A comedy of errors: My first bezel
Jan 7, 2014 9:03:04 GMT -5
roy, rockpickerforever, and 1 more like this
Post by rockjunquie on Jan 7, 2014 9:03:04 GMT -5
All of my supplies aren't in yet, but I couldn't stand to wait, so I got started with making a bezel with what I had. I made every mistake along the way.....
First, the stone I chose-- I picked this up on ebay many moons ago. It's a gorgeous composite stone. The guy really liked making them, but I guess they didn't sell cause because he quit selling them.
I pulled out some 1/4" scalloped bezel thinking it would work for the stone and got started. I measured a hundred times and got to soldering.
The soldering actually went very well. As you can see, I chose to use a copper base. Didn't want to experiment on silver sheet.
I should admit here that the first thing I did was trace out the stone on the copper sheet and try to cut it without a bench pin. Not good. First I learned (Duh!) you have to leave room for the bezel wire to fit and then I learned that a bench pin must be VERY useful. I tried clamping the sheet in a vacuum panavise which kept coming lose. Bad. So I ended up soldering the wire and worrying abt cutting later.
My next mistake? Wow! I was so flippin' excited abt my solder join (my first bezel solder) that I pushed the stone in, forgetting to put some dental floss in so that I could pull it out. Can I say, shit? Yeah, that called for it. After I mangled the wire to get the stone out, I figured this was a lost cause, but I carried on with dental floss.
So, I put the stone in and found out that the bezel wire was too high. I used a cheat. I put some wire in the cup to lift the stone up.
Then I took my setting tools and turned over the scalloped edges.
It was then that I found out how easily they mar the wire. I also found out that my stone was TOO high and only one side of the wire was holding the stone in. In other words... it was lopsided. So, I mangled the hell out the bezel wire again to get the stone out. I figured all was lost. But, I carried on.
Just then, the UPS guy showed up and brought me some shears. Yay! I cut the extra base off and started to file it down flush.
Check out how badly I mangled the wire with the prong pusher thingie (the black square tool).
Even though the bezel wire is in pretty bad shape, I am going ahead with this. Hopefully, I can get it looking somewhat good.
This is the point I am at so far. I put a smaller gauge wire in the bottom of the cup. It looks like it will work.
Now I need to polish it up and figure a bail. I made a copper bail that would hang from the top silver, but my soldering didn't flow where I wanted it to. I'm going to try a different bail anyway.
I'm off to to scrounge for dremel attachments and get this polished up. Hopefully my finishing supplies will be in soon. In the meantime, I have some things that should work.
Stay tuned for part 2.
BTW-- Yesterday morning, here in Virginia Beach, it was 50 F something. As the day wore on it got colder. 16 degrees F last night, 20 F something today. What a difference a day can make.
First, the stone I chose-- I picked this up on ebay many moons ago. It's a gorgeous composite stone. The guy really liked making them, but I guess they didn't sell cause because he quit selling them.
I pulled out some 1/4" scalloped bezel thinking it would work for the stone and got started. I measured a hundred times and got to soldering.
The soldering actually went very well. As you can see, I chose to use a copper base. Didn't want to experiment on silver sheet.
I should admit here that the first thing I did was trace out the stone on the copper sheet and try to cut it without a bench pin. Not good. First I learned (Duh!) you have to leave room for the bezel wire to fit and then I learned that a bench pin must be VERY useful. I tried clamping the sheet in a vacuum panavise which kept coming lose. Bad. So I ended up soldering the wire and worrying abt cutting later.
My next mistake? Wow! I was so flippin' excited abt my solder join (my first bezel solder) that I pushed the stone in, forgetting to put some dental floss in so that I could pull it out. Can I say, shit? Yeah, that called for it. After I mangled the wire to get the stone out, I figured this was a lost cause, but I carried on with dental floss.
So, I put the stone in and found out that the bezel wire was too high. I used a cheat. I put some wire in the cup to lift the stone up.
Then I took my setting tools and turned over the scalloped edges.
It was then that I found out how easily they mar the wire. I also found out that my stone was TOO high and only one side of the wire was holding the stone in. In other words... it was lopsided. So, I mangled the hell out the bezel wire again to get the stone out. I figured all was lost. But, I carried on.
Just then, the UPS guy showed up and brought me some shears. Yay! I cut the extra base off and started to file it down flush.
Check out how badly I mangled the wire with the prong pusher thingie (the black square tool).
Even though the bezel wire is in pretty bad shape, I am going ahead with this. Hopefully, I can get it looking somewhat good.
This is the point I am at so far. I put a smaller gauge wire in the bottom of the cup. It looks like it will work.
Now I need to polish it up and figure a bail. I made a copper bail that would hang from the top silver, but my soldering didn't flow where I wanted it to. I'm going to try a different bail anyway.
I'm off to to scrounge for dremel attachments and get this polished up. Hopefully my finishing supplies will be in soon. In the meantime, I have some things that should work.
Stay tuned for part 2.
BTW-- Yesterday morning, here in Virginia Beach, it was 50 F something. As the day wore on it got colder. 16 degrees F last night, 20 F something today. What a difference a day can make.