Hardness, gauge and Malleability of cast gold vs sheet for bezels

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

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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…

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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