There is a lot going on behind the curtains right now. The custom rings are almost finished with lots of pictures to show. The dragonfly wing castings just arrived and looks awesome, and a handful of mokume pieces are almost finished as well... I also have some nice pictures of a recent hike we took too. All in due time.
On top of all that, the Dragonfly was on the front page the other day and in a featured buyer Storque article on Etsy as well, written by none other the John F from They Might Be Giants. How cool is that??
I did have a major setback the other day, and I have a very helpful tip for any jewelers who run into this same issue. While drilling out the connection holes for the two bezels on one of the custom rings, the tiny (.5 mm) bit head snapped off inside the bezel. This is not cool. In a good situation you can do one of the following,
1.) grab the chunk that is sticking out with pliers and twist it out.
2.) drill out the bit from the other side of the hole.
3.) remake the piece it's stuck in.
In this situation none of those were a feasible option, but I did remember something my jeweler friend Neil had mentioned before about corroding the bit out. His recommendation was using regular a household alum, mix it with water and keep it warm, and let the culprit soak for 24-48 hours. If you have an ultrasonic, put a lid on the container with the alum and piece and rest it in the ultrasonic solution, the vibrations will help loosen the bit.
Essentially the alum solution eats away and disintegrates the steel alloy. This saved me from having to do a ton of extra work. So I find this is by far the second best way to cure broken drill bits, the first being not breaking them to start with!!
0 comments:
Post a Comment