placing in the pickle to cause the object to become white without black (borax in flux) or pink

(copper) spots. We use Sparex II, a safe pickle, but other acids will do the same thing. Due to

the hazard, I can not suggest you even consider using any other acid as a pickle. If the object is

hot when placed into the Sparex solution, it will clean up after 2 or 3 times while being safe.

Some instructors like to use pickle in an electric pot (hot pickle). The hot pickle pot causes acid

steam which I do not like to breathe. To get the black oxide off using a hot pickle pot you must

leave the object in it for 10 to 20 minutes for success. My method will save time and time is

money. If you do not want to order Sparex, you may go to Home Depot and purchase Ph Plus

which is used in swimming pools. They tell me this is the same as Sparex. It’s about the same

price.

You mix you pickle by placing the powder in hot tap water until it stops dissolves. It will work

for a long time so save and use the solution over and over.

I like to use two small Pyrex rectangle dishes with covers which are about 4” x 6” x 2”, one for

the pickle and the other for water. The covers will keep the liquid from evaporating.

You must NEVER place anything in the pickle except wood, brass, copper, or silver. You will

be using copper tongs to place into and remove from pickle solution. Since we use Sparex for

our pickle, you may also remove from pickle using you hand provided you do not have any cuts

or scratches. If steel binding wire, pins, or tools come in contact with the pickle, the next piece

placed in the pickle will be platted with copper and have a pink finish. Once a piece has been

platted, the pickle will be OK. You may have to pickle the pink object again to see if the copper

will be removed. If not you will have to polish it off.

Once the project is complete, I like to first buff, then gently heat and pickle two or three times.

This removes all the copper from the surface and putts a layer of 100% silver on the surface. A

gentle polish or burnishing will give you a chrome like finish.

BUFFING

Most of our buffing will be done using a Dremel, Foredom or bench buffer using felt tips or

wheels with Zam, Rouge, or Fabuluster which I like best for silver.

METHODS & TOOLS


You will have the chance to use a tabletop buffing machine after individual instruction. This

type of high-speed power buffing can remove fingers and eyes before you know what has

happened, so safety and experience is a must. You get a quick, beautiful polish on your silver

with these machines, but they are very dangerous and can damage your work in seconds.

Realize that these wheels spin at over 3000 RPM, are made of layers of cloth which will catch

on any rough edges, slinging item out of your hand and across the room at great speed. If a

finger or eye is in the way, you can guess what will happen. For these reasons, you must

ALWAYS hold item parallel to and down stream from the middle of the wheel and always held

gently around the edges using gloves. The down stream location on the wheel is at 4 o'clock if

we consider the left side of the wheel a clock. This location will keep any sharp edges at an

angle of 45 degrees to the turning wheel. While placing the item against the wheel at 4 o'clock,

you will apply gentle pressure against the wheel.

Tripoli wheel is used first (on left side of machine) which will remove light scratches and give

color to the silver. This will round edges and cut away design so go easy. Once all scratches and

white frost on silver has been removed, you may want to go to a yellow bar which will remove

any fire scale. To do this you will have to replace the Tripoli wheel with the yellow bar wheel,

then swap back when through. You will go to the Fabuluster wheel (on right side of machine) to

put the final polish on the item. If you get the color you desire, then wash item with soap and

water and dry with cotton towel. A perfect finish should look like chrome.

Some instructors want you to wash between buffing. Unless the Tripoli is real greasy, I never

clean between buffs and people tell me I have a great polish on my jewelry. You do what ever

another instructor wants you to do or what ever works for you at home.

Where components come together it can be hard to reach with the buff, so you may want to

consider buffing each item before you solder them. You may still have to use small objects to

buff these areas, but most of the time a burnishing tool will do the job for you.

BURNISHING

This is a polishing process where a smooth object is rubbed over the silver to smooth and give it

a bright finish. Since silver is soft, if you rub it with a smooth object it will move the silver on

the surface over making the silver very smooth and shiny. If we were doing a lot of work we

could use steel or ceramic shot in a tumbler a couple hours to burnish many silver objects at one

time. Tumbling is good to get into hard to reach places, but I do not find you can get the very

high polish I like.

If you want the ultimate finish and you have the time, try the following burnishing method.

Buff and polish your silver object using a buffing wheel. Once you have all the scratches our and

an good bright finish on the object, go back to the torch, heat the item to a dual red, then go

directly to the pickle. Continue to do this two or three times. What your doing is removing any

remaining copper raised to the surface due to your pickling, thus placing a pure silver layer on

the surface. Now instead of buffing, use a burnishing tool to rub the entire surface of the object

producing a bright chrome looking finish. The burnishing tool is also designed to get down into

tight areas on the object. Once complete, use a cotton cloth with a little rouge to gently touch up

the surface if needed. If you go to a buff, you will remove all the pure silver from the surface.

METHODS & TOOLS


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Brain Press PublicationsBox 1624, Ste M, Calgary,Alberta, Canada T2P 2L7Tel: 403-263-3955 Fax: 403-283-9053

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Some basic metal working tools for beginners

Copyright © Charles Lewton-Brain 1994

Making jewelry is sometimes seen as a difficult or an expensive proposition. In reality a basic metal working shop can beset up quite inexpensively. Cutting (separating materials), soldered construction and finishing are the three main thingsthat jewellers do and what follows is a list of basic tools for doing these things. One should be able to set up a basicshop for less than a hundred dollars. Remember safety and make sure you have ventilation and use eye protectionwhen sawing and performing other potentially dangerous tasks, it's not worth getting hurt because you took a short cutor didn't think.

There are numerous books one can start with depending upon the level of jewelry making skills one aspires to, Tim

McCreight's the Complete Metalsmith is good (try the video of the same name as well) as are many others that one canfind at the library. Your local lapidary club will often offer introductory classes in basic jewelry making far more cheaplythan any other route to learning. An approach which is less hobby oriented and more of a professional pretraining is touse Alan Revere's Professional Goldsmithing book as a text and go through it step by step, taking no account of timespent, just concentrating on doing the best and most accurate job you can. If you go through the projects in sequenceand as carefully as possible one would get a pretty good basic training. Revere's video series is also good for thosewanting slow, real time step by step tutoring on projects-you could set up the VCR and (starting and stopping a bit) gothrough building the items shown.

In any case the tools listed below should be readily obtainable and affordable. You don't have to have the best to startout with. If you want to by all means go all out in purchasing equipment but the tools mentioned will get you rollingwithout breaking the bank. I am a firm believer in fleas markets, second hand stores and lapidary clubs as sources forused tools. Keep a tidy work place and organize from the start to make your life easy.

You could begin by using an ordinary table (if you use your kitchen remember to clean up and not mix food and metalworking dusts and residues!). If you want to set up a special place in your house for jewellery working you will need asturdy bench or table to work at and a good desk lamp over your work place. The ventilation is needed primarily for

soldering and pickling. If you use an alum or vinegar pickle for cleaning metals after soldering they put out far lessnoxious fumes than the normal jewellers pickling cleaning solutions. Things to remember include that you don't want tohave to move out of your way to get a tool when working. Understand your work space in relationship to your body.Move your body and arms around while sitting in your favorite comfortable chair to work in. Usually when seated in yourchair your arms when straight out should rest on the table top. You can of course start at another type of table-justdon't set yourself up for neck or back problems because of the height you are working at. Get a feeling for how you arecomfortable in your work space. Then tools get positioned around your body space for maximum accessibility in order offrequency of use. Watch how you move when you work. Notice the natural paths you and your body take in space asyou move at your work. Position your tools along these paths in order of frequency of use, ie when my right hand dropsnaturally down and hangs comfortably by my side that is where my most used file is, about at palm height, nearby areother tools. To put the file away the hand goes to its natural rest position and lets go of it and it falls into a hole or slotin a piece of wood attached to the bench to receive it. Kitchen magnetic strips and old stereo speaker magnets attached

to the wall or desk can be useful holding devices. Again, getting organized and keeping a tidy work space pays off in

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ease of working over the long run and is best learned as a habit from the moment you start making jewelry - once youare used to it it will be automatic and you will save hours of messing about by doing so. Labelled plastic drawers for

parts, tomato paste cans for files and so on help to keep things where you can find them.

Jewelry making can be fun and even profitable once you start. My best wishes to those starting on the adventure ofjewelry making!

A list of useful tools follows.

Cutting, piercing, rough finishing toolsA jewellers sawframe and a selection of blades; # 03, 02, 01, 0, 1. A wooden bench pin (a piece of 1" board with aV-cut into it to clamp onto a table) and a C clamp are good.

A beeswax chunk for sawbladelubrication (slide it onto the blade to make sawing easier). One each 6" flat and half round files, flea market versions arefine; remember to put handles on them so you don't hurt your hands. Keep your files from banging other tools for bestresults.

A set of needle files: if you look around you should find a set for under four dollars these days.

A selection of emery papers, fine and medium grits at least.

A piece of medium emery paper is scored and tightly wound about a rectangular cross sectioned wooden lath. The endsare thumb tacked tight. Different shapes of lath and various grits are useful. Aluminum oxide holds up well. Thisbecomes a sanding stick which is used like a file to finish surfaces, an extremely important finishing tool. Some people

use a paint stick for this.

A selection of drill bits and tools to drill with. A flexible shaft or Dremel? like tool is best. An ordinary home electric drillwill do to start with. It helps to C-clamp metal so it can't move while drilling it. A cardboard pad under the C clamp willprotect the metal from damage from the clamp.

A centre punch to start drill holes with; always start with a dent, then use increasing sizes of drill bit until you get to thehole size you want. Make it a habit to always take a larger drill bit in the hand and take the burr off the edge of thedrilled hole with it by twisting it, this prevents all kinds of problems later. Also useful is a large reamer for enlarging andtapering holes, it is found at the hardware store.

A pair of hand or aviation snips - if it is easier to use snips instead of a jewellers saw then do so!

A small piece of flat steel (bottom of iron) to use under centre punch and as an anvil surface.

A small ball peen hammer.

Some peel and stick white label stock, permanent marker, thin felt tips, pencils etc for layout of drawings on metal.

Photocopying and spray adhesive work well for this kind of thing.

A large darning needle to use as a scribe for laying out lines for cutting and so on.

A cold chisel if thick metal is to be cut. A hack saw is nice to have around as well for such things.

A steel edged ruler is most useful. A plastic protractor and templates for circles are nice to have.

A pair of dividers and/or Vernier callipers. Professionals have several dividers on hand.

A machinists try square or an accurate small window frame brace (this latter is a really cheap option) to measure andcheck right angles with.

A small vise can be useful.


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Safety equipment like dust masks, eye protection and hearing protection wherever necessary.

Soldering (brazing) toolsSome ceramic kiln firebrick (the light porous kind-not the heavy kind) to solder on. Check with local ceramicists for usedbricks you can file or grind off to use for this.

A Bernz-o-matic? type propane torch from the hardware store (approx. $12.00) it is controlled by the angle it is held at.When the tank is near vertical the flame is small, near horizontal it is larger. With a little practice this is a great torch.These are great and very cheap.

Some white paste high temperature brazing flux (welders supply).

Several cheap watercolor brushes for painting flux on with for soldering.

Papermate? white out as a solder flow retardant to keep previously soldered joins from coming apart when performinglater soldering operations (let air dry for 15 minutes before heating!)

Some high melting temperature silver solders for jewelry making, hard and medium. Easy is generally used only forrepair work.

Some low melting tin Stay-brite? solder and it's special flux from a hardware store is useful for repairs and simpleconstructions where you have a good contact surface area on the join.

A hot plate or crock pot for pickle to clean off oxides and flux residues. (Pickle is an acidic compound which removes fluxglazes and oxidized surfaces from metals after soldering).

Sparex? jewellers pickling compound or swimming pool acid from the pool store (approx. 1 teaspoon per 500 ml). Theswimming pool acid is the same chemical more or less; sodium bisulfate. Note that in a pinch a cup of vinegar and atablespoon full of table salt makes a very good cleaning pickle as does pickling alum from the supermarket. (1 teaspoonof alum to a quart or so of water).

Finishing toolsA hand brass brush is used with a soapy water solution for satin finishes. The soapy lubrication is essential for goodresults. You could try steel wool too but I don't personally like it .

Some dishwashing liquid and household ammonia in hot water is used for a degreasing solution to remove polishingcompound residues and general greases from fingers and so on. This is the jewellers secret formula for cleaning jewelry;

soak the piece in the hot solution a while, then scrub with an old toothbrush to clean it. Don't clean emeralds or opalslike this as they may be damaged.

A stainless or Corning? pot and hot plate to warm the degreasing solution in is good.

A spoon or a printmakers type burnishing tool is used for burnishing edges and surfaces.

A Scotch-Brite? pad works for a satin finish (Janitors throw away the centers of floor polishing pads which are the sametype of material - ask and they are free!)

A buffing wheel on a mounted electric hand drill or on a polishing motor (a washing machine motor and tapered spindle)are great if you want the bright shine one expects with jewelry.

Some tripoli and rouge (or Fabulustre? polishing compound instead of the first two).

Some toothpaste or Old Dutch Cleanser? for satin finishes, perhaps some commercial polishing pastes for brightness.

Some people like turtle wax or an equivalent for surface protection, particularly on brasses, transparent auto enamel isgood sometimes if patinas are used.

Access to a sink or bucket or water and paper towel or dry hardwood (not oak or pine) sawdust in a plastic container isused for drying metal in after washing and rinsing it-dip the metal in alcohol, place in sawdust, shake around and brushoff. This results in spot free drying.

The most important adviceDon't put a mark in the metal unless you want it there. Measure twice; cut once-half an hour of planning, layout andchecking saves two hours of repairs

I hope this gives a good starting point for those who have been nervous about working metals and encourages you totry out making your own jewelry - it can be most rewarding especially when combined with your own gemstones thatyou have cut and polished.

Vibra Finish Co.U. S. manufacturer of ceramic and plastic deburring supplies

Rock Tumbling SuppliesSilicon Carbide Grit & Polish Rock Tumblers and Crushed Rock

Diamond Lapidary ToolsMfg of Ultra Thin Diamond Blades Diamond Drills & Custom Tools

Jewelry SuppliesDisplays, packaging, beading, tools, resale merch and more.

[Ganoksin] Jewelry Making - Brief Notes on Presto-LiteTorch http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/nenam/tourch.htm

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May 16, 2006 The Gem and Jewelry World's Foremost Resource on The Internet.



| Home | Jewelry Making Library | Tools

Brief Notes on Presto-LiteTorch

Copyright © The Butterfields 1996

We use a method for cutting down firescale when using a Presto-Lite Torch along with an acetylene B tank. The torchtips are engineered to take in so much gas through the gas orifice and so much air through the air inlet ventura so theyburn to their max. heat which is an oxidizing flame. We lay out our torch tips, 1-6, take out the allen screw filter fromthe base of the torch tip, you will find under this screw a very small disc with an orifice in it, (this is very small do notdrop on floor) now remove this disc and put #2 disc into #1 tip, put 3 disc into #2 tip, put #4 disc into #3 tip, put #5disc into #4 tip, put #6 disc into #5 tip. Now replace the allen screw filters. #6 tip now cannot be used, you have to buya new one unless you can buy a # 6 orifice from your supplier. Adjust your regulator to the proper pressure. You willfind that when you light your torch now, you will only get a reduced flame, We find that with the students there isalways a rush to get lots of heat and solder fast, they are told to use the reduced flame and take lots of time, this wayNO FIRE SCALE.

© Copyright 1996 - 2006, The Ganoksin Project



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MetalCalc - Measurement Conversions @ Ganoksin.Com -- Weight http://www.ganoksin.com/MetalCalc/weight.htm?Kiloton1=1e-9&Ton1=...

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May 17, 2006 The Gem and Jewelry World's foremost Resource on The Internet.



Welcome to the Ganoksin ProjectThe Gem and Jewelry World's foremost Resource on The Internet. Open to the public, Free of Charge!We are here to build a strong pool of information for the benefit of Web's jewelers and craftsmen - and those interested in jewelry and gemstones.

MetalCalc calculates the length or weight of various precious metal products based on the dimensions you enter. This

section of Ganoksin.com also includes a collection of unit's conversion calculators.

Weight Back to MetalCalc Index

Metric

Kilotonne

Tonne

Hundredweight

Kilogram

Newton

Gram

Carat

Milligram

Avoirdupois (U.S.)

Long Ton

Short Ton

Long Hundredweight

Short Hundredweight

Stone

Pound

Ounce

Dram

3.1103e-8

0.0000311

0.0003110

0.031103

0.3048118

31.103

155.515

31103

0.0000306

0.0000343

0.0006122

0.0006857

0.0048935

0.0685088

1.0971076

17.5524831

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MetalCalc - Measurement Conversions @ Ganoksin.Com -- Weight http://www.ganoksin.com/MetalCalc/weight.htm?Kiloton1=1e-9&Ton1=...

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Grain

Troy

Pound

Ounce

Pennyweight

Carat

Dyne

Grain

Apothecaries

Pound

Ounce

Dram

Scruple

Grain

© Copyright 1996 - 2006, The Ganoksin Project



479.9845679

0.0833861

1

20.0019293

1199.9614198

31.103

479.9845679

0.0833861

1

7.9997428

23.9992284

479.9845679

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