Evgeni,
I would also very much like to learn some basics from you. Sharpening I mastered, but the learning curve in engraving is still flat. I could do basic things, but often they do not look right…
Cheers
Ralf
Even better, copper will only retain it‘s maximum softness after annealing if quenched in water, cristal growth has to be suppressed, I was tought…
AI are not omniscient, they will repeat what they collect in their libraries, the most often heard will become the most prominently cited...
“having a lot of trouble getting them to sit upright” - I use the same type of tool holders as for beading tools and fix a piece of hard 2.5mm brass rod inside. I file it to a blunt point and use it to press down the stones into their holes. By pressing down at one side or another, I can change...
I would not dare to use machine drills made from carbide (the one with the red marker ring) in a handpiece, as they break like glass. I use tool steel drills 0.5 or 0.6 mm for the pilot hole, and often have to correct their grind after inspecting them under the microscope.
The enlarged photo...
Hello Meshach, I use different styles of flex shafts. One standard size came with the big green-gray motor, the other standard size shaft (the red one) I bought as a spare and connected it to a really slow DC motor. Both accept exchangable handpieces of european style. The red flex shaft is...
For stone setting I use only flexible shaft tools at low speed. Position of the stone marked with a deep dot from a scriber, I drill first a 0.5 mm hole through the metal with a spiral drill. For the rest of the work I use round dental burrs, got tons of them from the flea market and collecting...
I‘m a german hobby goldsmith who engraves a bit as well. Live in France at the german border and work as an electronics/RF engineer in Germany. Region Karlsruhe - Rastatt, PM me if interested.
Cheers
Ralf
I second the fine degussit stone, I use it with either oil (does not penetrate the stone) or with a polishing compound like Simichrome.
I found all my degussit stones all on ebay (needs patience!!), there is also sometimes a coarse version that is not produced anymore.
Cheers
Ralf
It is easy to use a common drill press as a hone, as Shaun Hughes shows at youtube
the drill press bit starts at about 5:30
I used a similiar setup to shape gravers before I built my minihone, as I found shaping the blanks purely by hand too tedious.
For the quality of the faces and angles...
Hello Marius,
I absolutely adore the drawings you post. Technical question: Are they done with AD at iPad, or at Mac? I’m looking for a replacement for Linearity Curve at my iPad, since they jacked up the prices.
Cheers
Ralf
Faced with a similiar challenge, I made a pedal that uses a simple two-lever-gear and just gradually opens a squeezed-shut silicon hose to provide a finely controllable bleed valve.
please excuse my German…
No drawing or plans are available, as I made after some coarse estimations on the...
To avoid heel drag when flare cutting, I was aiming for shorter and shorter heels, until I realised that a very short heel makes the graver hard to control and requires lower angles of attack. Else it will dig in. I had not enough freedom for my handpiece and fingers.
I grind now arround 0.2 mm...
Hi,
while browsing the net for 50-60mm ceramic discs for my DIY mini hone, I had an idea. Instead of using a hard ceramic disc for graver polishing, I could use a hard anodized aluminum disc. The anodized layer is aluminum oxide, almost as hard as sapphire or ruby. Fortunately, I have a stock...
So far only for stone setting, where very short cuts suffice.
I‘m just experimenting with carbide-tipped microgravers, shall I try one without heel? They where pretty capricous with heels already, until I polished the heels with a felt wheel (radiused the edges) and polished the face afterwards...
The best translation I found is „greaseproof paper“. It might also be called parchment substitute or vellum subsitute. The type I use is made to wrap sandwiches, as a traditional replacement for cling film. It is made from wood-free paper pulp which was ground with so much pressure the the...
I tried baking parchement paper, it did work by far less effective than the Butterbrotpapier. I found my favorite transfer method, I could just not tell you where to find similiar paper outside Germany.
Cheers
Ralf
just three fresh examples how the "Butterbrotpapier" transfer works. I put varnish on the piece while it was still warm from hot melt glue, so the varnish layer got a little bit thicker than usual and did also stick to the paper.
The scale in the photos is divided in 1/10 mm, one can also see...
My brother DCP printer/copier/scanner makes no transfer at all with acetone. After many experiments with different solvents (aceton, isopropanol, artist‘s transfer fluid, lighter fluid, NC paint thinner, two kinds of brake cleaner) I read that my brother toner is wax based. That prompted my to...