For making silver or gold flat ring bracelets I need flat rings. I can cut them out of sheet, but sn't this easier by punches? Are there such punches available ?

I live in Holland.

 

Thanks

Yes they make punches for disks but how big of a diameter do you want? If you want very large ones the best idea is to still saw them out, if you are looking at the smaller sizes, like coins, then a disk cutter is better. I have one that make disks from 1/4" to 3/4" plus  one that cuts 1" and 1-1/4". If you want to cut multiply large disks try getting a hydraulic press with a die cutter.

 Hello nicejewelmaker,

it is the question how large the rings must be. You get punches up to roud 3 cm in dia. I've never seen larger one.

But you can make the rings from flat wire in every sice you need and solder it together. If you're interested, I can send  you some pictures by E-Mail how I do that. It is realy an easy way! My E-Mail address: massow@emailkunst.de

Friendly regards

Edmund from Germany

www.emailkunst.de 

You could also make rings with wire, solder the ends together and hammer them flat.

 Francesca

Three centimeter seems a bit small when she is wanting to make bracelets. I would think that a hydraulic press could easily stamp out a 10 cm diameter circle. I have seen folk use a Boony Doon or Dakota Bulldog type press to accomplish this. I don't think that soldering a wire together and hammering it flat will get the results that are desired.

As Edmund said, using wire is an easy way to get the rings if you can solder. Just solder and hammer them flat. You can even texture them with your hammer.

If you can afford a disc cutter; there are several with different sizes that are available. Just slide your metal into the cutter and hammer the cutting punch. Move the disc that you've just cut to a smaller size hole and using the cutting punch, cut out the center hole of the disc. Or depending on the size, drill out the center hole. I like to punch them out, if I can, so I can use the small center cutout for decorative trimming.

Bentiron, 3 centimeters equals 1.18 inches. That seems reasonable for a bracelet, for my taste a little large. Most people don't have access to a hydraulic press.

Billie

 

I guess that I have a different vision of what is being ask. I am visualizing a disk large enough to put your wrist through not a disk to put on top of a bracelet. My dainty wife has a wrist that needs at least a 2-1/2" hole to put her hand through, I guess that that would be a bangle. I can't imagine a wrist 3 cm small except on a child. Bracelets can be somewhat smaller because of the gap. A hydraulic press can be built from scratch from scrap steel to match tooling available from Rio Grande or make your own tools. Others have and that is how hydraulic pressing started. Soldering and hammering is not always the best option if you want a 3/8" wide ring with a hole in the middle. You would have to start with some pretty heavy gauge wire.

 

Hello

I think there are some confuse answers in this thread!

 

Three centimeter seems a bit small when she is wanting to make bracelets.

I think the Dutch colleague knews what he want! He don’t write, that he want to make the bracelet from only one ring!

 

I have seen folk use a Boony Doon or Dakota Bulldog type press to accomplish this.

That seems me a very expensive procedure. You need next the press a lot of different disk cutters including a lot of stamps. For 3 cm disks or rings made from up to 1,3 mm thick copper, silver or gold  you need next the disk cutter with different holes and stamps an heavy hammer!

 

I don't think that soldering a wire together and hammering it flat will get the results that are desired.

 

Have you ever tried out to make a flat rings in this manner I proposed??

I recommend never a procedure, which I not have tried out by myself. I hold a lot of workshops for “kitchen-table-goldsmith’s”, that means for people who make jewellery only for fun. Mostly there room-space, there time and there budget is very small and they make only a few pieces a year. And for that reason I try to find procedures which needs a minimum of expensive tools. But the result must be professional.

This are some results made with the procedure I suggest.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 The both  top frames were made from flat strips from 1 mm thick Sterling silver. The right top ring is 50 mm in dia and 8 mm broad. The 2 rings below was milled through a rolling mill to get the oval form.

 

If you’re interested to learn that and how you can do flat rings from band wire or a strip of sheet, you can ask for the illustrated specification by E-Mail: massow@emailkunst.de

 

And here some pictures how to make a flat band wire from round wire. Tools you need:  soldering equipment, a mandrel, a rolling mill, a mallet or an hammer with a resin head.

 

I in this example I started with a 8 mm long and 2 ½ mm thick round wire. If the wire is significant thicker, it is heavy to bend by hand.

Pic1) I bend the wire together to a “free-form ring”. Important is, that the soldering seem close exact! Solder it with hard silver solder, I prefer a working temperature of about ~770 Grad Celsius. Pickle the ring and if there any surplus of solder, file it away.

 

 

Pic 2)The ring get rounded with a resin-head-hammer on a mandrel.

 

 

 

 

 Pic 3) The rounded ring

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pic 4) Mill the ring in a rolling mill. Mill always maximum  0,1- 0,2 mm down. The ring get a bit oval. Make the mill roller 0,1 – 0,2 mm closer and change the ring at right angels. (see sketch below)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If the ring is not really round, anneal it and round it with a soft hammer  on a mandrell

 

 

Pic 6) The result is a ring of 35 mm outer dia, 1.1 mm thickness and 3.5 mm breadth.

 

 

 

 

 

Edmund

www.emailkunst.de 

A decent rolling mill is almost as expensive as a hydraulic press. Yes your method is very good but if you don't have a mill hammering out a ring is not the best alternative. So perhaps cutting it out from sheet is best after all if you have a limited budget for equipment as most of us do. Thank you for the lesson.

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Hello to all interested in ring making,

 

A decent rolling mill is almost as expensive as a hydraulic press

Yes, that is true. I have both. But the press I use very seldom, normally only for press forming. But I think a rolling mill is nearly a must, also in a small workshop. It is  a multipurpose tool and you need it permanently.

 

hammering out a ring is not the best alternative

I see that exactly the same!  A disk cutter set for lager disks/rings has usually only 5 to 8 drillings. Thus the size and width of the rings are strongly reduced. Of rectangular wire or metal strip rings cannot be made in all however in many sizes and widths because diameters and ring width are from each other dependent. The more largely the ring, the more broadly it can be made.

 

So perhaps cutting it out from sheet is best after all

That is not so  easy for many people! To saw out a really inside and outside round ring, needs a lot of sawing experience. A disadvantage is that one needs relatively much more material. For the remaining disks one must consider somewhat new, or it is expensive waste!

 

if you have a limited budget

The production of a flat rings, almost without metal waste, and with tools existing in most workshops you can request by email free of charge. massow@emailkunst.de  Unfortunately only in German language. But the pictures are self-describing.

Tools you need are: files, flat nose pliers, round head stake or round stamps from the dapping block, a polished anvil, a mandrel and a solder equipment. The work expended is larger than when using a disk cutter. But, as said, one does not have waste and one has the possibility to create rings in nearly each diameter.

 

Thank you for the lesson

It makes joy for me to divide my experience of many years with others. Unfortunately I can work due to my age, (the eighties is to see), no longer so actively in the workshop, as I would like to do.

Edmund

 Finally I managed to do this, making a flat ring from a strip.

 

See 

http://developer.nicejewel.com/flatring/

 

Hey, that's cool! You just sort of turned it on the side. I was trying using a dapping block last night. My rolling mill is and antique and can only do very small rings.The rollers are only 5cm wide. Even after annealing I was having trouble reducing the thickness due to my physical disability. So I took some heavy gauge wire and reduced it in thickness and made a ring and used the dapping block to flare it out and then put it on the anvil and flattened it out. Not the same results as yours but a fairly even flat ring.

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Hello Klaas,

 

Perhaps I did not describe it clearly enough. The ring width and the ring diameter are from each other dependent. The smaller the ring, the smaller must be the strip, of which one makes the ring. E.G. The sheet metal width for a ring with the outside diameter of approximately 3 cm should not be larger than 5-6 mm.

If the outside diameter amounts to however 10 cm, the metal strip can amount to easily 12-15 mm.

Important is also to make flat the ring in several steps. And between each processing step the ring must be annealed . Otherwise the material becomes too hard and tears at the edges up.

 

With the example shown by you the following might have wrongly run:

The relationship from ring outside diameter to width of the metal strip is too unfavorable.

Too few work steps were made.

The piece was not annealed between each step.

Edmund