Casting or die cut service

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hello - could anybody recommend a casting or die cut service in the
States? I’m hoping to mass produce pendant charms in (1) sterling
silver, as well as in (2) gold filled, gold plating, or brass for my
jewelry shop. Because of a large number of charms we will be needing,
I will not be able to clean/finish charms myself and want to find a
company who can deliver finished products.

I am having an issue with gold plating by a casting company we
currently use, and would like to produce charms in gold filled if
possible (I think the manufacturing method needs to be die-cut for
this?). If not, heavy plating or perhaps forget about plating
altogether and go for brass (and use a sealant to prevent green skin
problems).

I’d appreciate any recommendation of a reliable company or any
suggestions you might have about producing gold color charms.

Sincerely,
Megu

2

Hi Megu,

I’ve had some good luck with this company for contract casting:

And while I haven’t used them personally yet, I’ve had some
colleagues use this company for plating:

http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/skyplating

Good luck!

3

I like Best Cast. They do a lot of different things. Check them out.
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep826k

4

One option you might want to look into is doing nano ceramic
electroplating on the pieces as it deposits a clear if you want or
colors if not to your piece and protects it from tarnishing and
abrasions. I use it a lot on my pieces. I have a bronze necklace I
did 3 years ago and it still looks like new and my wife wears it
often. I did it to test the Legor product. Needless to say I like
their product.

Vernon Wilson
Panama Bay Jewelers

5

Try this company located in Michigan.
They do die striking, casting & finishing.
Linus Drogs @ Au Enterprises

Ken

6

Menu-Just how many charms do you need? If it’s more than say 50-100
it would be worth your while to have a die cut and have them die
struck in gold filled metal.

I did some time working in a class ring/ nursing pin/ achievement
pin/ charm factory. The initial cost of having a die cut can be
high, but the cost of manufacturing is much lower than cast goods.
It’s also much faster. With a good die there is little or no clean
up. There is no casting porosity to deal with, no spruces to cut off.
The backs are flat and smooth. The article comes out dense and clean
with maybe a little smoothing of the edges needed. The image is crisp
with out the blurring of the surface that comes with clean up. Just
look at a newly struck coin to get an idea. The gold filled material
will long out wear a plated article.

Good luck with your project.

Have fun and make lots of jewelry.
Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

7

Thank you everyone for your input!

Menu-Just how many charms do you need?

Jo, I need about 5000 pieces of one design, and 1000 pieces of
another design per year. The charms are flat, so they are certainly
suitable for die cutting. The ability to cut charms from gold filled
sheet is an attractive option.

However, I have two concerns. First, when you punch a shape out of a
gold filled sheet, it creates cutting edges with the exposed brass
core (especially if I file the edges to smooth them out). Would I
need to coat the edges to prevent the brass from turning people’s
skin green or the charm rusting from the edge? Perhaps Nano ceramic
electroplating Vernon suggested is a good option? Or since the
exposed area will be narrow (the thickness of the charm is 22 gauge),
this is not a concerne Second, I may not have time to punch and clean
6000 charms… Maybe I should look for a company that can die cut
and coat charms.

One option you might want to look into is doing nano ceramic
electroplating on the pieces as it deposits a clear if you want or
colors if not to your piece and protects it from tarnishing and
abrasions.

Vernon, thank you for the This is the first time I
heard about this. I looked at a unit sold by RioGrande. How long does
it take to coat a small charm? Can you heat plated charms in a kilm?
Is it possible to coat multiple pieces at a time? Of the 6000 pieces
I need, about 3000 are gold plated and need coating.

For now, I’m using Protecta Clear by Everbrite to protect charms
from tarnishing. I’m now testing its durability, but I read it lasts
for a good long time. I dip about 20 pieces at a time in the
solution, and spend about 7 minutes to clean the excess solution. I
repeat this twice and air dry the pieces for 4-5 days to fully cure
the coating.

8

Hi Megu,

As far as I can tell, im probably the only silversmith here on
Ganoksin that has a fully equipped stamping and coin production
shop, capable of production runs of up to 10,000.

theres no question as to which way to go for making your charms, it
has to be via the drop stamping route.

Once you have the die, for what you describe is a one sided charm,
the hourly production rate after the blanking is in the hundreds per
hour. With as someone else has pointed out, coin proof quality
detail. Thats the standard i work to, as good as our Royal mint and
the US mint too.

Then if your going to make some in a gold colour, what you do is
plate the brass or to be precise the 70/30 alloy, first, after
blanking of course, then die strike after. Thats the normal way of
doing it. No problems with edge going green when in use. You could
also make the silver coloured ones this way too. Forget gold filled.

The plating is done in a tumbler by the 1000 and how much gold or
silver you put on depends on you pricing structure.

Then the die costs. I do turnkey solutions for customers like
yourself, and that includes the die making. You would normally stamp
in a collar, like coin making, the jump ring is put in a the hole
afterwards.

However!! im in the UK so logistically its difficult to supply you.
The reason is your customs and import regulations. Tho if the chinese
ex port to the USA then you can import from here.

Hope this is of some help. The right way forward for you is, of
course, to set up your own stamping shop. Easy if you know the right
persons!. and you control the whole operation, have all the work but
make all the profit. A drop stamping machine is really very simple,
if your any good with your hands you dont need much in the way of a
machine shop to build one. Ive done 3 with the 5 basic pieces of iron
from an old ones that were scrapped in the Birmingham jewellery
quarter. Even these you could make up yourself. My most used slide
hammer weighs in at 275 lbs. the smallest 50 lbs the biggest 450 lbs.

Ted