This is the first piece of Jewlery I have ever made.
11 months ago it was my wife’s 30th B-Day, I needed to do something special. I’d found a nice sized Garnet in Hart’s Range, Central Australia not too long ago and had a nice stockpile of Gold I’d gathered prospecting over the years. The stone went to a professional cutter, the rest is upto me and YouTube.
I designed the ring on Fusion 360, carved it out of wax using a Dremel, seal pick and scalpel, then made a mould of it using food grade liquid silicon. To make copy’s I used a large syringe in a metal cup with injection wax and filled the mould by hand.
I built a furnace using a 20L oil drum lined with Ceramic Wool, the heat source was an Oxy/Acetylene heating torch sticking in the side temp controlled manually with a laser thermometer. In this I refined the raw Gold with a crushed beer bottle and borax, then Alloyed it with Fine Silver and Copper.
Next the vacuum casting machine. A plate of steel, some air line fittings, PCV pipe, Silicone, Perspex, and a Automotive Aircon Vacuum pump borrowed from work.
Heat mats for the casting was made with high temp gasket goo squished between two bits of Perspex and glad wrap.
I casted using my backyard equipment, polished, set with a hammer and block of wood and this is the result.
Your loved one is a very lucky lady it has got to be the most beautiful ring I’ve ever seen in my life you can see all the work that went into creating it here’s to many more rings in years in a relationship congratulations
Aaron
A 6mm plate with a PCV pipe section glued to the top, two airline fittings welded underneath.
Inside the chamber to protect the pump from spill over I glued a gas bottle thread protector with holes cut in the side.
The red rubber seals for the casting table are made by taking two Perspex sections, covering in glad wrap, placing 4 Aussie 5cent coins around as a spacer, and putting a ring of high temp silicone down and sandwiching it.
In addition, an inline filter between the air fittings and vac pump is essential as alot of investment dust travels down the line.
In order to get an accurate wax carving I made the master in 2 2D pieces then welded together with a hot pick. To make them I used micro straight burs in a Dremel mounted in This device.
Such a lovely piece. I do like the generous size of the shank. The ring must feel weighty and rich when worn.
Judy in Kansas, where temps have been sooooo hot and humid. Sigh.
Cheers Judy, yes the ring has a noticeable amount of weight to it. Recently she had the bottom filed a bit thinner and it was a bit too big when she closed her fist.
It’s hot and humid here too.
This is the oven I used, the oxy torch gets hammers in the protrusion from the tap hole in the drum. The flame is angled slightly up and hits the steel block in the middle for dispersion, the block also keeps the inside hot when taking the lid off for a temp check. The ceramic wool is just a press fit around the side and wired to the lid. To keep the atmosphere oxegen deprived I just lower the O2 levels until a small flame is coming out the air hole in the lid, this does however cause a startling “pop” when opening the lid. I have had this oven hold temps over 1500°C.
