I learned long ago that to clean a stone that you have removed from
a mounting pour alittle salt into the palm of your hand and rub the
salt with the stone between your fingers and the crud will come off
and you won’t have to steam or clean in hot solution. The best thing
is any stone that has a hardness above salt will not scratch so stay
away from amber or Ivory because salt is 2.5 hardness. Ron Kreml
Made a great little anvil out of an old cast iron clothes iron like
they heated on the stove years ago. Cost $2 at a flea market.
Smoothed up the surface and it sits on my desk ready when I need it
Since he hasn’t added onto this “spit” subject, I’ll chime in on his
behalf. Blaine Lewis (New Approach School in Va. Beach) teaches to
use a hard candy, like Jolly Rancher, in this way. He even includes
one in the kit that comes with the video set! Its great for laying
out stones, table down, for flush setting. You get the candy all wet
and sticky, then smear some of the sweetened saliva on the metal and
place the stones. You can easily slide them around to evaluate
placement. The sugar provides some additional adhesion which is
easily removed in clean up.
He also uses a needle burnisher, easily made from a the shank of an
old burr, to flush set the stones after the seats are cut.
Attend one of his classes or get the videos!
(www.newapproachschool.com) You won’t regret it! No vested interest,
just a very satisfied student. I went to the class, and was so
impressed I still bought the videos afterward! Alan Revere’s videos
are also outstanding.
All the best,
Dave
Dave Sebaste
Sebaste Studio and
Carolina Artisans’ Gallery
Charlotte, NC (USA)
dave@sebaste.com
I love using the plastic film canisters for all sorts of things. My
favorite is to drill lots of holes in the side and bottom with a .8
or 1mm drill and two towards the top for use in the pickle. I
thread stainless steel wire through the two top holes to create a
handle to remove it from the pickle pot. Drill holes in the lid and
even if the canister falls over, the item doesn’t come out.
Larry
Recycle the lid on a frozen juice can.
-
Lid makes a nice stable disposable platform for mixing epoxy.
Zero out your gram scale (tare) with the lid on it, add the epoxy
parts by weight. I use an artists flexible pallet knife for mixing.
After applying epoxy, leave the lid next to the epoxied items.
When epoxy is hard on the lid, the pieces are cured. -
The lid is used to hold dabs of flux at my soldering bench. When
it gets too messy, I turn it over and use the other side.
I just wash the lids as I open the can, and stash them in a box.
Voila - lifetime supply. Home canning lids also work, but only on
the top side.
Judy Hoch - in impossibly dry Denver.
I have a tip and a question. Well,the tip is for all those who do
not own an engraver block, you can make a similar engraving device
with a drilling vice from Harbour Freigh it’s been on sale many times
during this year, Right now is only 4.99 I bought mine when it was
2.99 Anyway, Put the drilling vice on top of a rotary disc with a
piece of rubber math in the middle like this: drilling vice piece
of rubber math rotary disc hold your work to be engraved with wax on
a small wood board and then hold it on the drilling vice It works
fantastic! I learned to engrave with it when I first started
engraving some months ago, I also made some gravers out of small
files.
Now the question, Last saturday I saw some 8 inches cast iron
skillets in the swap meet, I wonder if they could be used as a pitch
bowl for repousse’ Marco
For fast changes of abrasive paper, I just use some very small
stationary clips to hold the paper to the stick on each end…
Hi All, I use plastic berry baskets in my pickle pot and they work
great. Louise
I don’t see why the skillets would not work although they are a
little large and will take more pitch. The round bottom of the
classical pitch bowl is round and sets in a ring. This enables the
bowl to be angled to suit the user. I have found the gray pitch from
Seattle Pitchworks to be nicer to work with than the black stuff.
Marilyn Smith
What a great source for ideas. Here are a few things I use for
their not intended use.
-
Altoid boxes for storing drill bits, burrs, spindles etc. I
made labels for each box which allows me to find what I need
immediately, well almost. -
Ice cube trays for segregating and holding parts of projects
before soldering and assembly. -
Plastic food containers for holding parts for larger projects
before assembly. -
I drill holes in plastic containers and use them in my pickle
pot. -
Hot wheel car storage boxes make excellent places for packing
rings, pendants and pins before a show. The boxes are double sided
and have see through covers. There are 24 -1.5x1.5x3 inch pockets on
each side. Cut strips of soft material to line the bottom of the
storage chambers. -
I carved a piece of pine in the shape of a buckle and a bola
tie. I painted the wood with varnish and then applied a coat of
silicone. You can form and fasten sheet wax to the wood form for
build up projects. -
I use Sharpie pens for drawing rough designs on carving wax.
-
I use my foredom to turn all sort of items. ItE28099s a poor
mans la the. I use several ceramic scraping tools for scraping the
wax as I turn it. -
I stagger 1 inch square ceramic rods in the bottom of my burn out
oven. I set my flasks on them so that the sprue end of the mold is
free to expel the wax and breath. -
Dental tools. Where would we be with out dental tools.
-
Spit. My wife thinks I am gross when I use spit on wet sand
paper when sanding carving wax. It works great as a lubricant when
diamond drilling a hole or two in a stone. I am glad to see that my
use of spit places me in such great company.
From the land of 110 degree summers but fantastic winters.
Lee.
I’m sure someone has said this before somewhere, but I prefer
sculpture wax for picking up stones for positioning. It doesn’t get
brittle like bees wax. Rio sells it by the pound. Also when a stone
is stuck in a mounting, I jab the wax on the stone and usually it
pulls right out. The stuff is quite sticky and grips like crazy. I
use it mounted on an old bur and usually keep three or four around
because I’m always misplacing them. I can also take the tip and rub
it on the surface of a mounting to position stones when arranging
either plate set or channel settings. It leaves a sticky enough
surface to help position the stones. This is the same wax I run my
saw blade through for lubrication. I take a small wad and push it
next to my bench pin, right where I need to run my saw blade. I have
also used it as a lube for drilling. Just a touch and it works just
like the bur life stuff. I’m on a roll here. This is also the same
wax I use melted in a tin. When hard it is still stick enough to
position stones for a layout. And of course it makes a great
sculpting wax to form into anything. Hand warming will allow you to
push it or carve it into anything you want.
Best Regards,
Todd Hawkinson,
TR the Teacher
Hi all, The electric toothbrushes are great for cleaning polishing
compound out of jewelry. Unfortunately the most expensive ones work
the best, but even the $5.00 ones work better that a manual
toothbrush. Lee
I purchased some tip trays from a Chinese restaurant supply shop in
Boston for about $.50 each, we use them to sort castings and organize
projects.
I keep my saw blades in a plastic folder that originally held a set
of files.
They can be easily separated by size, and clearly labelled. It
provides wonderful inventory control, and is easy to keep handy,
tucked into a corner on my bench.
Frif
Hi all, I have burned lots of fingers while holding pieces of silver
while polishing them. Ring clamps never worked well for me. I found
I can cement hard rubber pads with contact cement to jaws of vice
grips. The opening of vice grips can be adjusted to clamp on what
ever thickness the project is. The adjustment is fine enough to
prevent crushing the piece to be polished. They have an easy
release trigger that unclamps the piece. Sure does save my fingers.
Lee
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