Best tool for making a groove in a ring

[Susie]

I would love to get my hands on a lathe, but just wondered if there was a small dremel cutting disc that might do the job.
I have some Silver D shaped wire that i want to make into a ring, and then create a central groove around the outside.
I know the lathe would be bang on to achieve this, but i don't have access to one.
I also don't have the tools to engrave, plus, not sure my skills are up to this.
Just wondered if anyone on here has done this. Any suggestions on how i could achieve this?

Thank you in advance as always. And happy new year!!!

Sue

[enigma]

Hi Sue

I do this regularly as most of my rings have a braid inlaid.
I started off casting them in delft clay but they didn't come out brilliantly and required a lot of clean up with a burr.
My husband has a milling machine which he cuts them on now.
If we didn't have that and I wanted to make a one-off I would engrave the line then cut out with round burrs, starting with a 1mm one and working up to the size I wanted.
Its hard to get a really straight , perfect cut but its not that hard to actually do.
This is a bracelet using 4mm by 2mm D shaped wire that I did by hand using that method.

[Dennis]

Hi Sue, the best way to make a grooved ring with minimal equipment is to anneal two wires, either D shaped or round, then stretch them equally until they become perfectly straight. To stretch wire you fix one end in a vice, or somewhere equally rigid and pull with serrated household pliers.

Then you solder them together with just enough solder to make a good join.This will provide grooved stock for rings, particularly if you keep the cleanest side outermost.

To keep wires in contact for soldering I use vermiculite firebrick, which is easy to push household pins into and keep them positioned using several pins. You can buy it on line, or from Bellore if you phone and describe what you want.

If once the ring is made the grooves need refining, they can be improved with a fine sawblade, forward, or reversed.

Of course you can simply mark the centre of a made ring with dividers and then gradually follow the mark with saw blades, or even scorpers to your required depth, but that will not be as tidy in unskilled hands.

Try it with copper first. Dennis

[Susie]

Hi both

Firstly Dennis, I have been soldering 2 D-shaped wires together to create the effect I want, but it is very time consuming. However, I have been making 2 rings individually first, not the method you suggest. I might try soldering the two strips together first, then bending afterwards to make the ring - I hadn't thought of doing it that way - and I'll have a look at Vermiculite firebrick.

And i'll also try the other method, by trying to cut in using maybe a sawblade first, then using ball burrs. Well, here goes... I just wondered if i put the wider D shaped silver in a vice, i could maybe try and cut a groove using a dremel and cutting disc? Not sure how that would work out...

Enigma, can you explain how you use the milling machine?

Thanks both as always x

[enigma]

You could try it although Im not sure how easy it would be to keep the disc straight on a D shape, but then its not that easy to keep a burr straight unless you engrave a shallow channel first either.
I think if I were you I would give Dennis' method a go first and see how that works for you.
My husbands milling machine is a huge ancient piece of kit, not something you would go out and buy for this, I only mentioned it as thats what we use, not as a suggestion for you to think of.

[Susie]

Thanks Sarah. Yes, i'll need to experiment a bit with the method Dennis suggested, although i tried last night to straighten the D-shaped wire using a vice and some large pliers, but it was too difficult to straighten. I must be a weakling!
Thank you both x

[Dennis]

Sometimes the wire has not annealed enough. It should bend easily in the fingers. When you pull, keep your arm stiff and pull with the weight of your body, but make sure you can't fall backwards. Dennis.

[TeeDee]

Hi Sue,
Not sure if you have (or have access to) a rolling mill but if so there is another way to create grooves.
The pics show a groove I created in a bangle commission which was then filled with the red leather thong.

The groove is created by taping a piece of harder metal rod such as silver steel onto the silver and gently rolling it through the mill making a number of passes, each one with the mill wound down slightly further. For smaller grooves such as for a ring you may even be able to use a stretched length of binding wire or a stretched paper clip.

Obviously you would need to do this to the silver prior to forming it into a ring and there would be a small bit of cleanup required at the joint.
It might not be practical to do on very small 'D' profiles but say 4 mm width and above would probably work.
If I were doing it myself I would pass the 'D' metal once through the mill to put a very narrow flat strip at the dome just about the width of the required groove and then mark a line with a sharpie. Then tape your harder metal accurately to the flat strip and make a first shallow pass through the mill. Once the initial groove has been formed there is little chance of the hard rod straying although it may start to curl as successive passes are made in which case a new bit will need to be taped into position.

As with Dennis's method your silver stock needs to be annealed and very straight. A few practice pieces in copper would be worthwhile too.

Hope the above makes sense. If you don't have a rolling mill at the moment then maybe it's a thought for the future if you do get one.

Tim

[Dennis]

Certainly a very good looking effect, Tim. Dennis.

[TeeDee]

Thanks Dennis, appreciated!
Tim