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Hello thread! I've been working as a production bench jeweler for about a year now, working with platinum and gold castings and fabrication to make stuff like this ring or this tennis bracelet or these pendants that are the bane of my existence I could have sworn I posted about it somewhere on SA when I started, but lord knows where. Whatever. My shop is where most diamond setting happens for the company, but I'm involved in most other steps for a piece between casting and final polish, not inclusive. My typical work day is divided between cast cleaning/prepolishing, fitting and and soldering pieces together. I have my "own" bench supplied with top-notch tools, and I use a propane/ox little torch for all hot work. Any pictures I could take at work would get me fired, but I'm happy to answer any questions in exchange for the inevitable questions I'll have as I learn. Cheers!
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Sep 4, 2023 02:38
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 03:00 |
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"Findings" is a good general search term for small jewelry components. Rio Grande has a ton but no 24k gold based on my quick search Eta: 24k is really soft metal, you might be better served getting a lower alloy, or just plated like these if they're just gonna keep getting lost Soul Dentist fucked around with this message at 16:23 on Sep 4, 2023 |
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Sep 4, 2023 16:20
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The coolest stuff I work on often is the repairs. Very few shop-worn pieces but mostly something another employee has biffed in some way. It is usually a fun problem solving exercise trying to reshape and build back toolmarked, burnt, distorted settings. Although earlier this year I got to go train for a week at the high jewelry workshop in New York and that was AWESOME. I watched a bunch of this necklace getting set and assembled: Usually, I get pieces to work on that are unset or incompletely set, like a channel set ring with no center mounting or a pendant with melee stones that needs a decorative motif. But if the setter fucks something up they aren't given much in the way of tools (just a graver and some rubber wheels on a Foredom really) so it comes back to me. This is usually no big deal, just coat the stones in Handi-Flux or even just boric and work around it with the torch. Most setting here is diamonds, and they play pretty well with high heat (for short! periods, and only if they are ultra clean from the ultrasonic), but there's still always a chance of burning stones. Enough gets burnt or broken that everybody's got scrap numbers to keep track of, but it's normally not a huge deal... Except last week when I soldered posts on the back of a pair of four-prong diamond stud baskets in platinum and sent them to be set. The next day I got them back because the trademark on the post had been overworked in final polish, which happens all the time -- all I have to do is cut them off, rechamfer a new post and solder them back on. For stone-in repairs I'll usually use 1100 platinum solder and just coat the stone in flux. The real clench part about this pair was that they weighed over 12 carats together, and were very highly graded. So I had to work with these two stones that would end up selling for 14 million dollars, using a torch to melt metal around them without burning them. Had to take some deep breaths after that process. The nice thing is, for extremely nice stones that are absolutely loving huge, you don't have to worry about them as much because they are their own heat sink!
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Sep 5, 2023 02:16
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I literally never set stones myself, so hopefully somebody else will have a better answer. I do know princess cuts are tough to set without breaking the corners at the girdle in general, and are reserved for more experienced setters where I work. Essentially you want to have no visible air gap on the sides of the prong, but you don't want the very corner of the girdle to be touching metal. This GIA video does a pretty good job of showing how to ball bur out a little pocket for each corner. Beyond that, having the stone set level with the top of the prongs will prevent some stresses as well.
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Sep 5, 2023 03:51
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Completely forgot to mention in my breakdown but I spend a significant amount of time working on this: Sisma welding laser. It's an amazingly functional and exorbitantly expensive piece of equipment - and also a really good way to have burns all over your fingers all the time. I use it for everything from tacking pieces together before soldering to polishing pieces that tools won't reach. This demo is sped up but essentially what it does: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujVSo0enJg8 I will almost certainly never have one at home, although some of the jewelers in New York have their own. Weird people, by the way. A whole class of people who don't go out, or have much in the way of hobbies. They just commute in from bedroom communities in Connecticut, make jewelry, and go home to bed early.
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Sep 5, 2023 23:55
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Claes Oldenburger posted:My sisma is my pride and joy. I love that thing to death haha. Lasers are so useful and that one is an absolute workhorse. Jealous! I'll probably never own anything where instead of listing a price online it just says "Call a Representative for a Quote Today!"
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Sep 6, 2023 10:28
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Xun posted:So, are the burns from metal heating up near the laser point or just lasering your own finger? Yes, but also when you angle a piece the wrong way instead of interacting with the metal it's polished enough to act as a mirror and just bounce the laser onto your hand
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Sep 6, 2023 10:56
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Air or pulse graver, also am not an expert. Gravers use a jackhammer motion to drive the tool, not a rotary motion, so a Dremel is out.
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Oct 23, 2023 22:01
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Can't quote a price but opening and unsetting a channel, then resetting it with new stones, is probably more time consuming than casting a ring and setting it new. Cleaning, cutting channel walls, all the tool marks, etc. would be a pain, not to mention the jeweler is probably expecting somebody to have performed something shady as a shortcut that could (perhaps literally) blow up in their face. It's always the last jeweler lol
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Oct 25, 2023 22:31
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I use a Gravermax at work, and other people have that or a Pulsegraver. I find the Pulsegraver to be weedly and weak, but you don't need a compressed air setup since it's electrically (pulse) powered
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Oct 28, 2023 13:00
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I gotta say out loud that I think gold work is bullshit and I greatly prefer working with platinum. What is this, flux? gently caress off! Oh you can just gently melt prongs without trying? gently caress off! Gimme the welding glasses and let me get to worrying-about-burning-diamond temperatures! The solder goes where you put it, not wherever it wants to go!
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Dec 20, 2023 16:06
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Lol I work a lot in .6mm wire but that's a whole different ball game
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Dec 20, 2023 17:08
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With 1 being "bad" and 10 being "used for literal millennia and prized for its warmth, strength and workability" I'd say 10
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Dec 20, 2023 20:42
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Jewelers break, melt, burn, oxidize and otherwise gently caress up precious materials all the time. It's part of the process, and no matter how careful you are sometimes you're gonna lose something expensive. Especially if you're me lol
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Dec 20, 2023 20:54
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Oh yeah the tiny little ping of an important piece achieving escape velocity off your tweezers will haunt you
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Dec 21, 2023 00:20
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Did you check the pickle pot on your coworker's bench four seats away? Cause I've found stuff there. Also when I was first starting I was soldering posts onto stud earring baskets and I had a little bag of ten completed. I rested my foredom handpiece with a rubber polishing wheel in my tray and went to grab a bigger bag when my foot hit the go pedal. This led the rubber wheel to grab the little baggie, tear it open and fling it and the contents directly up at like fifty miles an hour. It took three weeks but the department eventually found them all. The furthest distance between two found earrings was more than ninety feet.
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Dec 21, 2023 00:55
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Just use a straw and get ready to bite down
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Dec 21, 2023 02:59
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Nae posted:Plus, everyone knew by that point that I hated princess cuts with my whole heart and soul Why did you have to set them
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Dec 22, 2023 03:02
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Silver is a step further, I just don't have to deal with it at all lol
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Dec 24, 2023 18:43
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Make your own?
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Jan 12, 2024 22:45
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I've been saying in this thread that the real loving up is when you have to set it. Anything else just melt it back into a lump and start again
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Jan 13, 2024 02:51
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Those are essentially large chunks of cast metal, so if your casting is good it'll be easy. The settings will either be bezeled, with the circular lip curled over the stone all the way around and only decorative prongs, or they will be prong set and you will be able to see a little gapping around the edges of some of those designs just based on where the stone sits.
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Jan 14, 2024 05:55
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The local place! If you don't already have a relationship with a jeweler, now is a great time to start one. Especially since if things go according to plan you'll need at least two more pieces in the near future. A good retail jeweler will be able to listen to what you want and come up with something that fits what you need. For art deco specifically I think you'll be surprised how many vintage pieces fit the style without specifically having like terraced buttressing or whatever specific element. Cushion cut stones already look art deco imo, and pretty much every precious metal was used for pieces. Buy a ring with a wedding band in mind, as your partner will almost certainly want to wear both at some point.
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Jan 29, 2024 11:14
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Allow me to recommend my personal solution:
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Jan 29, 2024 11:52
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cheese eats mouse posted:Thanks all! Turns out my mistake and my mom still has my great grandmother’s engagement ring. It’s a platinum band with a big diamond and four flanking ones. Pretty and classic and she meant a lot to me as a tiny cheese. So now just need to get it appraised and mailed safely. What's a big diamond
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Feb 3, 2024 11:28
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Well post pics either way
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Feb 3, 2024 19:17
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Dang bruh
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Feb 3, 2024 19:45
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Any of y'all had any experience using Tarn-X to clean diamonds? I was told by an experienced coworker that you can soak a piece for no more than a minute and it'll clear up some cloudiness and carbon from a burnt stone. Any more than a minute it'll eat away at any solder on the piece
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Feb 3, 2024 20:35
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What is up with Vevor? It's everywhere now and it creeps me out
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Apr 21, 2024 22:30
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They have a ton of jewelry tools (binocular scope, casting kilns, polish hoods, etc) and I don't feel like I could trust online reviews but they are so so cheap
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Apr 22, 2024 00:49
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Ok fine I'm on the Vevorwagon
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Apr 22, 2024 03:34
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My anecdotal experience is working for Tiffany and every diamond is mined for sure. I recognize it's mostly just a Tiffany thing though
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Apr 27, 2024 16:36
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Yeah, to be clear I think the diamond industry is hosed from every single level and always has been, it's just what comes across my bench a dozen times a day. No ethical production under capitalism, in my case.
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May 1, 2024 01:42
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Also diamonds are lame compared to corundum or tourmaline or literally any other stone
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May 1, 2024 02:09
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| # ¿ May 22, 2024 03:00 |
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I love the stones along the bezel wire!
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May 1, 2024 19:03
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