How “ tall” are your stones? Trying to saw “slices” off a short tube would be a challenge.
I’d suggest making bezels even if they are 5-7mm high.
If you bought thick wall SS tubing slightly smaller in diameter than you need you might be able to carefully “stretch” a piece to a larger diameter by hammering it supported on a piece of drill rod held in a vice. Picture hammering on the outer surface of a ring while it is on your finger.
In my experience making tubing is tricky at best, making large diameter tubing then sawing a section doubly so.
Hope I understood your post. Good luck
Hi David,
I have looked at a lot of Youtube videos on this topic and
no one I saw had any trouble sawing thin slices (5mm
and up) off of tubes in 20 to 30 gauge silver. They all
did use either a tubing cutting jig with a v block or a
tube cutting pliers or a miter block to hold the tubing.
My main focus right now is round bezels for 3-6mm
stones. I’ve looked at shaping 20 gauge sheet around
a mandrel or using a draw plate to make short (25mm)
lengths of tubing and I’ve also seen a video of using
30 gauge silver bezel sheet and putting a shoulder
made of another piece of 30 gauge inside it. Some
solder this shoulder in and others don’t. I like the idea
of using the 30 gauge, since it is easy to form with pliers,
but I want to be able to create a 45 degree bearing for
the pavilion of the faceted stone and IDK exactly how you
can make that work if you use two sheets of 30 gauge.
Right now I’ll just try various approaches and see what
works best. If I decide to make more than a few rings and
pendants with these stones in them, then I might have to
figure out which way is easiest.
I have a lot of silver sheet and ingot sitting around, so I
want to use that rather than buy heavy wall tubing.
Thanks for your comments!
royjohn…Use a setting bur to cut the 45. I buy a particular size tube to set my 6mm CZs in. I cut the tube with a V groove guide for my saw. I still need to do some leveling. The tube ID and OD allow me to cut about half of the wall and create the 45 degree angle seat. Then I use my setting tools to set the stones. There is a lot on line covering this…Rob
Yes, I’'m aware of cutting the seats and have a complete set of setting burs. I was thinking of creating the round setting in 30 gauge with what’s called a “bail making pliers” which has various small size stepped mandrels for jaws, then adding another 30 gauge piece of bezel strip for tne shoulder inside the first piece…just wasn’t sure how well the setting bur would cut the 45 inside the first strip if the outside ring wasn’t exactly the size of the setting bur. Guess I would just have to try it. IDK if I have a tubing cutter or can improvise one but I can certainly easily buy one…