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Making a ringband. Fremont Style. 1. Gather Materials. 10 gauge Nickel, half round U se a length of nickel wire that matches your desired ringsize + a little extra for sanding away the cutter crimp marks.
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Making a ringband Fremont Style
1. Gather Materials • 10 gauge Nickel, half round Use a length of nickel wire that matches your desired ringsize + a little extra for sanding away the cutter crimp marks. • Silver solder You need a piece of silver solder wire that is a bit longer than the ring is wide.
2. Personalize ring (stamp your name into the flat side of the metal) • Tape or hold the metal, flat side up. • Hold stamp in place, tap with metal hammer.
3. File or grind the ends of the metal until they are completely flat. • Be sure to hold the wire exactly perpendicular to the file or grinder. • Make sure to remove all traces of the wire cutters from the ends of your ring wire. File or grind enough that no crimp marks show on the end of the wire. • Double check the length of your ring wire after sanding – make sure the ring will still fit!
4. Using smooth pliers, bend the ends of the ringwire until they meet. • Make sure the ends are really touching! It helps to hold the joined section up to light and inspect the seam. • Don’t worry if the ring is not round yet. In fact, the joined ends will meet better if the ring is flat at the join.
5. Prepare the ring to be soldered. • Place the ring in the third hand tweezers, with the seam to be joined on the top. • Flux the entire ring, except for the part touching the tweezers. • Place the silver solder on the join.
6. Light the torch, and dry out the flux. • Using the fluffy part of the flame, take your time & dry out the flux. • The flux will turn white & flaky. • If you accidentally boil the flux and the solder moves away from the join, use a soldering pick to move it back.
7. Keep heating the entire ring until the flux melts. • You can move the torch a little closer, but still use the fluffy flame. • The flux will turn clear when it melts. • Flux melts at 900 degrees. • If the solder moves at this point, you can move it back with a soldering pick. (If it moves when the flux is melted, you probably have too much flux – next time use a thinner layer.)
8. Melt the solder !!! • Move the torch even closer, until the end of the blue flame is 1 -2 inches away from the join. • Aim the flame straight at the seam. If it looks like the solder is sitting in a bubble of melted solder next to the join, you can use a soldering pick to slide the melted solder into the seam. • Easy Silver Solder melts at 1100 degrees. • Nickel melts around 2000 degrees. • Celebrate a little – you just made a soldered join!
9. Put the ring in pickle for about 2 minutes. • Use copper tongs only! • So that you don’t lose your ring in the bottom of the crock pot, you may want to use a small glass jar with pickle. • When you are through with the pickle in the glass jar, pour the pickle back into the crock pot (not in the sink). • Rinse the ring and the jar in the sink.
10. Make the ring round • Form the ring on a metal mandrel. Use a leather mallet & a smooth mandrel. • Place the ring on a flat surface & tap it on the sides to make sure that it is a perfect band.
11. Sand, sand, sand, & sand. • Use all 4 grits of sand paper. Start with 220, then 320, then 400, then 600. • Sand everything, especially the join, until the ring is a perfectly smooth band all the way around. It will be difficult to tell where the join is when you do this correctly. • Run your fingernail around the edges of your ringband. If you can feel where the join is, keep sanding!
12. Polish until gleaming • Polish both the inside and the outside. • Use both sides of the ring polisher to do the inside of the ring. Left, then Right. Hold the ring in your fingers with leather. • Choose one of the polishing machines to work on the outside of the ring. Left, then Right. Hold the ring on a polishing mandrel with leather. • Left polishers use Bobbing Compound (brown), Right polishers use Zam (green).
To polish the inside: hold the ring with a piece of leather. To polish the outside: Hold the ring with a wooden clamp, or on a polishing mandrel + leather.
Note: sterling silver rings & extra credit. • You can make a sterling silver ringband for extra credit any time during your first term of beginning jewelry. (5% of your final term grade.) • You must purchase the sterling silver, and let me know that you are intending to make a ring for extra credit. • FYI: • Flux melts @ 900 • Silver solder melts @ 1100 • Sterling Silver melts @ 1250 – 1500. • Yep, that’s close, & it’s a little tricky not to melt your sterling silver. Nope, you can’t get more silver for free to replace what you just melted. • Yeah, we know it costs between $2.00 - $9.00 to make a sterling silver ringband, that’s why it’s extra credit. But it’s still cool.
