Setting advice

Jewelry Discussion
1

Here we go… this is tried and proven …i used this on a 7000
pcs run a few years ago.

  1. take your gold/silver round bezel earring or choker dangle and
    spray with a silicone based release agent. This is important.

  2. Take a piece of pipe(copper, steel, whatever) that has approx
    3/4" I.D. cut off about 1/2 "…sand edges smooth.

  3. Buy epoxy Plumbers putty from any hardware store… comes in a
    tube… premixed and ready to use. Cut off about 1/2" and follow
    kneading directions until all one color(the epoxy is 2 colors of
    putty).

  4. put uncured kneaded epoxy into 1/2" pipe and almost fill
    pipe.

  5. now take the jewelry item you wish to set and press into the
    putty until only a portion of the bezel sits above the putty.

  6. Allow to become almost hard (during this time, dig out the
    center area of putty to make room for the stone to go into the
    bezel.allow clearance). This putty begins to harden within 10
    minutes and becomes hard as a rock in 20 minutes so don’t
    dillidaly around !!!

  7. before the putty hardens, remove the jewelry item carefully
    so that the epoxy supporting walls are not too stretched out of
    shape from removing.

  8. allow epoxy mold to harden fully according to instructions. (
    if you allow it to harden for a few hours, this mold may last a
    life time.

  9. Buy or make what is commonly refered to as a bezel punch set
    from a jewelry supply house. pick the correct punch for the bezel
    you wish to set.Guesswein and Contenti supply (
    http://www.contenti.com ) both carry them… so do other
    suppliers.

  10. put the jewelry item into the hardened epoxy mold, insert the
    round diamond or whatever stone you wish ,use the correct bezel
    punch and Hammer the bezel down in 2 or 3 hammer hits. Presto,
    your are done. you can thin down the edge of the bezel if you
    need to. Also, you may have to drill some of the epoxy out for
    the stone if you did not do that correctly. I have set every type
    of stone in this manner including Swarovski crystals (easily
    broken if not careful). It is important that the model used to
    make the casting is of the correct size. If need be, I am a model
    maker ,moldmaker caster and machinist/engineer so if you need a
    model and mold(even castings) contact me.

My website is being transfered to a different server this
weekend, so it may be down for a few days. Dan
http://www.racecarjewelry.com