As Peter explained in his thread ‘Instruction Manuals’, Many essential tools come without any helpful booklet, and unless you learned to use them as an apprentice, you will be left to fend for yourself.

Tapered collets are very attractive and will support a faceted stone without the need for a bearer. So here is one way to make them using a collet plate:

1. Select a tube with an outside diameter about 1.0mm smaller than the stone. Then try this tube into a hole about 3.0mm wider than the stone. The total length of tube needed will be twice its inserted depth. You have now established the hole to use and the length of tubing.


2. Cut off the tubing and anneal. Tubes are very vulnerable to fire scale, so you might paint it with flux, or a saturated solution of boracic acid in meths beforehand. Now place the tube over the smallest hole in the plate (to protect the tip of your punch) and inserting the punch, expand the tube gradually by tapping the punch with a hammer. Re- anneal if you feel much resistance.

3. Finally, when your collet is pretty well shaped using the punch alone, insert it into your chosen hole and wriggle the punch inside by hand to perfect it. Adjust the height to suit your stone, leaving only about 0.25mm to rub over and cut off any unwanted extension at the base. Then the collet can be mounted on a screw type mandrel and filed, sanded and polished using a Scotchbrite pad or micromesh while rotating it in your handpiece. Also by holding a file against the rotating edge it is easy to achieve a near perfect bevel.

4. To fit the collet to your ring shank, file the base with the same size round file, or abrasive paper wrapped around a mandrel.

Below:
The collet set, with a New collet and a brass rod to tap it out of the plate if it sticks.
Collet on screw mandrel using the hand piece as a lathe.
Finished ring with set CZ. Dennis