There is overhead and there is a highway robbery. If you have a
scale weigh something and calculate price per gram. Just do
yourself a favor. Sit down before you look at final result.
Exactly, I haven’t been in the industry long enough to know what is
a good price.
For example yesterday I bought $75 AUD worth of silver, one piece of
sheet 60mm x 100mm x 1mm, and a piece of 4.5mm square stock gauge.
Whether that’s a good price… I simply don’t know.
to address your other points: You have to decide what do you want
to do.
It’s early days yet, so I don’t want to limit myself, by locking
myself into one technique… I’ll keep the blinkers off for a while
I do like Mokume Gane, and am gearing for that, I also like
sculptural pieces and making things with my hands, the Mold-a-wax is
closest to clay that I can get, and working with a clay-like
substance is a great way to get some organic shapes. I do like making
bands by rolling, and soldering (this is the most convenient way to
do this imo)
If you want to learn to work with precious metals, you start with
small pieces made out of wire or strips.
The nature of what I want to do, uses base alloys and base metals
along with precious metals. And now with the new Australian standards
I can hallmark the pieces, and let the client know what’s exactly in
the piece.
If you care about production efficiencies, you have to have bank
account to support it. It is either one or the other.
With respect, this is where you can get clever. A few years ago, I
was looking at home metal casting, and looking at the daunting
prospect of buying or making a furnace from scratch. All of the
literature came from America, and the suppliers were also American
based. I decided to go electric, after failure and the realisation
that electric radiant coil melting is very slow, went to gas.
I can make you a furnace that will get to the melt point of platinum
(not the flow point, it’s not useful for platinum), therefore any
metal or alloy with a lower melt point can be melted. The cost of the
furnace body is about $30-$50 AUD(depending on how good a scrounger
you are), and will melt 2kg of metal in 10 - 15 minutes.
Being clever can save you money. The full setup of the above furnace
would set you back about $200 AUD, however a commercial unit that
can do the same will cost you over $1000 AUD.
If all you want to do is to pass your test, than you have to
concentrate on that and forget everything else.
Of course I don’t “just” want to pass my tests, but it’s very
important that I do.
Have you ever done mountain climbing? If the answer is no, you
should give it a try. You will quickly learn the hazards of "not
limiting oneself" strategy, and benefits of baby steps in pursuing
a goal.
Having a fear of heights, it’s highly unlikely that I would ever put
myself in the position of mountain climbing. Also there aren’t what
you call mountains in Australia.
I see your mountain climbing and raise you martial arts. Having done
some weapons based martial arts and came to the realisation that
flexibility can mean the difference between life an death. Being
flexible and able to adapt is quite important.
I’m not going to “box” myself at this early stage, it’s better at
this time in my career to be flexible, and take a few risks.
I have some alloy formulations that I want to work on and patent,
should I not extend myself and use the new alloys that I make?
If I come up with something revolutionary, should I sit on it and
never let it see the light of day because I’m new to the industry?
I just don’t understand why I shouldn’t try to extend myself, and
let’s face it I’m not a spring chicken.
Regards Charles A.