Setting diamonds into a Stainless Steel Watch Case: Hello everyone,
For the past few days I’ve been trying to pave set stones into
stainless steel. I ordered some Stainless steel practice plates from
GRS and was able to bead-set a few stones. But then when I try it on
the watch cases it seems a bit more hard, i’m guessing it’s because
the watches might be a different grade stainless steel (probably
316L) compared to the plates. I use carbide drill bits to make the
holes followed by a round carbide bur to form the seats. My only
problem is making the border and raising the beads. Anyone have
experience with Stainless steel perhaps? If so i’d greatly appreciate
your help.
here is a tip
reduce the size of your chip curls. precious metals are quite soft
and you can get a healthy curl over a stone to use the beading tool
on. with stainless you need to make sure your graver is very sharp
and place your graver on the metal much closer than you would
normally on precious metals. cut the curl at a shallower angle and
use a smaller beading tool than you would normally use.
stainless is harder and less malleable so you wont need as large a
bead to secure the stones. if you make it to large you run the risk
of breaking it off when you turn the bead.
when cutting the border don’t try to cut deep you will also need to
cut closer to the stones. this all means that you need to be very
accurate when drilling and forming your seat but you will be able to
set a larger stone in a smaller area.
hope this helps
les
But then when I try it on the watch cases it seems a bit more hard,
i'm guessing it's because the watches might be a different grade
stainless steel (probably 316L) compared to the plates.
Typically most stainless watch cases are made from forged blanks,
this makes the material much harder than a typical annealed practice
plate. As stated before, you dont need a large bead to hold stones in
stainless, they can be really small due to the strength of the
material.
P@