Unprofessional sharing | Metalworking classroom experience

I'm staying away from anxiety | My melancholy notebook mentions that the methods to relieve my depression include drawing and beating in the metalworking classroom.
@MiSa,@StarLights , @DrYuan. Tangyuan expressed their desire to read the experience article, so taking advantage of the birthday month, they came to the metalworking classroom to make a ring for themselves as a birthday present, and also recorded the production process and shared it with everyone.

※Because of different ring designs, the production method and order will also be different, so this article shares the style made this time for your reference.

First, take notes (draft)

First record which finger to wear, measure the ring circumference, and the words that are expected to be engraved on the ring, and record them all, which can reduce the failure rate.

cut silver bars

Different styles have different thicknesses.

annealing

999 sterling silver itself is hard, so it is necessary to do annealing first to soften the silver.

The flamethrower is used here. The melting point of silver is 960.5°C, and the temperature of the flamethrower is about 1300°C.

Place the silver bars on the refractory bricks, the original metallic luster will gradually become foggy white after burning, and the red burning areas should stop immediately and cannot continue to burn. If you continue to burn, it will melt, so be careful.

Then put it in ordinary tap water to cool down and wipe dry.

See Wikipedia for a little bit of annealing .

typing

According to the words written on the note at the beginning, tap the silver bars one by one. This time, I made a ring with a twisted part, so the range that can be typed is relatively small.

Find the center point in the range where you can type (you can use a pen to make a little mark, after annealing, the traces of the pen will disappear), and tap from the middle word to the outside, making sure that each word can be knocked on the ring .

After typing, the silver will harden, and it needs to be annealed and cooled before proceeding to the next step.

knock texture

This time I choose diamond pattern, and there are other different patterns such as water ripple, wood grain and so on.
Tap lightly where you want a texture.

twist

Annealed and cooled again.

Mark one third of the silver bar, then twist the third.

In the process of twisting, it will become harder as it goes to the back, which requires greater force. Therefore, when the twist does not move, as long as it is annealed and the silver becomes soft, it can continue to twist.

polished

Then, the cut ends of the silver bars are polished to a smooth feeling that will not hurt your hands.
There will be metal dust when grinding, remember not to get too close to your eyes.

shape

Finished grinding, annealing, cooling.

On the pole with the ring engraved in the cone, bend the silver bar into a circle along the ring according to the size of the ring measured at the beginning.
If the place is not compliant or round on the way, you can use a rubber mallet to assist and tap lightly.

welding

Then use the solder tab to weld the seam.

Solder tabs are alloys made of silver and other metals with a melting point of over 600 degrees.

Using boiled borax as a flux, heat the ring first, apply borax to the seams, and use a musket to burn where the borax is applied. The borax will expand like toasted marshmallows and then slowly shrink.

At this time, the solder pad is heated, and the solder pad will soon become a small ball. Place the solder pad where the borax has just been applied, and it will melt into it quickly, and the welding is completed.

Cool in water.

remove borax

Heat alum in a small pot.

Alum is the nemesis of borax. The part that has just been coated with borax will be a little yellow. As long as you put in alum and cook for a while, the yellowish part will disappear.

polishing 1

Just replace the head of the machine with sewing needles, put the coarse sandpaper into the needle holes of the sewing needles lightly, and polish the inner ring and edges of the ring brightly. Be careful not to grind the places with patterns and twists, as they will all disappear. not see!

When the coarse sandpaper is almost polished, replace it with fine sandpaper . The method and precautions are the same.

polishing 2

The head of the grinding machine is replaced with a cyclone wheel, and the parts with patterns and twists are polished and brightened.

roll

Then put in a machine with dish soap and lots of small steel balls and roll for five minutes.
This step can brighten the subtle points that cannot be polished, and also make the ring brighter and better looking.

finished!

The process of metalworking requires full attention. You can temporarily forget the troublesome things. After the completion of the shiny jewelry on your hand, you will not feel better. I recommend everyone to give it a try!