show and shame!

[joella]

Thought I would share my latest effort. I wanted to make a ring with a dome and tube setting in centre of dome....what could possibly go wrong
I hadn't realised till too late that I hadn't got the dome on to the ring quite straight - as you can see its a lot more noticeable from one side than the other.



While we are on the subject of domes, I regularly fail to get them straight - I think they are laying centred in the doming block, but then when I tap them with the hammer and get them out it is clear that they don't sit straight as they are lob sided! No matter how many times I try to tap them again, I still fail to stop them being lob sided - does anyone have any tips for making sure theyre straight?

I don't think the tube is quite centred either within the dome....if the lack of being centred on both the dome on ring and tube in dome had been more extreme, maybe I could have got away with it being a drunken ring! Also I still haven't got the tube setting as neat as I would like.

What do you think, apart from a lot more practice - constructive criticism gratefully accepted, I know I'm not very good but Id love to get better.

[Goldsmith]

Practice will improve your results, and a bit of patience lining items up before soldering.
I am not sure how you made this ring and what tools you used, but if I had been making it I would have shaped the dome then used dividers to mark a circle the size of the setting in the dome's centre before fluxing and holding the tube setting in place with a soldering clamp and solder it with hard solder, then after cleaning the dome section I would flux it and hold it in place on the ring shank with another soldering clamp so that I can see it is central and straight before soldering, clamps are good for this purpose.



James

[Dennis]

It's not too bad, certainly not shameful, but being critical of your own work is the way to improvement.

Doming is more even if you first anneal and then go round the sides as well as the base. Wooden punches used with a hide or plastic hammer cause less distortion.

Once domed they are best finished by rubbing rim side down on flat abrasive paper. Even rubbing is done in a figure of eight path. This makes them perfect, but a little smaller.

To find the centre, you then wedge it hollow side up, into BluTack and mark it with dividers from the rim to the estimated centre from four or five positions. This will give it to you pretty well.

When checking the centering of the mount on the shank, I am a fan of seeing it as it is, not upside-down. So a clamp or binding wire will be needed to enable inspection.

I dont know whether you had problems setting the stone, but this is where setting with pliers would be useful. Dennis.

[enigma]

Its certainly not shameful!
The great thing is you can see the imperfections so know what to work on next time.
James and Dennis have given some great advice for that so you will likely have the next one sewn up no problem.

[Faith]

I really like it Joella - and if it makes u feel any better I've been making wonky rings all weekend myself Getting things on shanks straight is so hard in my opinion and I'm super critical of my own work too.

It's a very pretty ring tho, so you should be pleased and I'm sure the next one will be even better

Faith

[joella]

Thanks so much for the all good advice and words of encouragement.

Next time I'll definitely use wooden punches, and now I know how to work out the centre (you wouldn't believe how I actually tried to do this) I'm sure it will help greatly. I'll also try centering it the right way up too.

I used metal doming punches and a weird set of tweezers for rings, with a sort of platform at one end and curved end on the other, which I though would be fool proof ........ but was proved wrong (haha) - probably because its not best suited to domes - at least not lobsided ones. I used a square end pusher for the bezel.

Anyway, armed with the good advice I am spurred on for next time.

Sue

[metalsmith]

Thanks so much for the all good advice and words of encouragement.

Next time I'll definitely use wooden punches, and now I know how to work out the centre (you wouldn't believe how I actually tried to do this) I'm sure it will help greatly. I'll also try centering it the right way up too.

I used metal doming punches and a weird set of tweezers for rings, with a sort of platform at one end and curved end on the other, which I though would be fool proof ........ but was proved wrong (haha) - probably because its not best suited to domes - at least not lobsided ones. I used a square end pusher for the bezel.

Anyway, armed with the good advice I am spurred on for next time.

Sue

Chance is that you had it sitting bang-central and needed a change in perspective to see it needed centralising in another plane.

One thing I'm learning is that in this day and age of digital photography revealing every minute flaw, the photographing may not be the final stage!

[LydiaNiz]

...the photographing may not be the final stage!

Argh! So true!