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Post by radio on May 24, 2015 21:13:51 GMT -5
is making me pull out any remaining hair I have I took on a special project for a friends anniversary gift to his wife of a nice Tanzanite stone flanked by two rubies. I don't do many faceted stone projects, and especially such tiny ones. I can set a 3 mm stone just fine, but these little pinhead sized ones are driving me nuts! I just don't have tools to work with prong settings that tiny, so have to improvise. I also now understand why real jewelers wear 10X loupes along with the Optivisors Rant is done, please carry on Sorry for the lousy cell phone pic, but it's all I had handy. The silver is very shiny, but doesn't show up well at all. Overall, I'm ok with the end result on the pendant, but not ecstatic. The customer was overjoyed with it though, and that's all that counts.
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Post by orrum on May 24, 2015 22:21:18 GMT -5
Waiting on pics cause I just know 5his is gonna be awesome!
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Post by Pat on May 24, 2015 23:19:44 GMT -5
To pick up the 1mm stone, use a toothpick with beeswax on the tip. Makes it easier to place the stone where you want it and at the desired angle.
Good luck! Those itty/bitty stones are hard to work with.
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Post by radio on May 25, 2015 7:00:26 GMT -5
To pick up the 1mm stone, use a toothpick with beeswax on the tip. Makes it easier to place the stone where you want it and at the desired angle. Good luck! Those itty/bitty stones are hard to work with. Thanks. been doing that trick, but my frustration is getting the prongs bent over the stone. the cup of the mounting is not fitting the stone and they just roll with the slightest pressure. Against my better judgement, I ordered the prong settings from Rio as my regular sources didn't have such tiny ones. This is the final straw for me with Rio. I'm done with their Chinese made junk
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Post by Pat on May 25, 2015 10:52:32 GMT -5
I use flat nose pliers to gently squeeze opposite prongs as a first step to get the prongs snuggled up to the stone. Next I use the pointy stone setting parallel pliers (from Tripps) to then attack them one at a time, again doing opposite prongs.
Tripps' catalog is mostly prong sets. Horrible website; paper catalog much better. tripps.com
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gemfeller
Cave Dweller
Member since June 2011
Posts: 3,796
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Post by gemfeller on May 26, 2015 21:39:09 GMT -5
To shape the cup to fit the stone you need a bur of the proper pavilion shape and stone diameter. While beeswax works great as a "stone magnet" for positioning, it also has helped me in the past by holding the stone in place while I'm pushing the prongs. Just daub a tiny amount into the cup and position the stone. It cleans up nicely with steam or boiling. Just make sure you do clean-up on the side stones before setting a very heat-sensitive center like Tanzanite.
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Post by radio on May 26, 2015 22:12:38 GMT -5
To shape the cup to fit the stone you need a bur of the proper pavilion shape and stone diameter. While beeswax works great as a "stone magnet" for positioning, it also has helped me in the past by holding the stone in place while I'm pushing the prongs. Just daub a tiny amount into the cup and position the stone. It cleans up nicely with steam or boiling. Just make sure you do clean-up on the side stones before setting a very heat-sensitive center like Tanzanite. Thanks for the tips. I have a good selection of burrs and used them today, but couldn't salvage the last remaining crappy prong setting from Rio. I placed a rush order from my usual supplier, so hopefully can get the project done before the deadline next week. really looking hard at these pliers www.esslinger.com/parallel-stone-setting-pliers-for-setting-diamonds-or-other-gemstones.aspx
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Post by Pat on May 26, 2015 23:49:30 GMT -5
Those are the parallel pliers I use for stone setting. They come with two different nose lengths. Longer and thinner is what I use for tiny stones. The shorter, stumpy set for other stones. They give good control.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
Posts: 0
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Post by Deleted on May 27, 2015 12:58:53 GMT -5
To shape the cup to fit the stone you need a bur of the proper pavilion shape and stone diameter. While beeswax works great as a "stone magnet" for positioning, it also has helped me in the past by holding the stone in place while I'm pushing the prongs. Just daub a tiny amount into the cup and position the stone. It cleans up nicely with steam or boiling. Just make sure you do clean-up on the side stones before setting a very heat-sensitive center like Tanzanite. Thanks for the tips. I have a good selection of burrs and used them today, but couldn't salvage the last remaining crappy prong setting from Rio. I placed a rush order from my usual supplier, so hopefully can get the project done before the deadline next week. really looking hard at these pliers www.esslinger.com/parallel-stone-setting-pliers-for-setting-diamonds-or-other-gemstones.aspxThanks a bunch for the tip on esslinger. I found some things there that I have been looking for for years. Great store. Jim
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Post by radio on Jun 14, 2015 17:35:32 GMT -5
Waiting on pics cause I just know 5his is gonna be awesome! Updated at top with pic
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Post by orrum on Jun 14, 2015 19:54:50 GMT -5
It was worth the wsit, awesome silverwork!!!!
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Post by radio on Jun 14, 2015 20:19:10 GMT -5
It was worth the wsit, awesome silverwork!!!! Thanks. I really, really really need to make a small light box to keep at the shop. I constantly forget to bring pieces home and photograph them before the customer picks them up or they get shipped, so have to settle for a quick and dirty cell phone pic that really makes silver look horrible!
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Fossilman
Cave Dweller
Member since January 2009
Posts: 20,685
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Post by Fossilman on Jun 14, 2015 20:51:18 GMT -5
Totally awesome-TOTALLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Post by Donnie's Rocky Treasures on Jun 15, 2015 11:13:39 GMT -5
Wow, that is a beautiful pendant! I see why you was a fussin' & a cussin' though.
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Jun 15, 2015 11:28:10 GMT -5
That is a really nice piece. The flowing simplicity is beautiful.
As long as those rubies stay mounted :-) One more suggestion as to a helpful sticky wax: at flyfishing shops they sell a special wax for fly tying. It is called dubbing wax. Main ingredient is beeswax but they also add something which makes it softer and stickier. It makes a great media for temporarily "holding" things in place and is not expensive.
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Post by radio on Jun 15, 2015 16:02:55 GMT -5
Wow, that is a beautiful pendant! I see why you was a fussin' & a cussin' though. Two very difficult challenges were first, positioning the tiny prong mounts high enough and on the very top edge of the "S". Second was getting them soldered without melting them. I had to make a support for them out of 22 ga wire inside the curve of the "S" and get it positioned just so so and at the correct height to support the mounts. Anyone ever soldered 22 ga wire to 14 ga wire? the larger wire functions like a big heat sink and the smaller wire and tiny mounts will melt in the blink of an eye! I couldn't have pulled it off without my soft kiln brick to pin the work to and my Smith little torch. Interchangeable tips for it are a blessing! What really ticked me off about the whole project was while setting the last Ruby on the first piece, a prong broke off the tiny mount, so I had to totally make a whole new piece. I figured that was easier than desoldering all the mounts and soldering on new ones, plus the extra heating would likely cause fire scale to develop. I learned a few valuable lesson on the project, and #1 was to never, ever set such tiny stones again!
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