Ring resizing?
 

I have a ring that I made in a size 7.25 for sale; a buyer who is a
size 9 wants it.

The most I have ever stretched a ring is up to 1 full size, with a
roller stretcher. The stone, which is already set, is very unique, so
this would be my preferred option, but I am afraid that stretching it
almost 2 sizes might be too much for the sterling silver.

Does anyone have any advice on stretching?

Am I going to have to pop the stone out and sleeve some more silver
into the band?

thanks,
-stacy

Ring resizing?
 

Hi Stacy

It's hard to answer your question without more details or a pic of the
ring.... How thick is the band of the ring? Sterling will stretch that
far, so long as you have the thickness there and the metal is still in
an annealed state. So it will depend on how much working of the metal
you did after the last solder join...
Also, what type of setting is the stone in? Can you describe the ring
or post a pic? And what is the stone?

I'd say most likely it will be fine to resize with a roller stretcher
(DON'T attempt it with an upright wedding ring stretcher), but more
info would help us know for sure....

Tracy

Ring resizing?
 

stacy c wrote:
I have a ring that I made in a size 7.25 for sale; a buyer who is a
size 9 wants it.

The most I have ever stretched a ring is up to 1 full size, with a
roller stretcher. The stone, which is already set, is very unique, so
this would be my preferred option, but I am afraid that stretching it
almost 2 sizes might be too much for the sterling silver.

Does anyone have any advice on stretching?

Am I going to have to pop the stone out and sleeve some more silver
into the band?

thanks,
-stacy


Better still, remake the ring, so the customer has a new ring, that has
not been sized, in the correct size.

--
Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

Ring resizing?
 

On Feb 10, 8:09*pm, stacy c wrote:
I have a ring that I made in a size 7.25 for sale; *a buyer who is a
size 9 wants it.

The most I have ever stretched a ring is up to 1 full size, with a
roller stretcher. *The stone, which is already set, is very unique, so
this would be my preferred option, but I am afraid that stretching it
almost 2 sizes might be too much for the sterling silver.

Does anyone have any advice on stretching?

Am I going to have to pop the stone out and sleeve some more silver
into the band?

thanks,
-stacy

Hi Stacy,

I'd cut that ring open in the farthest point from the stone (the
bottom of the shank) and add another piece of silver to bring it to
the desired size (you'll have to calculate the length of the piece).
That piece of silver should be wider than the ring shank so you can
file it to the shape of the ring.
In addition, you might want to cover the stone and some of the ring
with cooling paste so it won't be damaged when soldering the
additional piece of silver.

Good Luck
Guy

Ring resizing?
 

On Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:42:02 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Gantzi
wrote:

In addition, you might want to cover the stone and some of the ring
with cooling paste so it won't be damaged when soldering the
additional piece of silver.

As a general rule, in my experience I've found those paste products to be only
marginally useful with silver (or with gold too, often enough). While they have
uses in cases where you need to protect some smaller detail, they suffer from
the problem that as a paste or gel, they aren't able to flow towards the metal.
What happens is that the metal gets hot, the gel absorbs the heat for a while
till it dries out at the surface of the metal. When that happens (and it
doesn't take long), then a slight air gap develops between the remaining gel and
the metal, so although the metal under the gel is not subject to the direct
flame, it's also not heat sinked by the gel. Silver is the finest thermal
conductor of all the metals, and transmits heat very quickly. If you need to
heat sink a heat sensative stone while sizing anything but the thinnest of
shanks, you need a more effective heat sink. Plain water does the trick nicely.
Immerse the top half of the ring (the stone set part) under water in a container
(I use an old tuna fish can). Now, as the silver transmits heat to the water,
the water can continue to wet the surface. It will sizzle, the water may even
boil, but the stone will get no hotter than boiling water. If the sizzling and
spitting of the water boiling where it contact the silver is a problem, or if
you have trouble holding the ring in position, you can also use coarse sand, or
carborundum soldering grain, in that container and then saturated with water.
The grain or sand hold the ring in position. But with less water, there's a
little less heat sinking capacity. Still, this is often a useful method. The
other big advantage to the use of plain water or wet sand is that not only does
it work better than those paste products, but it's a lot less expensive, and not
so messy to use.

Peter

Ring resizing?
 

On Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:40:33 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Jeweller
wrote:

Also, what type of setting is the stone in? Can you describe the ring
or post a pic? And what is the stone?

Please be advised that posting of pictures, images, HTML coded messages, or
other non simple text messages is not allowed by the group charger. My
moderating software isn't set up to correctly pass an attachment on from an
incoming message out to the newsgroup when I get an attachment to a message sent
to the group, so even if I wanted to make an exception and allow an image, the
software won't do it. So if you wish to reference a picture for a posting, the
way to do it is to post the picture to the web. There are a number of free
servers out there that will host pictures for you for free. Then you simply
include the URL to the image in your newsgroup posting. That works fine.
\
thanks.

Peter Rowe
moderator
rec.crafts.jewelry

Ring resizing?
 

If you do decide to resize by cutting and putting a piece in, one
finger size is equal to 1.1mm
As other posters have pointed out though, silver is a great conductor
of heat and unless your shank is very narrow, this could be risky even
with a protective paste or such. Removing the stone could also damage
the ring (or stone) depending on what the stone is and how it is
set..... we really need to know what we're advising you on.

Ring resizing?
 

On Feb 11, 11:40=A0pm, Jeweller wrote:

This is a picture of the ring:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/schristopher/3066126151/

The band is about 1mm thick, the stone is a moss agate, and it is
bezel-set.

I've had a couple of people comment that stretching it will probably
be fine, so I will probably try that first.

I really appreciate everyone's help!

thanks,
-stacy

Also, what type of setting is the stone in? Can you describe the ring
or post a pic? And what is the stone?

Ring resizing?
 

On Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:06:52 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Jeweller
wrote:

If you do decide to resize by cutting and putting a piece in, one
finger size is equal to 1.1mm

In Australian ring sizes (assumed by your addy), that's correct (I assume. but
didn't look it up...) But in U.S. sizes, one full size is 2.5 millimeters. If
one is being very precise, I think it's actually 2.54 mm... And then, since you
cut the shank open to insert the piece, you can add another .25 mm to make up
for the width of the saw cut. Again, for real precision, remember that this
length of stock is most accurately measured on the inside of the ring, at the
finger or mandrel surface. But actually measuring it on the inside is a pain in
the backside. Most people mark the ring, and the stock, on the outside surface.
For fractions of a size, or a size or even two, the result is the stock is very
slightly shorter, so the ring ends up a little bit tighter than the desired
size. That's perfect, since it allows you to clean up the solder and the
addition, and mallet the ring properly round again, and the slight stretching
that causes then gives you the desired end size. But if you're making a ring
more than maybe a size and a half, or two sizes, larger, you start to need to
measure longer than that theoretical 2.5 mm per size, or the ring will end up
significantly too small. Practice will teach you how much to adjust. The
other way to do this which avoids the math is simply to cut the shank, slide it
up a ring mandrel to the desired size, making sure the shank stays flush to the
madrel while doing this. Then use a divider to measure the resulting gap and
mark your sizing stock to cut the needed insert piece.

Peter

Ring resizing?
 

On Feb 12, 12:49*am, Peter W. Rowe
wrote:
On Wed, 11 Feb 2009 23:42:02 -0800, in rec.crafts.jewelry Gantzi

wrote:
In addition, you might want to cover the stone and some of the ring
with cooling paste so it won't be damaged when soldering the
additional piece of silver.

As a general rule, *in my experience I've found those paste products to be only
marginally useful with silver (or with gold too, often enough). *While they have
uses in cases where you need to protect some smaller detail, they suffer from
the problem that as a paste or gel, they aren't able to flow towards the metal.
What happens is that the metal gets hot, the gel absorbs the heat for a while
till it dries out at the surface of the metal. *When that happens (and it
doesn't take long), then a slight air gap develops between the remaining gel and
the metal, so although the metal under the gel is not subject to the direct
flame, it's also not heat sinked by the gel. *Silver is the finest thermal
conductor of all the metals, and transmits heat very quickly. * If you need to
heat sink a heat sensative stone while sizing anything but the thinnest of
shanks, you need a more effective heat sink. *Plain water does the trick nicely.
Immerse the top half of the ring (the stone set part) under water in a container
(I use an old tuna fish can). *Now, as the silver transmits heat to the water,
the water can continue to wet the surface. *It will sizzle, the water may even
boil, but the stone will get no hotter than boiling water. * If the sizzling and
spitting of the water boiling where it contact the silver is a problem, or if
you have trouble holding the ring in position, you can also use coarse sand, or
carborundum soldering grain, in that container and then saturated with water.
The grain or sand hold the ring in position. *But with less water, there's a
little less heat sinking capacity. *Still, this is often a useful method. *The
other big advantage to the use of plain water or wet sand is that not only does
it work better than those paste products, but it's a lot less expensive, and not
so messy to use.

Peter


Here's some stuff that will work like you won't believe ! I'm
definitely not a jeweler
but this stuff is fantastic when you want to work on something and
don't want to
have to worry about previous welds falling apart and such.... I've
used this to
braze together copper sheets, stainless steel, etc and once did some
silver
reticulation on a pendant AFTER it was all put together It's like
magic.. :)
Cover the whole ring with this stuff, then pull the putty up until you
have enough
metal to work with and be prepared to be amazed !

http://www.muggyweld.com/coolblue.html

As a side note, I've heard of some welders that have used this on car
and
motorbike frames and miscellaneous repair that left rubber bushings,
paint
and similar materials completely intact.

Oh, and another thing that you might already have at home that works
great as
a paste.... Drywall MUD ! I've used the pink stuff that dries white
and it seems
to work well enough.

Cheers, and Good luck !

/FC....