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View Full Version : All That Gear For Just One Groove.



Dennis
29-07-2013, 07:34 AM
I rather took my ring stretcher at face value until I was taught these tricks on a course, using the powerful planisher which projects from the bottom of the column. It is intended for driving wedding ring shanks into the holes of the reducing plate and is surprisingly successful at that. Unfortunately it is wasted on me as I have never had the need to do it except as an experiment.

However if you lift out the reducing plate (I think of it as a carrousel) and substitute a doming plate, It will serve to close the ends of short pieces of tubing. The tubing is left un-annealed and short saw cuts (about six) are made in the end to be closed. It is then steadied with tweezers and the planisher brought down gently and steadily. For larger tubing the end to be closed can be weakened further by thinning it with a setting burr. The resulting bell shape can then be set with a stone to make a charm, as used for some of my necklaces.

Another use just requires a steel block for flattening small pieces of metal on. If for instance you are making a rectangular box for a box catch, or a setting for a stone, you will need to start with a right angle groove. It is far easier to score the metal sheet , first with a saw blade and then with needle files if the metal is first swaged, either in a swage block, or on a rubber bench block (eg Cookson 999 7151) using a wooden dowel. My example shows it in brass, which is particularly hard to score.

The scored metal is then annealed, flattened and bent into a right angle for soldering. If you have planned it well the angle metal can now be cut up to make the components for boxes (or even a tapered collet, but that’s another story). My last picture shows a lot of gear for making just one groove. Dennis.

Patstone
29-07-2013, 07:54 AM
That seems quite a good idea to be able to put it to different uses, but a ring stretcher is something I have only seen in your pictures, and cant really make out where the ring goes to stretch it. It has got to be a better idea than hammering it into submission like I have to. I think hubby will have apoplexy if I buy any more tools.

Goldsmith
29-07-2013, 07:55 AM
Useful use of the tool Dennis, I don't have a ring stretcher but you seem to be using your's for the same purpose as my small Warco bench arbor press, one benefit that my arbor press has is that I can make my own forming tools to fit in the press head.
http://www.warco.co.uk/sheet-metal-fabrication-machinery-metalwork/90-arbor-press.html

James

Patstone
29-07-2013, 07:58 AM
I just looked up the price of a ring stretcher, I wont be getting one of those at £379. I will have to make do with a mandrel and mallet

Patstone
29-07-2013, 08:03 AM
Is that something I need James, its a lot cheaper than Dennis's ring stretcher. If I could get it to stretch rings as well it would be worth spending the £49 to save having marks on the ring shanks I spend hours polishing out. Even put plastic tubes on plier jaws which helps but it isnt very satisfactory.



Useful use of the tool Dennis, I don't have a ring stretcher but you seem to be using your's for the same purpose as my small Warco bench arbor press, one benefit that my arbor press has is that I can make my own forming tools to fit in the press head.
http://www.warco.co.uk/sheet-metal-fabrication-machinery-metalwork/90-arbor-press.html

James

caroleallen
29-07-2013, 08:44 AM
I don't think you can stretch rings with an Arbor press Pat. I got mine on e-bay and it works perfectly. One of the best bits of kit I own as I usually make rings a little smaller and stretch them up. I also do a lot of resizing of rings. I've never, though used my ring stretcher to reduce the size, mainly because most of my rings have some sort of embellishment on them.

Goldsmith
29-07-2013, 09:23 AM
Is that something I need James, its a lot cheaper than Dennis's ring stretcher. If I could get it to stretch rings as well it would be worth spending the £49 to save having marks on the ring shanks I spend hours polishing out. Even put plastic tubes on plier jaws which helps but it isnt very satisfactory.

As Carole said Pat, you cannot stretch rings with an arbour press,unless you had extra tooling made. I don't make many rings so a ring stretcher is never a tool that I have needed. If I ever need to stretch a ring then I just use a ring mandrel and a mallet or hammer. I use my arbor press for shaping cup settings, pendant egg halves, sphere halves, flower leaf central veins and some flower bloom sections. I also have used it for shaping metals into U shapes for making large tubes prior to using a drawbench for final shaping. What is useful with this tool is that you use a sqeezing pressure rather than hitting a punch with a hammer, which is quieter. I press shapes into a lead block as well as using doming blocks and a swage block like the ones on Dennis's photos.

James

josef1
29-07-2013, 09:51 AM
thats a great use of the tool dennis,I have seen full eternity rings set using the 'carosel' I have never tried it as I felt it wasnt one for the faint hearted !

Dennis
29-07-2013, 12:21 PM
Thank you all for you contributions.

Pat, if you look here there are several between £145 and £185. Even the Durston one from Cookson is just around £200. Only consider the ones with a lever. Never the ones which need a hammer, or you will be out of the frying pan into the fire. Dennis.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/sis.html?_kw=Ring+Stretcher+%26+rings+reduction+Je wellery+jewellers+mandrel+Tool+enlarger+bands

Patstone
30-07-2013, 06:02 AM
Thanks Dennis, its more do-able than the other one. I will have to save my pennies, and do better than the last craft fair, sold a £10 bead with a silver ring on. We normally do quite well, if not in sales, in commissions, but nothing much on Saturday and the weather wasnt great either. Not moaning, just stating facts, it happens like that sometimes. My daughter has just decided to drop one day a week from real work to enable her to make more jewellery, bit scary as she lives on her own and we arent in a financial position to help her either as hubby has just retired so we are "adjusting" too.


Thank you all for you contributions.

Pat, if you look here there are several between £145 and £185. Even the Durston one from Cookson is just around £200. Only consider the ones with a lever. Never the ones which need a hammer, or you will be out of the frying pan into the fire. Dennis.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/sis.html?_kw=Ring+Stretcher+%26+rings+reduction+Je wellery+jewellers+mandrel+Tool+enlarger+bands