Upcoming Article Opportunities

Hi,

Just a reminder that I’m working on two articles for the May issue of MJSA Journal, and I’m still hoping to pick the brains of Orchid’s resourceful bench jewelers.

The first article is on homemade bench tools. Have you ever made your own tool because you just couldn’t find something out there that could do what you needed? Care to share the story behind the how and why you created it?

The second article we’re working on is looking at shop storage solutions. Did you develop an ingenious way to store some of the many tools that pile up in a jeweler’s workshop? Are you interested in sharing what you did with our readers?

If so, please contact me at shawna.kulpa@mjsa.org at your earliest convenience.

I look forward to hearing your stories! :slight_smile:

Best regards,
Shawna Kulpa
MJSA Journal, Editor

Hi Shawna Here’s a couple ideas for your home made tool article. These are made out of plastic pipe and easily found objects (like office supplies) pilfered from the front office. :wink:
Good luck Shannon

Hi Shannon,

Thanks for sending along the images. Could you give me a brief rundown at what I’m looking at in the photos? I didn’t recognize any plastic pipe or office supplies.

Thanks again!
Shawna

These finger savers are plastic pvc pipe cut, curved with heat and leather glued to it. I use them for holding rings when sanding and polishing.

This holds rings when unsoldering crowns. It can be heated with a torch without damage and to clamps into the grs ring clamp. I use it to do retipping also. The attached hand rest goes with it and is a modified grs handrest for bracing while retipping. I think there is a video on this on my youtube page daltonsqr2. The business end that gets the heat from the torch is a metal office clip with washers welded in it to keep the ring from pulling out of the tool when you remove an old crown. It’s great get retipping also because you can just rotate the ring clamp and use a comfortable position all the way around the ring. It holds rings very securely. One of my favorite tools. Most of this is made out of necessity at the time I need it with what is available easily. I can take better pics but these were quick. Shannon