One False Move

[Dennis]

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Each year our teacher is challenged to find new projects for those of us who enrol for an extra week of summer school.

Once we were given a piece of iron about 4.0 mm thick and 30 mm square. First we marked the centre on both sides by drilling all the way through it with our smallest drill. Then we made radiating slots only part of the way in and inserted vertical strips of metal in various colours. I chose silver, brass and copper, but it could have been three colours of gold. These were soldered in with plenty of silver solder, using Tenacity No. 5 as flux.

Now the hard bit began. The first task was to file, sand and polish the surfaces, ending up with stripes of colour radiating from the centre. Then we scribed the shape of a ring equally on both sides, using the drilled hole to locate the dividers, cut it out and finished the edges. Below is my effort, scanned in from a photocopy, with pink tissue for background, a quick option in the days of film.

One poor soul put the nearly finished ring horizontally into a vice for more filing. There was an ominous cracking sound as it went into pieces. The end of a perfect afternoon. Dennis.

[ps_bond]

That is gorgeous, Dennis - and a fair amount of handwork!

A salutary lesson on clamping hollow objects though - if you have to put pressure on them, a tightly-fitting mandrel can help immensely.

[Dennis]

I was surprised that this one grabbed you Peter, but I imagine it stems from you interest in the effects of mixed metals. The curse of class projects is that in the end no one wanted to wear it and it is languishing at in the bottom of a jewel box somewhere abroad. I don’t know where, or I would have had re-photographed it for this thread.
The tutor at the time was Barbara Christie. You might have met her at West Dean. Dennis.

[ps_bond]

I was surprised that this one grabbed you Peter, but I imagine it stems from you interest in the effects of mixed metals.

Not solely - I have a thing for precise handwork too I do like objects where you can't neccessarily see how it was made - in this case, the idea of wiring everything together and soldering it would be something of a trial!

The tutor at the time was Barbara Christie. You might have met her at West Dean. Dennis.

I've possibly met her, the name rings a bell - not had her as a tutor though.