Greetings one and all. I haven’t posted in a long while due to some
restraints that I won’t bore you with, but I still love reading what
you all have to say.
I love this particular thread because I’m fundamentally a cheap sort
of person that has little extra cash to spend but also because I
have a deep-seated dislike of waste that can be put to other uses.
As for those ball bearings…I got this one from an article by
Charles Lewton-Brain. You can grind a flat spot on the side of these
and braze them to a steel rod welded into a “Tee”. Different sizes
on each side of the “Tee”. They make very good, small ball-peen
hammers. I also have been known to put them into my rotating
rock-tumbler-turned-metal-tumbler to work harden small pieces of
copper, brass, and even stirling. Seems to work pretty well so far.
I have also brazed them to short lengths of steel rod to use as
punches in some of my repousse’ work. Last but not least, when added
to a wrist rocket slingshot they are quite good for convincing
neighborhood wandering pests–oops, pets-- not to use my yard as the
local porta-potty. Just a thought…
Please keep this thread alive and cooking folks, these are tips that
could save lots of low income types quite a bit of hard earned cash
and still help them become proficient jewelers. Thanks folks!
Mike