The Unofficial Mamod and Other Steam Forum

tmuir · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 8:47 am Post subject: Christmas Present

I picked up the material to make my wife's Christmas present today.
The silver pendant I was making has been put on hold due to the fact hinges have been given me trouble. I will attempt to finish the pendant in a month or 2s time.

What I am making now is a bangle based on the Russian Wedding ring.
For those that dont know what that is, it is 3 rings linked together, traditionaly one yellow gold, one pink gold and one silver or white gold.

I'm using 9K yellow gold, 9 K pink gold and to keep the cost down sterling silver.
The wire is 2.5mm in diameter and I require 215mm of each to make the bangle.

Here is a picture of the material.
There is twice the amount of silver I need for this project as I bought extra so another project.
The real fine wire is my medium silver solder.

The top little square is the 9K yellow gold medium solder and the little rectangle is the 9K pink gold medium solder.

Here is a couple of pictures of the prototype bangle I made in Stirling silver, it hasn't been polished yet which is why it is dull looking.

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yosa · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:09 am Post subject:

Nice Tony. Is it going to be one of those where the "rings" are shaped so that putting them together is like a puzzle?

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tmuir · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 10:51 am Post subject:

yosa · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 11:27 am Post subject:

Going to look Good Tony. I suppose you have to do a lot of creeping to the poor woman when you think of the spiders and stuff she has to put up with.

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He who keeps his head while all about him are losing theirs, doesn't know how serious it is.

tmuir · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 11:33 am Post subject:

yosa · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 11:37 am Post subject:

tmuir · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:21 pm Post subject:

yosa · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:23 pm Post subject:

Er.........................I like being single anyway.

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He who keeps his head while all about him are losing theirs, doesn't know how serious it is.

Mamodman123 · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:33 pm Post subject:

yosa · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:41 pm Post subject:

tmuir · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 12:41 pm Post subject:

tmuir · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 1:09 pm Post subject:

Just went and cut to size , squared up the ends and anealed the silver wire.
I also had to make up some fresh pickle.
Being using the same batch for a year now.
There is so much silver in the solution it has turned blue and was starting to silver plate the gold I had in it.

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A nice example of an Australian made Scorpion Donkey Engine

tmuir · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 2:18 pm Post subject:

A few more pics of the progress.

Here is the 3 bangles anealed and cleaned and roughly bent into shape getiing ready for soldering.
Cant you just see how great its going to look from this photos.

The freckled apearance is caused by the flux. The shiney part were fully protected by the flux from oxidation while the dull part sufered some oxidation and the pickle removed it leaving the dull surface.

The next pic shows the yellow gold fluxed and ready for soldering.
If you look in the middle on the front of the wire you can see a tiny slither of metal. This is the gold solder. To get any idea how small that is the wire is only 2.5mm in diameter

Final pic shows the yellow and pink gold in the pickle.
The clear jar on the right is my fresh pickle solution the jar on the left is the old solution. The blue colour is caused by all the silver that is suspended in the solution.

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A nice example of an Australian made Scorpion Donkey Engine

yosa · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 2:28 pm Post subject:

In the middle picture Tony, does the flux have to be spread all over the bangle for some reason? Or, is it just as a result of handling?
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He who keeps his head while all about him are losing theirs, doesn't know how serious it is.

tmuir · Posted: Thu Dec 14, 2006 2:33 pm Post subject:

The flux helps the solder flow by prventing oxidation.
When soldering jewellery if you apply too much heat too long you can cause the oxidation to go deep into the item which would then need filing to remove or you will end up with a dark patch on the finished item.
I flux the whole item to stop oxidation forming anywhere on the item.
It means less work to finish the item as you don't need to sand or file off oxidation before buffing.

I never did this when I first started but have found doing this means less work in the long run.
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A nice example of an Australian made Scorpion Donkey Engine