Thank you! Tom had a few scathing comments on only using 2 beads (or grains, I alternate), he'd probably be OK with 4 but prefers 6. The inner grain isn't really much extra work - it's formed by the precutting of the other 2 and only needs a quick twiddle to shape it after that.
I've been staring at this through the microscope, so I know the flaws. Need to work on my photography next (perhaps counterproductive if it shows all the mistakes?!)
I didn't keep a close record of the whole thing, but roughly:
Making the ring - 10 mins? Something like that. Layout, drilling, opening the holes out - 3 hours or so. Broke one drillbit in the metal, so had to wait for the pickle to etch it out. Precutting - couple of hours. Sawing the back holes square - probably a couple of hours again. Managing to fling all of the sapphires across the floor, then go hunting for them with a large flashlight - hmm, probably quite long with all the swearing... Initial setting & forming the grains - 2 hours (given the variation in the stones, some of the bearings needed a little tweaking). Bright cutting, tidying around the grains and reshaping them - 2-3 hours. Millgrain, polish, clean - not that long.
The metal is silver, the drill simple HSS and the pickle is safety pickle (bisulphate, IIRC - need to check COSHH). An overnight soak, even cold, attacked the steel enough that a session in the ultrasonic got the rest out.
It's quite nice in that it doesn't touch the silver - well, it'll deplete the copper in the surface, but that's gone anyway by this point. Copper and brass also work with this; I don't know what other metals would - aluminium conceivably, probably titanium too.
I missed a step though - anneal, *then* put in a small jar of pickle...
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I've been staring at this through the microscope, so I know the flaws. Need to work on my photography next (perhaps counterproductive if it shows all the mistakes?!)
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Making the ring - 10 mins? Something like that.
Layout, drilling, opening the holes out - 3 hours or so. Broke one drillbit in the metal, so had to wait for the pickle to etch it out.
Precutting - couple of hours.
Sawing the back holes square - probably a couple of hours again.
Managing to fling all of the sapphires across the floor, then go hunting for them with a large flashlight - hmm, probably quite long with all the swearing...
Initial setting & forming the grains - 2 hours (given the variation in the stones, some of the bearings needed a little tweaking).
Bright cutting, tidying around the grains and reshaping them - 2-3 hours.
Millgrain, polish, clean - not that long.
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>Broke one drillbit in the metal, so had to wait for the pickle to etch it out
Very Neat! May I ask what metal, what pickle etc
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I missed a step though - anneal, *then* put in a small jar of pickle...
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