The perils of customers' own measurements

[Dennis]

Knuckles are generally oval, that is thinner from front to back, so if you can make an oval ring to put on sideways and then rotate it into place by 90 degrees, you will have solved the problem of too loose a fit.

You could make some round brass test rings in standard sizes and then tap them on to an oval mandrel. This would create standard oval sizers to try out.

Another method which I have found stabilises rings no end is to make a double shank, as below.

Ring clips also work, but would hardly be acceptable on a new ring. Dennis.

[pearlescence]

Hi Dennis, good advice for normal knuckles - these are rhumatiky ones. Customer has now decided on a new ring for the other hand which has normal knuckles.
It's not aprob as I can still sell the ring, but it is a shame...although research says that companies which deal well with hiccups create a better impression even than ones which perform fabulously start to finish.

[Dennis]

How about a free supply of anti-inflammatories with every ring then, Wendy?

[pearlescence]

Now that's a plan Dennis!
(seriously, I suppose you could copper line a ring, since copper bracelets etc are supposed to be good for the rheumaticals)

[caroleallen]

I'm doing a show this week and as it's red-hot weather, I fully expect that next week I'll get several people wanting to swap their rings when we're back to arctic conditions!

[ps_bond]

http://www.wickes.co.uk/pipe-freezing-kit/invt/424921/ might help before sizing?

[Patstone]

I need to buy a ring sizer, what is the best one to buy. Have the little plastic strips already and they give a rough idea but its not that accurate. I have a woman who when my daughter measured her finger it came out to -Q and I dont know how many centimetres that is, so I need to borrow daughters for now but will have to get some myself soon.

[ps_bond]

For the diameters, this may help - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring_sizes

I've got sizers in both narrow & wide shanks. Personally, I like to double-check against a marked ring mandrel once I've used a sizer - that way, I can be sure that whatever the marking on the ring says, I'm working to the correct diameter rather than trusting that an O is always 55.1mm on all sizers.

[Patstone]

My plan was to borrow Sams ring sizers and transer the ring to the mandrel with a pencil mark to ensure right size. I have a ring mandrel with sizes on but never used it as I am not sure how accurate it is. Which ring sizers make is the most accurate, not really sure how accurate Sams are either.

[Dennis]

. Which ring sizers make is the most accurate

The bench mark for ring sticks in the UK is the Wheatsheaf, Pat. But unless you are exchanging information with others using this system, it doesn't really matter what ring stick you have.

Just use it like Peter says, to measure all rings and sizers you are given and that will hold for you.

What matters much more is the width of any rings or sizers if measured from the front edge. Make your ring wider or narrower than that and the fit will be differnt: tighter for wide rings and looser for narrower rings.

As a rule if the ring width is different you get a better result measuring from the middle of the ring, rather than one edge. But you can only have complete peace of mind if the sizer and the ring are the same.

Dennis.