Cheap and Cheerful

I left my ring clamp in class last week and in desperation to get
something to hold my settings while I practised, I phoned the last 2
numbers of a total of 4 jewelers in Niagara Falls who do repairs.
Oddly these last 2 guys knew each other. (Well I guess that isn’t
really odd). Anyways, the first guy told me to call the second guy
and I did. I told him that I was desperate to buy or borrow or steal
a ring clamp for the day because I had 10 uninterrupted hours to
practise my setting. So he asked me to come over to his place and he
showed me his bench and tools etc. Can you believe he makes his
rubber moulds with a toaster oven? A large carpenter’s nail with a
divet sawn into it to hold the end of silver wire to coil jump
rings? He draws tubing through a nickle coin that has a 3 mm hole
drilled in it which is held in place in a vice. Most of his tools
are made locally by a millwright for a fraction of the cost of
buying the high tech tool at one of the big houses. I was most
impressed. Decidedly inventive and low tech.