Hi Gang,
You know I’ve been talking (a lot) about tube settings… and
the stone that I have that’s just a little too big. I just had a
brainstorm… since it’s essentially a bezel, I should be able
to use diamond tools to “file” down the stone and reduce it’s
dimensions. I obviously wouldn’t want to do this to a stone
going into a prong setting, but any drawbacks for a tube?? Is it
"cheating" if nobody can tell?? 
Dave Sebaste
Dave,
Please do me a favor and DON"T file that stone down… Yes it is
cheating…LOL And yes someday down the line someone other than
yourself may have to repair or replace the bezel and you will be
found out…LOL Anyway what I suggest you do is make the bezel
yourself… Take a peice of flat stock and run it thru a rolling
mill. Make it about 1.5mm in thickness and about 3 or 4 mm high.
Take a peice of paper cut it into a thin strip and wrap it around
the stone in question. Mark the paper where the two ends meet.
Straighten the paper out and match it up against the stock you
have rolled. cut the stock to the length of the measurement. Take
a pair of jump ring pliers or use a bezel mandrel to bend the
flat stock into the shape of the stone (oval right?) this at
first will be a rough shape but after you make it oval and
solder it together with the highest karat solder you could use
without melting the newly made bezel…(Iusually use 18kh even if
it is a 14kt bezel) then take this rough bezel shape and take a
paeice of flat sterling about 1inch by 1 inch and sweat the bezel
to this flat peice of sterling… (use stering sivlver easy solder
to do this). After you have the bezel affixed to the sterling,
take a shellac stick (if you don’t have one, take an old broom
handle or some kind of dowel rod about 1 inch in diameter. and
simply melt the shellac to the top of it.) Anyway melt the
shellac enough to stick the (inch by 1 inch plate w/bezel ) into
it. Stick it in water to let it cool… Now you are ready to
finish making your bezel the proper shape… Take a bezel pusher
and from the inside of the newly formed bezel simply push
outwards unitl the stone will fit just on top of the bezel. the
bezel should be visible slightly if you look down on it with the
stone placed on top…now if that is all lined up… Take a
straight cone bur and if your bezel wall is 1.5mm in thickness,
cut from the inside about half of the 1.5mm away all the way
around, be sure to only cut HALF WAY DOWN into the bezel. Your
stone should sit in the bezel nicely. if it doesn’t cut a little
more of a seat for it… If you are happy with the way it sits,
simply take the stone out, heat up your shellac, pull your plate
w/bezel off, clean all the shellac off the plate then sweat the
bezel off of the plate. Now you have a bezel and you do with it
what you will. It really is very easy… Marc Williams