making rings

[naughtyboy]

swmbo as asked if i fancy making some rings up on the lathe.
weve never had wedding rings as couldnt afford them when we got married.
what sort metal should i use?

she wants something different so planning friend engraving celtic design with initial and year each kid was born on it.
and it as to be made in shop or she wont entertain it.


cheers

 

[super noob]

stainless or a soft ish metal I presume unless you're planning on using a jewellers lathe and want a massive blocks of silver :eek:

 

[dan.taylor.1]

Titanium? Looks nice and is a bit unusual.

Dan

 

[brightspark]

u could make a nice stainless steel one out of a large nut .it already has the flat face just round the rest off and cut down the sides , bore it out to suit finger

 

[Pete.]

swmbo as asked if i fancy making some rings up on the lathe.
weve never had wedding rings as couldnt afford them when we got married.
what sort metal should i use?

she wants something different so planning friend engraving celtic design with initial and year each kid was born on it.
and it as to be made in shop or she wont entertain it.


cheers

Gold is easy to melt and cast. Why not melt down some scrap jewellry, turn up a mold on the lathe, pour in the gold, turn your own gold rings then have them engraved. Can't get much more personal than that.

 

[galooph]

Have a look on instructables for inspiration. There're quite a few guides on making rings on there.

Dan

 

[outofthefire]

Titanium is a hard to work and it would be a mare to engrave. I looked into casting gold and silver and while its not impossible to do at home it needs a bit of investment and the odds of doing a decent job aren't great. Look up mokume a billet made from gold and silver would make lovely rings, a cheaper and easier alternative would be stainless damascus steel which could be bought in a billet.

 

[mangocrazy]

Titanium? Looks nice and is a bit unusual.

Dan

My wedding ring is titanium (but was a bought, not made, item). I was surprised how easily it picked up fine scratches early on, but now it's stabilised (or I've stopped noticing...)

The place I got it from in Brum also made one that looked like a motorcycle rear tyre (http://www.geti.co/t015/), but I decided discretion was the better part of valour on that one...

Here's their website:

http://geti.cc/

 

[mike 109444]

When I was in an engineering workshop we use to make them from the older (softer due to silver content?) two shilling coin. You would put it flat on a vice or steel plate with a step then working round the knurled edge with hammer flat on plate form a lip, turning over from time to time to get an even lip. then put in lath and drill out to size. Polish up job done. Ring will have some of the design from the coin left on it. Avoid SS or titanium. People did make them up from that but if it got stuck on your finger (swollen finger) was a bu**er to cut off!
Hope that makes sense

 

[Bsmith]

Silver solder round a brass/copper olive and file to desired?

 

[dan.taylor.1]

You just need tct engraving tools for titanium, seen it done on gun parts made from ti.

Dan

 

[chrisg3103]

I did just this last month, made my fiancee's engagement ring out of titanium (grade 5 for what its worth)
She loved it and is something no one else in the world is ever going to have, a true one off. Here are a few pics



Bit advanced in the process but ill explain, could not drill it with HSS bits! got a centre hole drilled with a brand new sharp centre drill, this soon died. Managed to open the hole up with a carbide tipped boring bar to a depth of about 5mm, more than enough.
Open up the internal diameter to the ring size before parting off, take down the outer diameter a bit too, no set sizes just what looked right

Then had the problem of how to hold the ring while machining the outside?
came up with this device



turned down from the only stock i had which was 40mm!


turn screw expand dodad, easy



Radius was cut by a bought in tool, was going to make my own but never got round to it!

polished




tada!


and were it now lives


So in conclusion titanium cuts just as easy as steel if you have the correct tools, and is still holding a shine a month later. Looked at engraving and most places only laser engrave titanium

 

[Robotstar5]

Definately a one off, nice job

Is she working on the designs for wedding rings now?

 

[chrisg3103]

wedding ring will be from the jewlers suppose i should get her something with a stone in it!
good thing about engagement ring is the lack of stones actually, future mrs works for NHS and can only wear plain bands, she's the only one on the ward who can wear her ring

 

[outofthefire]

My wedding ring is made from titanium. Generally I find they last much better than gold except I have to wear gloves when ever i'm welding because ti seems to be a spatter magnet. Oh and I said "they" because this happened to my first one

It was touching the spanner when I was tightening the positive terminal on a wagon battery and I earthed it out on a bearer.

 

[naughtyboy]

where are ou guys getting your ti from?
can only find up to 20mm dia which is ok for swmbo but bit small for me
cheers

 

[chrisg3103]

Got mine from ebay, probably not the cheapest though! 30x100mm £40 look for titanium round bar