why the crap can't i remember how to fabricate pin back mechanisms?? ugh. maybe it's because i hate pins and therefore only ever made one before and that was because they made us do it. damn it.
Well, there are roughly a million variants on the things...
My favorite, easy, but still "hand-made" version has a bit of tiny tubing- with our without an underlying support- on one side, and a roughly 0.25 inch/6mm length of D-shaped tubing on the other side. Use a disk to slice a slot in the d-tube, and stick a piece of nickel silver or stainless steel in the other tube, with a short end and a long one; curve the short end so it acts like a spring, and sharpen the long one so it fits in the D-tube slot. Easy, functional, straightforward, and totally hand-made. :)
(I hate barrel clasps- if there's any mass in the thing to which you're soldering them, they anneal and then fail. Annoying! I don't mind commercial hinges and pin stems, though- they also work well with D-tubing catches.)
hehe i looked up a couple variants for pinbacks in my wee metals tecniques library and came up with a little somethin. :) i -think- it'll work out. mechanical things are my big failing with jewelry... i can design and fabricate all the visuals but when it comes to a mechanism my brain just doesn't wrap all the way around. i usually learn by trial and error.
i didn't have any nickel wire or steel though :( i know it's a Bad Idea to use silver for the pin, but i'm using argentium so i'm hoping i can just heat treat the whole shebang and it'll be hard enough =/ it's for my grandma so obviously i don't want it to break but i don't think she'll be -too- rough on it either... especially if she ends up wearing it as a necklace instead..
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My favorite, easy, but still "hand-made" version has a bit of tiny tubing- with our without an underlying support- on one side, and a roughly 0.25 inch/6mm length of D-shaped tubing on the other side. Use a disk to slice a slot in the d-tube, and stick a piece of nickel silver or stainless steel in the other tube, with a short end and a long one; curve the short end so it acts like a spring, and sharpen the long one so it fits in the D-tube slot. Easy, functional, straightforward, and totally hand-made. :)
(I hate barrel clasps- if there's any mass in the thing to which you're soldering them, they anneal and then fail. Annoying! I don't mind commercial hinges and pin stems, though- they also work well with D-tubing catches.)
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i didn't have any nickel wire or steel though :( i know it's a Bad Idea to use silver for the pin, but i'm using argentium so i'm hoping i can just heat treat the whole shebang and it'll be hard enough =/ it's for my grandma so obviously i don't want it to break but i don't think she'll be -too- rough on it either... especially if she ends up wearing it as a necklace instead..
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