Spinner ring uneven flaring

[bruggen]

What am I doing wrong? I have just bought a durston flaring tool for making spinner rings, my method is as follows, make the ring using10mm wide metal about 0.8mm thick to a size P, I polish it to a bright polish then pattern it until it stretches out to a Q which will be the size of the finished ring, I then made three larger bands that fit loosely over the main ring, place on the flaring tool tighten it and the ring doesnt flare evenly, it seems to start and then moves as it flares meaning it flares a lot on one side and not much on the other, I have used dapping or doming punches before and not had the same problem, is it salvageable or is it start again?

[Dennis]

Hello Bruggen, and welcome back after all this time. Here are some videos showing how to use this tool, but demonstrators can ditch their failures, and you would never find out.
https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-d&q=durston+flaring+tool

I have never tried it, but like you, have done plenty of flaring by other means. What it needs is perfectly even insertion of the cones into the ring,
and if you see it going astray, loosening, and rotating the ring several times during the process.

It might also be possible to correct slight wonkiness by filing the edges. If you really want to get the hang of it, perhaps cut up some copper tubing into rings and keep practising. Kind regards, Dennis.

[bruggen]

Thanks Dennis both for the answer and the kind welcome back, I had assumed that the initial ring was not parallel so it makes sense that any pressure would push it over, it will need some practice, I watched the 'At The Bench' video and I think Andrew Berry had the same issue but with some clever obstruction covered it mostly, practically I thought of using some sort of insert to keep the ring central and then it should still work, of course it would mean a range of different sized 'polo-like' inserts for each ring size. I did manage to bring it back with some old fashioned fettling

[Ruedeleglise]

Well so far, touch wood and being a bit mean I have succeeded with the old doming punch technique. I wait for the dreaded split which seems to occur quite often. I am very cautious and start hammering lightly and equally in number of blows on either side…..perhaps pride comes before a fall!.
David.


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[bruggen]

Well so far, touch wood and being a bit mean I have succeeded with the old doming punch technique. I wait for the dreaded split which seems to occur quite often. I am very cautious and start hammering lightly and equally in number of blows on either side…..perhaps pride comes before a fall!.
David.


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Maybe there lies my fault, I’m hammering hard and maybe not turning enough, I didn’t want to workharden the metal, the main problem was with the durston tool, the metal was not staying central, I’ve seen a video of the Fretz tool and that looks the business, I’m trying to make the process both quicker and most of all consistent. I think Dennis has the right advice too, practice on copper tube and hone the skill, I only make one every now and again but last week had to make three identical versions but different sizes and one went off to one side.

[CJ57]

Durston produce a lot of tools on a regular basis and I’m not sure they are always worth the vast amounts of money

[Ruedeleglise]

Durston produce a lot of tools on a regular basis and I’m not sure they are always worth the vast amounts of money

Ditto!


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[bruggen]

The quality and hardness of the steel is there but the tools themselves are, I think, greatly overpriced for what they are, maybe I have been suckered too many times now but still trust the steel quality, not so much the design, the bangle former was another such purchase. I did buy a much cheaper set of doming punches and they marked very easily, I have to be very careful with them.

[CJ57]

They should know their steel as their original product of rolling mills can’t really be faulted. They produce new tools that already have well established makers for quality and reliability such as the Swanstrom disc cutter. I haven’t honestly bought anything that hasn’t had a bit missing or not as advertised in the video and I just won’t buy from them anymore as it’s too long winded and stressful to sort.
I get the point about doming punches as some of them are a bit to pointed and I still favour my trusty stump of a dolly peg that finished off really nicely! For the purposes of splaying a ring though they shouldn’t mark if the surface is well polished