A Ring

Charlie's ring photo motivated me to have a go at a ring.

I rolled up some polymer clay into a quarter inch stick and formed it into a
circle, did a little squishing and squashing and put it in the oven. Then I
sanded and filed it till it looked like it would come out of the sand
without take to much with it and made a two piece sand mold. I just pressed
half the ring into the cope and then filled the drag. This seemed to work
well enough.

I poured a zink casting of this and did some more finishing for the final
pattern. After two melts and 4 pours, I got one casting I could use and
spent a few pleasant hours cleaning it up with sanders, files etc.

It was getting lopsided when trying to make it fit my finger by removing
metal so I made a tapered mandrill and started pounding. Much to my
amazement, I was able to make it nice and round and a perfect fit to my
finger. Hammers work! I don't seem to have the proper tools to clean it
up nice so I will have to look into that.

I took a picture of it and then put it into the tumbler for the night.

Tomorrow I would solder on a bezel for an oval Amazonite cab I made for it
and grind the rectangle to conform to the bezel. Actually, I already did
this on one of the reject castings and it seems to be a decent way to do it.

The picture is at http://schmidling.netfirms.com/ring2.jpg

Comments welcome...

js

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On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 01:24:05 -0700, in ¤õ Jack Schmidling wrote:


It was getting lopsided when trying to make it fit my finger by removing
metal so I made a tapered mandrill and started pounding. Much to my
amazement, I was able to make it nice and round and a perfect fit to my
finger. Hammers work!

chuckle. I think I mentioned that, didn't I. Now you've demonstrated it to
yourself. Ordinarily, I'd now suggest you buy a few of the standard hammers.
But I suspect you'll figure out, as you seem to be prone to doing, that hammers
too, are not that hard to make either. Look at planishing hammers in the
catalogs. Also a small cross pein hammer, which can be made by altering the ball
end on a smaller ball pein hammer, is useful at times for moving metal in
specific directions, rather than just flattening it in all directions.

I don't seem to have the proper tools to clean it
up nice so I will have to look into that.


After general smoothing with fine cut files, you take a sheet of emery paper,
perhaps 220 or 320 grit or so, and carefully wrap it around a wood stick. You
can score the paper's inside surface as it folds around the stick, so the
surfaces stay reasonably crisp cornered and flat between the corners. Secure to
the stick with wraps of masking tape at the ends. The result is an emery stick,
used somewhat like a file, but it's gentler. You use this to smooth out the file
marks, and then additional ones with finer grits of emery paper, till it's smooth
enough to buff.

cheers

Peter

Hey cool! Have you thought about trying it with wax? I really want to get
into sculpting in wax, but I'd have to send it off to be cast.

Charlie.

"Jack Schmidling" wrote in message
news
Charlie's ring photo motivated me to have a go at a ring.

I rolled up some polymer clay into a quarter inch stick and formed it into
a
circle, did a little squishing and squashing and put it in the oven. Then
I
sanded and filed it till it looked like it would come out of the sand
without take to much with it and made a two piece sand mold. I just
pressed
half the ring into the cope and then filled the drag. This seemed to work
well enough.

I poured a zink casting of this and did some more finishing for the final
pattern. After two melts and 4 pours, I got one casting I could use and
spent a few pleasant hours cleaning it up with sanders, files etc.

It was getting lopsided when trying to make it fit my finger by removing
metal so I made a tapered mandrill and started pounding. Much to my
amazement, I was able to make it nice and round and a perfect fit to my
finger. Hammers work! I don't seem to have the proper tools to clean it
up nice so I will have to look into that.

I took a picture of it and then put it into the tumbler for the night.

Tomorrow I would solder on a bezel for an oval Amazonite cab I made for it
and grind the rectangle to conform to the bezel. Actually, I already did
this on one of the reject castings and it seems to be a decent way to do
it.

The picture is at http://schmidling.netfirms.com/ring2.jpg

Comments welcome...

js

--
PHOTO OF THE WEEK: http://schmidling.netfirms.com/pow.htm
Astronomy, Beer, Cheese, Gems, Sausage, http://schmidling.netfirms.com

Can you use the emery paper you buy at the hardware shop? This is the only
I thing I really need at the moment (well, along with tonnes of other
stuff...). Someone mentioned "wet and dry" paper, would that work?

Charlie.

"Peter W.. Rowe," wrote in message
...
On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 01:24:05 -0700, in ¤õ Jack Schmidling
wrote:


It was getting lopsided when trying to make it fit my finger by removing
metal so I made a tapered mandrill and started pounding. Much to my
amazement, I was able to make it nice and round and a perfect fit to my
finger. Hammers work!

chuckle. I think I mentioned that, didn't I. Now you've demonstrated it
to
yourself. Ordinarily, I'd now suggest you buy a few of the standard
hammers.
But I suspect you'll figure out, as you seem to be prone to doing, that
hammers
too, are not that hard to make either. Look at planishing hammers in the
catalogs. Also a small cross pein hammer, which can be made by altering
the ball
end on a smaller ball pein hammer, is useful at times for moving metal in
specific directions, rather than just flattening it in all directions.

I don't seem to have the proper tools to clean it
up nice so I will have to look into that.


After general smoothing with fine cut files, you take a sheet of emery
paper,
perhaps 220 or 320 grit or so, and carefully wrap it around a wood stick.
You
can score the paper's inside surface as it folds around the stick, so the
surfaces stay reasonably crisp cornered and flat between the corners.
Secure to
the stick with wraps of masking tape at the ends. The result is an emery
stick,
used somewhat like a file, but it's gentler. You use this to smooth out
the file
marks, and then additional ones with finer grits of emery paper, till it's
smooth
enough to buff.

cheers

Peter

On , in ?? "Charlie" wrote:

Someone mentioned "wet and dry" paper, would that work?

Yes. That's the right stuff, in fact, though you can also just as easily use the
cheaper emery paper which is not waterproof. The main thing is to choose a grit
which will do the job but is not too coarse (which leaves too rough a surface and
might take off too much metal) or so fine as to not be able to do the job at all.

Peter

"Charlie"

Hey cool! Have you thought about trying it with wax? I really want to
get
into sculpting in wax, but I'd have to send it off to be cast.

Problem is, I am not a sculptur or an artist of any sort so I am stuck with
designs that I can turn, grind, mill, sand or file. With this in mind, any
crude shape as a model that leaves me meat to remove is all I need.

Wax has advantages though. I guess you can melt more and fill mistakes and
the more I think about it... I guess I will have to get some.

Thanks again.

js


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Jack Schmidling wrote:

Hammers work!

Oh boy, what a revelation! You seem surprised about that discovery.

Abrasha
http://www.abrasha.com

"Peter W.. Rowe,"

But I suspect you'll figure out, as you seem to be prone to doing, that
hammers
too, are not that hard to make either. Look at planishing hammers in the
catalogs....

Gave me a headache. As you imagine, I will make my own. Can you suggest
the appropriate material for forming silver? Steel/brass/lead; hard/soft?

js

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On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 20:27:35 -0700, in Ìõ Jack Schmidling wrote:


"Peter W.. Rowe,"

But I suspect you'll figure out, as you seem to be prone to doing, that
hammers
too, are not that hard to make either. Look at planishing hammers in the
catalogs....

Gave me a headache. As you imagine, I will make my own. Can you suggest
the appropriate material for forming silver? Steel/brass/lead; hard/soft?

js

In your list, lead is the one to be very careful with. not normally used for
mallets or hammers with silver, might be used as a soft forming block. But it's
dangerous, in that you must be very careful to remove all small particles and
bits and residues of the lead before any heating or soldering. At silver
soldering temps, tiny bits of lead can burn/melt down into the silver for an
amazing distance, creating a major flaw in the metal. And you can't just simply
fill the pit with solder. got to clean out the messed up metal first. So in
general, lead should be considered a forming block material reserved for when
you've got the specific need, and even then, only with some reservations.

Steel tools and hammers and forming blocks, anvils, etc, are the norm for most
uses. Tempers used should be hard enough so the steel doesn't deform while in
use, but not so hard as to be brittle or prone to chipping and the like. Mild
steel can be used for forming blocks and things to hammer upon, but it doesn't
make as good an actual hammer, for the forgoing reason. It gets pretty beat up,
pretty quickly. Hammers normally are tempered a bit harder than the blocks or
surfaces one hammers against, though for specialty purposes and tools, this is
totally optional when you make your own. the reason is that most such blocks and
tools are simpler surfaces, easier to reface if marked, while the hammer faces
are often very carefully surfaced, and dents and dings on them cause problems
since any mark on the hammer face shows up as the corresponding mark on the
workpiece. That can be intentionally used, but most of the time, one prefers
smooth unmarked hammer faces. By the way, in making steel hammers, know that the
best ones are forged, not machined, to form most of the shape, as well as the
oval shaped tapered hole for the handle (dont' use round holes. The heads can
slip inpredictably. Worth the extra time to make the hole oval. If you have a
milling machine, it's easy. Otherwise, file it out. However, if you start with
good steel, you can machine a good hammer face without forging. Also, much of
the fancy shaping behind the hammer head is optional. To keep the weight down,
you can just make the head slightly shorter if you wish. Japanese metalworking
hammers are often very crudely shaped, just from round stock with a hole, one
face left as a cylendar and faced to a round striking shape, and the other end
just ground off to a cross pein. None of that fancy swaging in behind the head
that's common in western hammers. The japanese types work just as well...

Brass makes good mallet faces when one wishes to cause fewer marks on the metal.
With gold, or work hardened silver, soft brass won't leave much of a mark, if at
all. With annealed silver, or fine silver, the silver is still softer than the
mallet, so some of the advantage is lost.

Delrin plastic also makes wonderful non-marking hammers and mallets. Fairly
tough, you can make forming heads (cross peins, ball peins, etc) in addition to
flatter faces, and if used with care, such mallets will last for years or
decades.

Wood, too, makes good mallets. Maple, and other such hardwoods are commonly
used. These are preferred for forming very soft metals such as pewter, but also
work well with annealed silver and fine silver.

Among materials used that you likely cannot make on your own, the rubber/plastic
faced "dead blow" mallets are quite useful. Filled with lead shot to absorb the
bounce, they're easier on the hand, and transmit more power to the metal. You
can get such mallets with either the softer rubberlike materials, or the harder
plastics. I prefer the softer ones. Harbor Freight sells them very
inexpensively, if you need a source.

have fun. No headaches, Jack. just fun.

Peter

On Thu, 02 Sep 2004 20:27:26 -0700, in Ìõ Jack Schmidling wrote:

Problem is, I am not a sculptur or an artist of any sort so I am stuck with
designs that I can turn, grind, mill, sand or file. With this in mind, any
crude shape as a model that leaves me meat to remove is all I need.

Wax has advantages though. I guess you can melt more and fill mistakes and
the more I think about it... I guess I will have to get some.

Thanks again.

js

The trick here is what type of wax to get. Many wax workers in the jewelry
industry do most of their work with hard carving waxes. These things resemble a
softer, but still mostly rigid plastic. It's similar to (in fact identical to)
the type of wax used in CNC machining to "proof" a tool path without risk of
damaging a costly cutter if a mistake has been made. Do-All carries a blue wax
of this sort in large blocks, cheaper than the same stuff in smaller blocks is
sold to jewelers. The blue is the softest grade of the jewelry carving wax in
the "file a wax" brand line. They also produce a medium hard purple, and a quite
rigid green" To start, use the blue.

The thing is, don't think of it as wax. think of it like a machinist would think
of soft steel, except you can, and generally do, work it with hand tools. Coarse
rasps and files down to medium fine files do much of the work. Rotary files in a
flex shaft or dremel (at lower speeds, generally) can also do a lot. Gravers,
scrapers, dental picks, improved pokers and jabbers and scrapers and whatnot are
easily made. Exacto blades, linolium cutters... You name it. The stuff is soft
and easily carved with just about anything you can imagine, yet hard enough to
hold it shape well and take fairly detailed fine features. And if you do make a
mistake, a bit of wax can be melted back on, or a broken piece welded back on,
with a hot tool. But it's not really intended to be worked by melting and
welding (there are other waxes that are, of course). I suspect you'd find
working this stuff to be very much like working the materials you're already
familier with, except this stuff is cheap, and works ten times faster. And if
you wish, and have the machine tools, it is in fact designed for machinging as
well. slow to moderate speeds and feeds to avoid melting it work best. Very
fine toothed cutters tend to clog and heat up the wax.

Now, when you're done with that, you can have wax models capable of giving you
lost wax casting. This is something you've not done before, if you're used to
sand casting, but the capabilities it offers are immensly more versatile. And
the kicker is that although there is lots of fancy sophisticated equipment sold
for lots of money to the people doing lots of it, lost wax casting can be also
done, on a piece by piece basis, with about the same cost as your existing sand
casting setup. You need to buy the casting investment (looks like plaster, but
isn't, quite...). Most of the rest, I'd bet you can improvise. All the better
if you happen to have a small kiln around the house, but if not, one can
improvise even that with just a good hot plate, a clay flower pot, some aluminum
foil, and some furnace tape... And your casting "machine" need be nothing more
sophisticated than an old jar lid, screwed to a wood dowel as a handle, with some
layers of wet newspaper stuffed into the jar lid... With a bit of practice,
results from this setup can equal that of the pro machines in many cases.

Interested?

cheers

Peter