Pat,
Yes, I buy the half hard stuff, fine silver is very soft so the half hard is more like dead soft sterling silver and works really well for settings. Or you can use sterling if you like, perhaps slightly thinner as it's harder.
Carin
All the advice here is really helpful! I like the idea of using tube, especially since I happen to have just the right size for my current project . My stones are 3mm and my tube has a 3mm inner diameter. There will be a back so I could just put a small jumping inside as the seat. I'm assuming this would get soldered in place within the tube prior to attaching the tube to the piece, (right?).
Well actually Sandra, it depends on the situation. If the jump ring will stay where you need it, for instance at the bottom of the tube, soldered onto sheet, then there is no need to solder it at all. The jump ring can even have a small gap where it should join.
This idea can also be used to raise cabochons that look a little shallow, or where you have two for earrings and one sits lower than the other.
You can also buy setting burrs to make bearers for stones, if you use slightly smaller tubing. Use our search box with key words, such as 'setting', 'setting burrs ' and 'tube setting' to look for this) Dennis.
Last edited by Dennis; 03-06-2014 at 05:54 PM.
Ok, but if using jump rings as a bearer and they are not soldered, how does the stone actually stay put? Tube walls seem kind of thick to bend over the stone and there would be nothing to really glue it to, unless you cover the jump ring completely with glue. Hmmm. I don't quite understand.
No I edited my post above to answer you. Using your suggested method, you have noted that the tube walls are rather thick-about 0.5mm in fact. To set this, you need to file the outside to a steep bevel, until you have only a knife edge to push over.
Then leave yourself only one third or even one quarter of a mm to rub over. Dennis
I think it's easier to use a tube with an inner diameter smaller than the stone and use a burr to create the setting, which will thin the wall at the same time.
If you use a piece of tube with the same id as the stone, you may need to thin down the wall on the outside by carefully filing a slight bevel edge. A jump ring will sit quite happily under the stone if you want to raise the height and doesn't need soldering in place as it won't move once you've rubbed the edge over.
Sorry if I'm repeating something that's already been said, but I've been away and probably haven't read the whole thread properly!
Oh I see, thank you for clarifying!! Mizgeorge sometimes I need to hear things a few times regardless! I know I must be a pain in the behind sometimes, but I can't thank you guys enough. I've noticed during my last few projects that things are actually mostly working out for me as well, my scrap heap of shame is not growing at the intensity it once was.
But back to bezels, there is a jewellery maker whom I really admire but to me on some of the pieces it looks as though there is no edge rubbed over the stone. I've noticed others this way too. Do you suppose they use glue? (Glue isn't something I want to depend on if I can help it). Here is a picture of one stone that looks that way to me, cropped from the bigger picture obviously.
Well I'm willing to keep an open mind Sandra, but I would call that Brutallist stone setting. Still they once said of Picasso 'my three year old could do that'.
I tried to do some tube setting and found the burr very hard to control in my dremel. Also i dont have a vice and there was so mich vibration going on. Would you need a pendant motor with speed control pedal on it to perform a tube setting? And a vice?
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