You might consider a couple of even simpler solutions. If you make
an “L” shaped piece out of wood, and nail it to your bench, you have
something to push against without handholding your piece.
They had such a bit of wood on the bench where I was teaching. It
was originally from the woodworking class that also used the space
for classes.
It works for pendants, and pins, sometimes for earrings if you have
a slotted bit of something to keep the post out of the way.
Another simple holding device that I use sometimes is a fat cork
like from a reagent bottle. You can poke the earring down in the
cork, and put the cork in the V or L shaped wedge. The cork also
works a treat for setting stones in a bead - hollow out a space that
keeps the bead in one place.
I have a couple of engraving balls, but for hand rubbed bezels, the
little wedge is the quick answer. The engraving ball with jett-set is
what I use for heavy bezels that require hammer setting.
For the sake of full info Glendo (GRS) has a product called
'thermo- loc and a website to explain its uses. I've seen a demo
but have not personally used it. I'm a big fan of Glendo; they make
well crafted things. And if it's important to you they are really
nice people almost family.
This is what I recommended when the question was first asked. It is
fantastic stuff. I bought a great big bag of Thermo-loc sticks about
eighteen months ago and it will last me for years to come because
I’m still using the same lump I’ve had for months. I rarely need to
take out new sticks. I use a cheap bench vice which swivels 360
degrees and no matter how oddly-shaped the piece of jewellery is, the
Thermo- loc will support it beautifully.
Imagine a mushroom shape, where the jewellery is pressed into the
top, round part of the mushroom. The stalk is what I mount in my
vice - although it’s more of a flange that goes the whole length,
from front to back of the upper mushroom shape rather than just a
cylinder shape of a mushroom stalk. It’s difficult to describe
without diagrams. No tool marks from the vice and of course the
thermo-plastic doesn’t leave any marks.
Thermo plastic, mine came from Otto Frei (Frei and Borel) many years
ago called Plastiform. I warm a small bowl of water in the microwave
then dump in the little plastic pellets from the jar and/or bits of
already used Plastiform. It is opaque white going in but turns clear.
I wait until it is cool enough to handle, then I grab the glob and
wrap it around my bench pin then push the setting with which I am
working into the plastic.
I made a tiara, well crown actually, 7 years ago. It had four points
and was sterling set with CZ’s. I could place the section or point
into the hardened plastic and set the stones for that section, then
lift it out then set another section. I still have the piece of
plastic, it slides on and off of the bench pin. This works well if
you do a production run of something and can take it out of the
plastic easily.
All of the supply houses carry, just call them and ask.
Hmm, I have a Standard GRS ball under my Meiji scope. What do you
like about the mini ball?
I guess if you’re like me, you sort of get to like whatever you’re
used to. But the the big ball is just so big and heavy that I needed
to use a support pole under the shelf that GRS sells for the ball.
The big one is super stable and is time tested but I find it sort of
cumbersome. If like me, you’re usually working on a number of jobs
at once and need to switch from a benchmate to an engraving ball to
a bench pin and so forth then the smaller one is just seems more
manageable.
The mini ball sits on the same shelf that the big one does but it
fits right in your hand. It rotates smoothly on the plastic ring
that it rests on and has enough mass that your work feels secure. It
uses the same pins, etc, that you use in the big one. What I like is
that it’s so easy to slide it into the field of view of the
microscope that you stay in focus with little trouble and you can
move the whole thing out of the way with little or no effort. We
started using them when one of the guys in the shop went down to
tour Stuller, he said that all of the setters were using the mini
ball, so we gave it a try and really liked it.
Incidentally, the thermo-plastic works great with the Standard or
mini ball…
I glued a rubber bench pin onto my shellac pad for my benchmate and
put it in the ringclamp. It hold pendants and earrings with very
little effort required. It is also great for use as a bench pin.