Hey there I’m looking into trying to cast more of my work, and my understanding is that you can’t get thinner than 24 gauge with casting. I use 30 gauge for my bezels because 28 gauge doesn’t work for the soft stones I work with like Opal and Moonstone. I’m wondering if I could get away with the cast bezel of 24 gauge because I’m thinking the meta is softer when it’s cast versus sheet? Would I be wrong to say that?
Why not solder whatever bezel works for you onto a cast ring?
Please excuse any typos-- curse my clumsy digits…
I set soft stones (turquoise, lapis, malachite) on a regular basis with bezels that are as much as 1mm thick. I am not sure why you feel that you need a 30 gauge bezel unless it is an aesthetic decision. I am also not sure about how thin a bezel you can cast, but andy_c makes a good point about soldering whatever bezel you want to a cast ring. You can also cast a thicker bezel and then reduce it down to whatever you want. There is a lot of bezel related information here, you just need to look for it. Good luck…Rob
Another advantage to adding a bezel to a casting is cleanup. It can be easier and yield better results to sand and polish a casting without the interference of a setting. After things are in order and the setting is added additional cleanup is minimal. When I used to cast often that’s how I usually proceeded.
Please excuse any typos-- curse my clumsy digits…
Andy- Spot on advice that so many folks don’t know about. I also fabricate and add prongs later too for the very same reason. One gets a better looking result as well as it is soooo much easier to clean up.
It’s probablu what I’ll do- I was just trying to cut down my production work