I have an agenda, I’ll admit it. As a goldsmith / instructor who’s
been making all my own stock for many years now, I’m pushing the idea
of making your own stock for any number of good reasons. Many
goldsmiths will tell you that making your own stock is too labor
intensive, and takes too long to be worthwhile to do. Yes, some stock
takes much longer to make than others, granted. So I had an idea. I
wanted to see just how fast I could make a straight piece of 22 gauge
fine silver bezel wire. It’s quite soft, doesn’t need to be pickled,
and cheap enough to practice with. I set my mill’s clearances
beforehand, and had a few practice runs, to get the glitches worked
out, but when my friend Chas and I did our third take with the video
camera, I had made the bezel in only 2 minutes, 35 seconds. Honestly,
I don’t think I could have phoned in the order faster than that. I’m
not claiming to be “The World’s Fastest” at making a bezel from
scratch, but I am trying to make the point that at least bezel stock
can be made pretty darned fast if you want to. In fact, I’d enjoy
seeing someone do it even faster.
See the video:
Jay Whaley
P.S. My friend Chas just checked the video on YouTube, which shows it
has been viewed over 323 times already since being posted Dec. 3!
I make quite a lot of bezel strip so I took a look at your video. My
wife saw it too; her comment was… “You can’t see what he’s doing -
the camera is too far away. If you know how to make it, you don’t
need the video, and if you don’t know, this video doesn’t show you
anything.” I must admit that I agree.
I’m new to using a rolling mill. Please describe what you are doing
in the lower portion of the rolling mill. Are you using
progressively smaller square wire?
Also, at what point do you switch to the upper portion of the mill.
Cool vid, in that it’s great to see someone doing what we all talk
about but no one ever actually sees, and fast too! Thanks for taking
the time to do it.
I make quite a lot of bezel strip so I took a look at your video.
My wife saw it too; her comment was.... "You can't see what he's
doing - the camera is too far away. If you know how to make it, you
don't need the video, and if you don't know, this video doesn't
show you anything." I must admit that I agree.
Well, Jay did say he had an agenda. My take was that he wanted to
show that, in this case, fine silver bezel can be turned out by a
goldsmith without investing a great deal of labor or time. Since you
know how and already make bezel strip, you didn’t need the video for
technique. Others who know how but think it too time/labor intensive
might have been jogged to action by the demo.
This being a forum for all levels, there admittedly will be those
like Craig who say that they could benefit from seeing greater detail
in the process. Perhaps his inquiry will inspire another video with
that agenda in mind.
I'm new to using a rolling mill. Please describe what you are
doing in the lower portion of the rolling mill. Are you using
progressively smaller square wire? Also, at what point do you
switch to the upper portion of the mill.
I know, this short video moves pretty fast, and that was deliberate.
On the big Durston double mill, the lower rollers are grooved, which
means that they help create a “squared” wire, if used correctly.
About a month ago, or more, I wrote a very detailed description of
this process on Orchid. By taking my round-shaped ingot and running
it through the right sized groove, and turning it a quarter turn when
I run it back through the mill, I end up with a “perfect” square
wire. On the video, you see me turning the lower adjustment wheel
clockwise to tighten those lower grooved rollers, then running the
wire through the same groove, turning a quarter turn, and then back
out again. The top set of rollers on my mill are flat, so using them
will then flatten the square wire I have made, turning the square
wire into a flat bezel. Oh, and if your square wire isn’t perfectly
square when you start to flatten it, it will NOT come out of the mill
straight.
Yes, the video doesn’t show the details quite enough, but that point
was well considered when I made it. You get to see the concept, and
the finished product being made in a short time frame. So, making a
straight piece of 22 ga. bezel wire is indeed possible, because you
saw it with your own eyes.
If you want the details of the process, my advice would be to take
one of my workshops, where you’ll learn to not only to make bezels,
but lots more, too.
Seriously, though, I really enjoyed the video, and am sure that he
is right that it’s quicker than phoning in an order! Inspirational.
Maybe I should get a better rolling mill.
If you take a length of square or round wire and roll it lengthwise
in the flat rolls it get thinner, longer, and wider. The big problem
is predicting the final dimensions, or, more particularly, knowing
the required final dimensions of the strip, what size wire should you
start with.
I wrote a spreadsheet to do exactly that. You tell it the width and
thickness of the strip you want, and it calculates the thickness of
the square or round wire you should start with. If you want a
particular length of strip it tells you the length of wire you
should start with. Also, if you don’t have the correct sized wire you
tell it what size you have and it calculates how much of it you need
to cut off. You then roll it down to the correct square size, then
roll it in the flat rolls to make the correct size and length of
strip you want. You can download it from http://tinyurl.com/3a83yk
If you want the details of the process, my advice would be to take
one of my workshops, where you'll learn to not only to make
bezels, but lots more, too.
As I mentioned in my post, I know how to make it and have made quite
a lot over the years. My reply to Craig’s query gives a link to, and
describes, a spreadsheet to calculate what size square wire is needed
to create strip of any dimensions used in jewellery. No need for
trial
runs or guess work any more.
Since I am one of the advocates of buying stock, I must comment on
this. I totally agree that there are times when rolling a piece of
stock is faster, probably most of the time when it comes to small
pieces. But you have to look at the time spent vs. your time making
product, a small piece of bezel of course is faster than buying, but
as Jay said he took three runs to get the glitches out and he set
the mills clearances before hand. So the stock did not take him 2
minutes 35 seconds it took him the total time for the three runs. I
just ordered 12 feet of 14 gauge round silver wire, how long would it
take to make that. Also I ordered 4 pieces of 3/4 inch wide x 12"
long x 18 gauge sterling sheet, it came in perfectly flat and no
firescale. Also on that order I had a 1" x 1" 20 gauge 14k yellow
sheet, how many of you can make a 1" x 1" without any waste perfectly
square. As Jay says he had an agenda and the video proved the agenda,
how many of us work that fast and furious to produce 1 piece of
stock. I am in this business to make money and pay bills, I do not
get a salary from a college or from private teaching, I make money by
producing sellable product not rolling metal, if you guys want to
spend your time pulling 12 feet of wire just to say you did fine. But
don’t go complaining about how bad business is, I have had a banner
year, my November beat last December and of course this December
can’t tell yet. How many painters make their own canvas, steel
sculptors smelt their own steel etc etc etc. Having the knowledge to
do something is great but also having the knowledge to know when to
buy is profitable. There are many of the big guys that agree with me
on this one, many replied on orchid, some to my personal email so I
am not alone on this. Bottom line is let’s keep PERSPECTIVE here, if
I want to buy that’s OK if you want to make your own that’s OK.
Someone asked a question about rolling your own ( that statement
takes me back to the early seventies) vs. buying. If a person can’t
have an opinion why even have an open forum.
No, that’s not what I meant. If you’ve ever shot and presented a
video you know that it takes a little more effort than just pressing
the record button. Someone needs to think about actually shooting the
thing. Who’s recording? lighting? reshooting? editing? uploading?
etc. It’s no trivial thing and that’s what I meant by “taking the
time”.
Your Youtube video was great! It served the purpose you had in mind
and for anyone making jewellery, they know the ins and outs of what
you were doing. It certainly proved the point you were trying to
make. Two minutes 35 seconds (?) is much quicker than phoning in your
order or ordering online and then having to wait for your stock to
come through the post.
