Question: Having trouble on small engraving

[Dirtdigger]

Hello all!
I´m in the middle of making and engraving a silver ring. I have poured the ring and allmost done with the finishing on it and soon it will be the time to do the engraving on it.
I have got a design i would really love to do on it, but the top of the ring is only 1.5cm wide so the design will be very small. I have practised the engraving on aluminum plate and can´t be happy with the result. It is too small for my skills that arent too good on bigger stuff either. Is there any way i could make my small engraving better? I know practice would do it, but i have limited free time to practice on.
Any advise would be really great and much appreciated!

 

[Jan Hendrik]

Don't try to cut very deep. Shallower cuts are easier to control.

 

[atexascowboy2011]

Download the free "Magic Wand " Engraving app.

With each download you will receive one magic wand along with explicit instructions in its use.As an added bonus you will receive one case of Corona beer.

Having consumed all 24 bottles of the Corona, wave the magic wand three times over the piece to be engraved, wait 30 minutes and THEN commence engraving.

At this point you will realize that you are damned good at engraving.
Upon sobering up if the piece is not up to your exceedingly high expectations repeat the Corona step until your work again looks incredible.

You can order your Magic Wand kit through the inventor who perfected this technique, Monk.

Guaranteed to do away with the old school method of practicing until you actually know HOW to properly engrave !

 

[SamW]

I would say that practicing on aluminum, with its softness and stickiness is not helpful. If you can do so, practice on the same silver material. Making very fine cuts in aluminum is difficult because you need a very sharp tool point and must keep it clean. The aluminum sticks to the face and forms a false face causing the tool to wander and fine cuts very close together will tend to fall into the previous cut.

 

[Dirtdigger]

Thank you very much Jan Hendrik and SamW for your great advice!
I have a small piece of silver that i can use for practise on. I will try that and try to cut shallower.

Atexacowboy2011 Maybe i didnt put my words right on my first post, but i newer thought that i would somehow magically be great engraver overnight after some advise.
What i tried to ask was, is there anyway to make smaller engraving any easier or making the small cuts look any better and Jan Hendrik and SamW gave me, what i think is good advise on that.
Maybe you dont have anything constuctive to say about this, or maybe your just so good engraver yourself that all beginners agitate the hell out of you, or maybe your just trolling, beats me? But if you have something that could help me get better i would gladly hear it!

 

[silverchip]

Even though silver and especially cast silver is soft, make sure your tools are properly sharpened to produce clean cuts. Plowing through metal with a dull tool always makes a job look bad!!!!

 

[Roger B]

Can't help you with the small engraving hints as I have problems myself but I think you will have a heck of a problem with the porosity in the ring.

Roger

 

[diandwill]

The humor from Texas cowboy is funny. It probably isn't what you want to hear, but in the end the advice is practice. It's the only way to get better.

Completely sharp tools, grind the graver down to where the face is a small point (allows you to see better and makes small cuts seem easier), but practice is the only way. Work on projects that challenge your skill level, pushing your limits with each one...but there is no way to magically skip levels. It all comes with work and practice.

The small coat of arms looks nice. If that is what you are going to engrave, it should be OK.

 

[Mike Bissell]

If your using a microscope then increase the magnification. You will fine it easier to make and control the shallow cuts.

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

Interesting... I've never seen anyone sand cast a ring like that before.

 

[Dirtdigger]

Thank you all for your replys! i really appreciate them!

Silverchip. Tool sharpness is something i try to keep up with, but i have to admitt that sometimes i get carried away with cutting and forget to sharpen in time.

Roger B. Casting isn´t as porous as you might think from the first photo. Only the surface is porous and all of that will be filed and sanded away. Under that surface it is very solid, even better than i thought before pouring. This is only my second silver pour, but i have done aluminum casting before many times and with those i have had more porous castings.

Diandwill. I´m very much aware that practice is the only way to get better. This is my first try on this small engraving and thought i should ask if there is advise that would make my small cutting go better and i have got lots of good advise here, thank you again for them! You are right, coat of arms is what i´m trying to achieve here, if i just could make my cutting a bit better on it.

Mike Bissel. I use microscope on this one. It is another new thing on my engraving. I have done couple of practise pieces with it before, but it´s still new for me. I have used largest view only so i will definately try to zoom in closer.

DakotaDocMartin. You are right, it is casted in mold made from petrobond sand. I have had great results in casting aluminum with this sand and after seeing this Youtube video of the gold casting on sand mold, i decided to give silver a go. Result is better than i was expecting. Sure there is a lot of surface finishing to be done, but the casting is very solid without cavities or other faults.

 

[atexascowboy2011]

You state that you know practice will make you better, so you should have left it at that.

 

[Big-Un]

Hey Dirtdigger, lighten up a little. Atexascowboy was just throwing in some levity to loosen things up a little. No harm intended and none should be taken.

Bill

 

[DakotaDocMartin]

Sure there is a lot of surface finishing to be done, but the casting is very solid without cavities or other faults.

I did a lot of lost wax casting and the castings are so detailed that even a fingerprint in the wax will show. The sand cast will work but it's so rough that it will take a lot of work to get it ready. I'm thinking it would be difficult to get the exact size you need when it's that rough. Maybe some day you will want to get into lost wax casting if you are going to do this a lot.

 

[mrthe]

Sand casting is very fast and easy to do, i have done a lot in this way too , and is a good way to make one of a kind pieces and you can have fine details too if you use delpht sand, yes you need extra work to clean the piece but well is just a different way that allow you to cast pieces in a simple , cheap and fast way.

 

[Choppers_rule]

Having a smaller heel on your graver will help too, right?

 

[gcleaker]

Nice casting, with the price of silver being at such a good price I have made 2 extra rings to practice on. While I am developing my engraving skills. I hate to start over but practicing does make perfect.
As with my engraving I am all so working on my chemistry. Really been working on converting scotch into urine then releasing it on a photo of our president. I keep hoping I will wash him away.

 

[Eric Olson]

Your sand casting (?) looks like it has some pits and porosity. Even though they may not show in the surface you want to engrave they are probably there, and will cause problems. You can get a perfect silver blank similar to this for about $40 from Rio Grande (stock#693-547). Why go through the trouble of making it yourself? For small engraving use a lighter touch & boost your magnification. Work slow. Practice your design on copper or silver if you are not sure how the final product is going to look.

 

[diandwill]

Please, enjoy your scotch but keep your politics off of the Cafe'.

Thanks, Will

 

[dhall]

Hello Dirtdigger,

There is a thread of genuine concern from a number of the replies about you finding out something you don't want to know about sub-surface porosity. You just can't know where you may run in to it, but the transition between sprue and ring is a likely spot (different rates of cooling/solidification between signet top and sprue). Unfortunately this is right on the top of your ring. In the future, a sprue at the bottom of the ring shank might leave you with somewhat less porosity on the top of the ring. Regardless, one thing you might want to consider as a preventative measure is to lightly planish/hammer the top surface, and then using a highly polished burnisher, burnish the surface. You'll be compressing the top layer of metal, and that will go a long way towards minimizing running in to any porosity that might be close to the surface. You can sand/polish through this compressed surface if you go at it too aggressively, but a light touch-up to smooth it over, and then the light cuts that folks have rightly been advising you to take with your engraving will give you a real good shot at a successful job.

Best of luck and best regards,
Doug