Making wax bezels

Jewelry Discussion
1

i have quite a bit of experience at fabricating in metal, but not wax
question for anyone, making a round wax bezel for 4mm stone.

  1. how much larger must bezel be to compensate for shrinkage

  2. what wax do you use and how do you get the outside
    properly, evenly round

thanks in advance bill g.

2

Hi Bill - I’ve created a hand held mini lathe that works great for
small bezels. Shrinkage is about 3% for metal as my experience goes,
unless it’s platinum, then allow for more shrinkage. If you want to
see pics of my tool that I created let me know.

Margie
www.mmwaxmodels.com

3

You put a wax rod (I use hard green wax for everything) in a lathe &
carve it down to the desired width- both inside & out. If You don’t
have a wax rod then file down a piece of wax until You have a rod
shape and then mount it in the lathe…or… You can make Your own rods
by pouring melted wax into lubricated copper tubing and copper pipes
I never buy premade wax shapes of anything I always make my own. Its
much less expensive and I am not limited to what the manufacturers
offer. If You don’t have a lathe then mount Your flexi shaft in a
vise and use that as a mini lathe.

Mary R