im looking for a lathe for cutting groves for inlays on bi-colour
wedding bands. we used to use a machine from the 1970’s that used
diamond or tungsten bits. it had a swivel handle also used for
cutting the curve on court rings and skimming the surface for flat
bands. has anyone got a website link or thoughts who to contact?can
cheaper metalworking lathes be adapted for this use?
thanks, jon
Have you considered doing the groove cutting on the wedding rings in
wax? It is quite easy to set up wax to do lathe work, using a regular
flex shaft, and some simple tools. Kate Wolf showed us this method,
and it is very quick, and easy to control, without investing (not
meant as a pun, sorry) a large amount of money. You can even create
you own simple shapers if you wish to repeat the same shape often.
doing the groove cutting on the wedding rings in wax?
It was Jim Binnion who clued me in about the latest, dedicated
wedding band lathes. I can’t speak for him, but I’d say if you
dropped him a line he’d likely be helpful, as always.
We get auction flyers from someone - sorry, but I forget the name
because we don’t pay much attention to them… That liquidates
jewelry machinery. Different people but the same business is:
They also have a presence on Ebay, which I can’t put here on Orchid -
search for Gold International Machinery as a seller. As with all
liquidators, they only have what they have at the moment, but they
have lots of industrial strength equipment, all the time, too.
I see right now they have a Gudel Type 30, 6-Position Semi-Automatic
Ring/ Band Brocading/Copy Engraving Machine - aside from 16 general
purpose lathes - don’t know if that helps…
There’s 379 lathes
listed on general EBay, too… a 35" 9 axis monster for $379k?