Post by Bluesky78987 on Jul 16, 2017 12:39:03 GMT -5
Ok, NOW finally you get the final installment. I've been moving houses so life is crazy. Anyway, here we go.
Next Step: Making the box clasp. Not as hard as it sounds.
A pic from my prior bracelet, to see what we're going for in the box clasp body:
It's like a bezel cup (which I'll call the "walls"), with a roof, and a garage door cut in it! In this picture, I'm holding it upside down.
First I laid out my bezel wire and gauged the general width I wanted the clasp, so that the bracelet would fit. Then, with 24g sheet, created and soldered the walls (just like making a bezel). You can make it any shape you want, but keep the side with the garage door as a straight side, or your fabrication will be much more difficult.
Then I laid it out on 22g sheet. Pic shows how I was gauging the length of the bracelet. This sheet is going to end up as the top of the clasp, rather than the bottom (will explain why later). So if you want to decorate the sheet before soldering it on, you want to decorate this first one!
Mark the Garage Door on the walls before soldering to the roof.
I drew it pretty loosely, obviously. You can draw it neatly if you want!
The dotted line marks the first cut I'm going to make with the jewelry's saw.
I can't cut out the entire garage door or my walls won't be attached together anymore and the shape will be lost.
Next pic shows the narrow portion of garage door cut out. I cut this out first because the side of the walls with the narrow part of the garage door is going to be soldered to the roof.
Then I'm going to cut out the wider portion after it's soldered. Cutting out the narrow portion, after soldering, would be pretty impossible since it's right down on the sheet like that.
I managed it on my first bracelet, since that's how our instructor said to do it, but I cursed a whole lot! Wouldn't recommend that way.
Also, think about whether you want to cut your garage door on your solder seam.
I didn't, but now I think I should have, so that when finished, the box would truly be seamless.
The next step is to cut a "guide wall". This is so that the tongue, when inserted, doesn't wobble (laterally - side to side). Wobbling tongue will make the clasp less secure. Note that this was only needed because my garage door is not the full width of the clasp. If you made it the whole width, the walls themselves would act as the guide. You would have to have square corners then though. Pic of paper version, to find the length needed (it doesn't need to meet up exactly, and the height doesn't matter as long as it's shorter than the walls):
Silver:
First step of soldering (you could do them both at once if you want, probably):
Apparently I didn't take a picture of the guides soldered in (second step). Oh well, use your imagination. ;0)
Next step, cut out the wide part (bottom) of the garage door.
Here's how the box looks with the roof soldered on and the garage door cut out:
Trimmed flush and semi-cleaned up. This is the roof of the clasp, so no lip on this one!
The inside:
Last step is to solder on the floor of the garage. If anybody is interested in why you have to do the roof first: You need to leave a lip on the floor, to solder on the hinges. That lip will make it difficult to trim the roof flush (esp if you're going to use a saw to trim it). The way I did it, with the very small lip, it probably would have worked fine to do it in the opposite order I guess though!
After soldering on the floor of the "garage", we now have the basic box clasp body.
Next Step: Making the box clasp. Not as hard as it sounds.
A pic from my prior bracelet, to see what we're going for in the box clasp body:
It's like a bezel cup (which I'll call the "walls"), with a roof, and a garage door cut in it! In this picture, I'm holding it upside down.
First I laid out my bezel wire and gauged the general width I wanted the clasp, so that the bracelet would fit. Then, with 24g sheet, created and soldered the walls (just like making a bezel). You can make it any shape you want, but keep the side with the garage door as a straight side, or your fabrication will be much more difficult.
Then I laid it out on 22g sheet. Pic shows how I was gauging the length of the bracelet. This sheet is going to end up as the top of the clasp, rather than the bottom (will explain why later). So if you want to decorate the sheet before soldering it on, you want to decorate this first one!
Mark the Garage Door on the walls before soldering to the roof.
I drew it pretty loosely, obviously. You can draw it neatly if you want!
The dotted line marks the first cut I'm going to make with the jewelry's saw.
I can't cut out the entire garage door or my walls won't be attached together anymore and the shape will be lost.
Next pic shows the narrow portion of garage door cut out. I cut this out first because the side of the walls with the narrow part of the garage door is going to be soldered to the roof.
Then I'm going to cut out the wider portion after it's soldered. Cutting out the narrow portion, after soldering, would be pretty impossible since it's right down on the sheet like that.
I managed it on my first bracelet, since that's how our instructor said to do it, but I cursed a whole lot! Wouldn't recommend that way.
Also, think about whether you want to cut your garage door on your solder seam.
I didn't, but now I think I should have, so that when finished, the box would truly be seamless.
The next step is to cut a "guide wall". This is so that the tongue, when inserted, doesn't wobble (laterally - side to side). Wobbling tongue will make the clasp less secure. Note that this was only needed because my garage door is not the full width of the clasp. If you made it the whole width, the walls themselves would act as the guide. You would have to have square corners then though. Pic of paper version, to find the length needed (it doesn't need to meet up exactly, and the height doesn't matter as long as it's shorter than the walls):
Silver:
First step of soldering (you could do them both at once if you want, probably):
Apparently I didn't take a picture of the guides soldered in (second step). Oh well, use your imagination. ;0)
Next step, cut out the wide part (bottom) of the garage door.
Here's how the box looks with the roof soldered on and the garage door cut out:
Trimmed flush and semi-cleaned up. This is the roof of the clasp, so no lip on this one!
The inside:
Last step is to solder on the floor of the garage. If anybody is interested in why you have to do the roof first: You need to leave a lip on the floor, to solder on the hinges. That lip will make it difficult to trim the roof flush (esp if you're going to use a saw to trim it). The way I did it, with the very small lip, it probably would have worked fine to do it in the opposite order I guess though!
After soldering on the floor of the "garage", we now have the basic box clasp body.