shaping 18ct yellow tubing

[ajda]

A brief update: I've posted a couple of pictures here - http://www.cooksongold.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7595 - of my cricket ball and bails. To make the bails, I shaped one piece of tubing to fit tight over a smaller diameter tube, then soldered. I made it as one piece then cut through the centre. I tried several tools/methods and in the end reverted to my round nosed pliers for most of it. I did use the electric cable idea - actually it may not have been needed for support, but was a useful guide to squidging the tube evenly to make the grooves. Once I got the grooves to a certain depth it was easier to finish them with the outer in place on the inner piece. I'm pretty pleased with how it worked out - pity I can't say the same for the ball at this stage...
Thanks for the help and advice.
Alan

[Dennis]

You done good as they say across the pond and we are learning with you, Alan. thank you for posting, Dennis.

[ajda]

Thanks Dennis. I followed your lead and made each stage in silver before doing it in gold, except the last bit of soldering on the ball, as I was running out of time - and that's where it went wrong (mainly due to my lack of experience with gold, partly also a weakness in the design). I think there's a lesson in that. I'm going to remake the ball, but this time complete at least two in silver first to test out a couple of slightly different approaches. I think the balls would be quite saleable in silver - perhaps I'll do a range of sports, rugby, football, cricket, baseball, etc...
Alan

[Dennis]

I think the lesson, which I have never learned either, is not to go on for the finish when you are overtired. You might get away with it, or you might be set back to square one. Dennis.

[ajda]

True. I can't claim I was overtired, but I was definitely rushing. Also, I don't think my focus was quite right. You know that experience sometimes called "flow" when you're fully focused on the present moment and the task in hand? The trouble is, I had the thing already completed in my head and was already congratulating myself on a job well done. I suspect it's the same reason why the majority of car accidents are said to happen within a mile from drivers' homes. You can be fully focused on the road and the driving conditions for hundreds of miles; but close to home, feeling that you are already there, you let your concentration lapse and you think about what you are going to do or say after you're out of the car, you're on familiar roads and you leave the automatic pilot in charge for the final leg - then something unexpected occurs and you fail to re-engage and react to it... Something like that perhaps... An experienced goldsmith, working in familiar materials and perhaps on a task they've done many times before, would have got away with it - I just swerved and crashed the car. No insurance, either - fortunately no one was hurt!
Alan

[Dennis]

Very Good. Dennis.

[ajda]

On a brighter note, I think I got the shaping of the tube sorted this morning - at least for the larger diameter silver that I'm doing something else with. I found a suitable brass washer, profiled it with the Dremel and swapped it with the cutting wheel of a standard plumbing pipe cutter... works a treat.


The painted nail, by the way, is part of my niece's attempts to tart up her "Uncle Alien" for Christmas...

Alan

[Dennis]

That's invented a completely new tool. Now I wonder what I could do with tubing like that?

[Tabby66]

I think the lesson, which I have never learned either, is not to go on for the finish when you are overtired. You might get away with it, or you might be set back to square one. Dennis.

I'm guilty of that Dennis, just thinking, oh I'll just finish this bit and I'll be done, only to trash the piece or make more work. If only I'd left the piece and done it when i was fresh it would have been done right and quickly!! Aaaagh!!

I like you're analogy too Alan, makes me think of when I'm trying to 'hurry', doing something because I have too much to do and ruining it because my mind is on what I have to do and not what I am actually doing!!

On a brighter note, I think I got the shaping of the tube sorted this morning - at least for the larger diameter silver that I'm doing something else with. I found a suitable brass washer, profiled it with the Dremel and swapped it with the cutting wheel of a standard plumbing pipe cutter... works a treat.

Alan

Fab little tool Alan!!

[ajda]

There's a flaw in my tool - at least when shaping something as soft as annealed silver - because the guide wheels (on the opposite side to the cutting wheel) impress a mark on the tubing either side of the groove. You can see what I mean in the photos of my entry in the December competition - http://www.cooksongold.com/forum/sho...4884#post84884 - not that it matters much for these pieces...
Alan