I use 12 ga round Sterling Silver wire. I use a 2-58 UNC threading
die to cut the bolt type of threads. To make the nut portion I use
Sterling Silver tubing that is 7 ga. Inner dia. of 3.66mm and outer
dia. of 2mm. It is product number 118070 from Santa Fe Jewelry
Supply. I thread the inner portion of the tube with a 2-58 UNC
threading tap.
One can solder either the tubing or the wire to the piece. Many time
I will put a gem setting on a piece of sheet then solder the piece of
sheet to the opposite piece to make the nut.
A secret I have found is to put Permatex Thread Locker Item # 24240
on the threads on the final tightening. It keeps it tight enough to
keep it from coming undone, but will come off with a little coaxing.
Be sure to use the blue stuff. The red stuff requires a lot of heat
to get it to turn loose. This is from my first life as a mechanic.
Thanks so much - those are wonderful ideas! It’s funny, I live in
New York where you can probably find just about anything but I was
completely stumped when it came to finding interesting wood. A
lumber yard definitely wouldn’t work. So thank you! And actually, you
reminded me that I live very close to a school that teaches
woodworking for furniture - I bet they would be happy to give me
some scraps. I’ll stop by tomorrow.
thanks so much for the wonderful ideas – everyone’s amazing
contributions have gotten me very excited about making jewelry
again. i’ve been suffering from a minor bout of jeweler’s block over
the last few weeks and truly, this thread has been invaluable in
getting my imagination cranking again. thanks very much!
If I were doing it, I’d make both the back and the bezel of wood. Two
thin pieces of a hard wood, one behind the stone and the other cut in
the center slightly smaller than the cab’s diameter, but routed into
an arc along the bottom edge to fit. Glue the wood together…
regarding pink ivorywood. Bill (aka William Hunter…who practically
introduced the wood to the turning world) says that after sanding to
600, use Carnuba wax FIRST before anyother compounds. This is to
fill the pores of the wood. Otherwise, whatever color compound you
use will be in every pore.
Bill uses a brown polishing compound to white diamond to carnuba
wax.
Pink Ivorywood is photosensitive. With the exception of protecting
it from a lot of light exposure, it WILL change color. Best not to
hide that fact or you may have some very unhappy clients. Some
pretty exotic fixes were tried without success. some pieces are
more/less sensitive than others.
Connecting bezels to wood I’ve been hoping someone would mention
this, but I guess I’ll throw this out: some woods can be hazardous to
work. We should all be aware of the risks inherent in the process of
creating and breathing dust of any sort–but some of these woods can
kill you, if handled incorrectly.
We should all be aware of the risks inherent in the process of
creating and breathing dust of any sort--but some of these woods
can kill you, if handled incorrectly.
Good call David,
Saw dust should be protected against regardless of its level of
toxicity.