Fellow newbies struggling with basic skills

Jewelry Discussion
21 
the task of balling up the end of wire rather than melting piles of
metal, which is obviously more informative.

I dunno about that. Deliberately melting say 7 dwts of gold will
only tell you what it takes to totally destroy a piece. How often can
that happen? Its the partial deformation of little details that gives
the most angst. You’re looking to develop finesse, sophistication.
Melting big blobs is like trying to learn chasing with a sledge
hammer.

Take a fine wire, ball the end, then make the ball creep slowly up
the wire, in steps. Do it dry, do it fluxed. Try to make a perfect
sphere. Fuse two balls to make an 8 shape. You want to get
comfortable working within tiny heat differential tolerances. You
want to learn what being 20 degrees below melting point feels like
and how a blink of an eye can put you way over the top. Learn that
the torch is like a scalpel not a meat cleaver.

Once you master the torch you can move on to the emerald setting
hammer. :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

22

Ann,

You might be interested in a local school that offers use of a
studio during certain hours each week for makers that do not own all
the equipment found in schools.

You can google for a weekend " jewelry intensive." This allows use of
the studio with an instructor. Brookline Center for the Arts had a
three day intensive recently. They offered three hours of studio
time with an instructor for three days at a total cost of $90 per
person. This is a very good rate for studio use.

Hope this helps.
Mary A

23 
So, I have been working a lot with cold connections and what I can
accomplish with my little butane torch which I admit is pretty
limited.

Ann, you will be limited as a jeweler unless you learn to deal with
a torch, IMHO. Perhaps you could get a mentor to come to your place
and help you set up a safe system. Or maybe a guy from your local
welders’ supply. I am SURE that you will not be careless, like your
tenant was!

M’lou

24 
the task of balling up the end of wire rather than melting piles of
metal, which is obviously more informative. You want to get
comfortable working within tiny heat differential tolerances. You
want to learn what being 20 degrees below melting point feels like
and how a blink of an eye can put you way over the top.

Of course you’re right Peter. I think perhaps a combination of both
approaches would work. I just meant that watching my little
“bonfires” of scrap silver melt taught me a lot about the different
stages the metal goes through. I had previously balled up wire and
it didn’t teach me anywhere near as much - but that’s just me
personally. Someone else may learn far more from watching the wire
ball up.

Either way, I can heat things to within an inch of its life and not
worry about melting things - because of my early melting exercises.
But this is not to cause any arguments - it’s just my personal
experience.

Helen
UK

25

When I was a young man (boy?) just kicked out of high school I found
a job with a place that recycled 55 gallon steel drums. I was
assigned a job in a small shed outside operating a machine that
rolled a bead on the edge of drums from which the top had been
removed with a machine that operated like a giant can opener. Our
shed had one long side open to the elements. Ahead of the shed was an
open area and behind and to the right rear corner was a large oven in
which the drums were burned to prior to blasting them. Out of this
oven a small conveyer dragged burned material into a dumpster next
to our shed.

Everything comes in 55 gallon drums. apple juice concentrate,
printer’s ink, pure ethyl alcohol (everyone loved those drums!),
contact cement. since the drums ALWAYS had some left in the bottom
we’d often just dump it in front of the shed. One day in March my
supervisor got on me about this and told me to start dumping it into
the dumpster. I started doing this. One day we had a bunch of Borden
contact cement drums and I was emptying them into a 5 gal bucket,
then dumping that into the dumpster. The company was also burning in
the oven this day. I must have had over 50 gallons of contact cement
in the dumpster. As I was emptying the 5 gallon bucket once again I
heard the man putting the drums through the dumpster yelling. I
looked over, and he started spraying the hose at me, or so I though.
then I saw a small bit of material with a small flame fall from the
conveyor into the dumpster.

You should have seen it! That dumpster had lots of fumes from the
contact cement and it flashed into flame before you could think OMG!
The 5 gallon bucket kept the flame from my face, but from the neck
down I was covered in burning cement. I dropped the bucket and
started to run. In just a few steps the thought flashed into my mind
"wrap them in a blanket" and I mentally took inventory of our shed.
No, there wasn’t any. then, there in front of the shed was all that
crap we’d dumped in the weeks before, all covered in snow. I dove
into it face first. Chocolate, ink, grease, snow, rain, mud. I didn’t
care. I looked up and one arm was still burning and I rubbed it into
the slushy gunk.

My best friend came running and his first words were “Hey Mike, did
you get your smokes wet?” I couldn’t help laughing. In a few minutes
it hurt worse than anything I’ve experienced.

The result was that I had about 10 square inches of 3rd degree burns
on one arm, and 2nd degree burns from the elbow to the wrist on both
arms. Now you can hardly see the scars. I was very fortunate.

Please pardon my long rambling story. there is a point, and that is.
There could be a very valid reason someone is afraid of fire. I’m
not now, but I was for a little while.

Mike DeBurgh, GJG
Henderson, NV

Ps. We all have fears.

26 
Of course you're right Peter. I think perhaps a combination of
both approaches would work. I just meant that watching my little
"bonfires" of scrap silver melt taught me a lot about the
different stages the metal goes through. I had previously balled up
wire and it didn't teach me anywhere near as much - but that's just
me personally. Someone else may learn far more from watching the
wire ball up.

Helen is right (again)

I learned the hell fire techniques first with only a slight mention
of of balling wires. To this day I still avoid balling wires. But the
larger exercises have served me well. And I don’t melt many pieces
anymore unless in a fit of rage :slight_smile:

Both should be taught on pretty close to the same day. Big torches
and little ones are both parts of any job.

jeffD
Demand Designs
Analog/Digital Modelling & Goldsmithing
http://www.gmavt.net/~jdemand

27

Hello M’lou, Thanks for your comments and agree there are notable
limitations without a real torch, but for the time being, I am going
to try and use this to my advantage. I believe that limitations can
lead to some real creativity. I know that there are many things I
cannot do without one, but there are many things I can do and will
endevor to learn to do them really well as suggested in a reply off
post. Perhaps I will reach a point where I will overcome this concer,
but in the meantime I still have lots to learn and learn well. It was
also suggested that I consider a water torch which I have seen
mentioned here several times and intend to research that option.
Again, this would not be in the near future as I have been out of
work for a while and finacially that is just not an expense I can
affort at the moment, not if I want to have any metal to work on LOL.
Thanks to the understand of others for this fear of fire in my home.
That is my real concern. Unless you have gone through something
similar it may be hard to understand. And Mike, so glad you recovered
well from your burns. I have never experienced pain that rivals a
severe burn, and I have never had one bigger than a quarter…

Ann

28 
When I taking a class, I have no problem working with the torch,
but the idea off bringing one into my house has me completely
turned off, even if the tank were located outside a window....
just like the grill.... doesn't ease my concerns.

Ann, I feel your pain. No, I mean I FEEL your pain - I had the same
tank of acetylene gas in my tank for 8 YEARS, struggling with “torch
phobia”. (It didn’t help when a new tip I installed vented flames out
the handle - no literature - didn’t know to dial down the regulator
with a smaller tip.) I don’t consider myself afraid of fire - I was
a firefighter for those 8 years, dealing with flame, going inside
burning houses and into burning forests all over the country - never
a bit of fear, even when I should have!

Finally, one day, obsessing about my torch phobia, I flashed (no pun
intended) to a 4 am call, ducked down behind an engine, hosing down
an overturned propane truck in full SCBA (breathing gear), waiting to
be blown up for HOURS - the only thing to do was to keep the propane
cool and hope it didn’t flash, with the full understanding that my
partner and myself, as rookies, had been sent in because we were the
most disposable. (Adrenalin can be a harsh taskmaster.)

I realize that it’s not the fire that scares me, it’s the GAS - so I
double-chained my torch and had $90 worth of completely unnecesary
flashback arrestors installed, and it seemed to work - no more
phobia. I calmy trotinto my studio, fire up the torch, do my thang,
drain the hoses and carry on - it feels so GOOD to be limited by my
imagination rather than by fear.

I can completely understand why you might never want to look at
fire, but I also know that confronting your fears can feel really
good and that, at least for me, choosing to cold work metal is
different from having to do it because you’re afraid of your
torch. House fires due to gas explosions are much more rare than
house fires due to clogged chimneys and the improper disposal of
“cold” ashes - unfortunately, you were impacted by the one with
lesser odds - I bet you still enjoy a good fire in the fireplace.

I guess what I’m saying is, hurray that you’re working metal, it’s
awesome that you’re here, and we all have fears…but if you’re
interested in overcoming this particular one about torches, consider
something not strictly practical, but whatever would address the
fear. (Like the add-on flashback arrestors which I was told are
completely unneccesary, and checking your connections with soapy
water each time you turn on the tank which, say what you will, not
everybody does every time, or double-chaining your tanks, or
replacing your hoses every 3 years and having the local gas shop do
all the connections for you, or building a shed for the torchwork -
whatever it takes.)

And if you decide you’re fine where you are, doing what you do,
that’s fine too - you can always change your mind later, or not.
That’s the awesome thing about what we do - there’s room for
everyone to do it differently, and that makes the sharing more
interesting.

Blessings,
Susan “Sam” Kaffine

29

Some thoughts about torches:

Everyone has a healthy respect for fire, including myself. It’s
hard-wired into our genes to avoid burning ourselves up. Guys may be
a bit less spooked by fire, as quite a few of us as boys burned up
our plastic “Army men” with a home-made flamethrower made from mom’s
hairspray can and a book of matches. Lighting bonfires in our
underground “forts” was popular with me and my elementary school
buddies. Fireworks, and the ensuing explosion and fire was every
boy’s passion, at least it was mine.

Now into adulthood, with no major burn scars or missing fingers, I
am still using flames (torches) as a big part of my livelihood. I
even teach others to work creatively with fire. Fire is quite a
valuable tool, and indispensible when metalsmithing. Part of my job
as an instructor is getting my students comfortable with fire.

I hate hearing about people wanting to make jewelry that are
effectively “handicapped” by their fear of fire. These are the people
who will only wire wrap or string beads, and resist any technique
that has to do with a torch. Once you can break free of this overblown
fear, and learn to be friends with the torch, a new world of
possibilities opens up, and the torch then becomes a real tool of
empowerment. Yes, I said it, EMPOWERMENT.

The fear of your house exploding by having compressed gasses indoors
is exaggerated. Sure, it could happen, but do you know of anyone
who’s had that experience? From what you hear in the news, it seems
like airplanes are crashing everywhere, and you’d be a fool to fly in
one. Planes are actually the safest way to travel, but the safe
flights don’t make the news…

If compressed gasses were as dangerous as some people imagine,
welding supply companies would be constantly involved in lawsuits,
and be put out of business, as litigious as our society is.

I have had compressed gas torches with acetylene, oxygen, and
propane cylinders in small apartments I’ve rented over the years,
since the early 70’s, and had friends who did the same. No problems,
ever. Sure, insurance companies will insist that you can’t have
compressed gas cylinders indoors, and I guess if you want their
coverage, they make the rules. My sister’s dog bit the UPS man a few
years ago, and her insurance company told her to kill the dog if she
wanted their continuing coverage…

So buy that torch, but don’t buy an anemic one. That cute little one
with the teensy little tips seems safe enough, right?

If you only plan to work in micro-miniature scale, that will do for
that purpose, but nothing much bigger.

If you want the best value for your money, (I almost typed “bang for
your buck”) buy a dual gas torch (propane/ oxygen or natural
gas/oxygen)and buy the biggest tanks you can easily move yourself
(less frequent refills). Tanks, regulators, hoses, and flashback
arrestors, assorted hose fittings, etc. are readily available at a
good welding supply store.

Buy a well-made dual-gas torch with large as well as small tips. You
should be able to melt an ounce or two of metal with the largest tip,
as an example. A Swiss Torch, Meco Midget, Hoke (check the valves),
are good options, as they are very versatile. There are great
suggestions for good torches here on Orchid. The guys at the welding
supply store are experts on compressed gas safety ( but not so much
jeweler’s torches).

Spend some time practicing with your torch. Get familiar with how it
works, and what size flames work for which jobs. Melt metal and pour
ingots with the big tip. Solder some small wire or broken chains
with the tiny tips. The more time you spend soldering, the better
you’ll get at it, and the more comfortable you’ll feel. Soon, the
fear will be gone, and you will have opened the door to a world of
metalsmithing possibilities.

Jay Whaley
Whaley Studios