Critique Request Inlay into silver pendants

[Dani Girl]

mmmmmm
2 hours spent fighting the holesI drilled with bud burs trying to slide them sideways, up , down, left right, ... sometimes they fight you... pavé is harder than it looks.

Ok, so, why does my drill drift left and right? It starts in the right place but then walks sideways instead of down.

Danae.

 

[Brian Marshall]

It is an old drill bit or new? Have you looked at the point under the scope? Is the point centered? Is the drill dull? Are you using a lube/wax?

There is a certain mount of "walking" caused simply by the direction of rotation - but it's usually almost unnoticeable and always in one direction.

You are saying that it wanders in ALL directions?


Are you holding your mouth in the correct position as you drill? The full moon is gone, so you can't blame it on that...


Brian


PS - Never toss old/dull/broken drill bits. You can learn how to resharpen them yourself using a pendant motor/Foredom and a fine abrasive stone wheel. Keep them together until you have time to learn that skill. Save yourself a lot money over the years.

 

[Brian Marshall]

A couple more things... is your center punch really centered and the correct depth? Are you using the right amount of downward pressure and is your hand braced or up in the air?

Remember that tools are sentient and if you keep cussing at them - they will get even with you...


B.

 

[Dani Girl]

Ok... stop cussing... how much pressure is right?

Sorta braced from memory.

It has drilled a few holes in silver. Was new before that.

Will try holding moutb more comically.

Maybe tap magic would be better drill lube than candle wax?

 

[Brian Marshall]

Dunno quite how to explain the pressure thing...


First you've got to get the speed right. Run it full tilt boogie and you'll overheat and burn the burn the drill tip. Gets soft and useless.

The back of your palm where it joins your wrist needs to be braced. Drill hand up in the air unsupported is a no, no.


The pressure you need is enough to cut cleanly but not enough to break, stall or burn the tip. You get that by doing it enough to get the feel for it. (And destroying some drill bits)


Brian

 

[dhall]

All that Brian says, plus...
- It's really easy to inadvertently apply some lateral pressure to the drill instead of straight down. Pay attention to this and you might be surprised. Watch the drill closely and you can usually see it flex with even very slight lateral pressure. The drills used for this small work are pretty fragile, and like all drills, are really good at removing material below the point, but miserable at cutting laterally.
- It's really easy to not have the drill perpendicular to the surface being drilled. If the drill is properly sharpened, and held truly perpendicular, with no lateral force, you will get two small curls of swarf, one from each drill flute. Machinists, who have large powerful machines for drilling, theoretically could drill in one go, but they don't. They commonly use a "pecking" strategy for drilling - enough force and dwell to get the chips coming up the drill, then relax the pressure to allow the chip to shear off, then resume the pressure until the chips curl up the drill again, lather, rinse, repeat, and removing the drill completely from deeper holes to clear chips many times. Flutes jammed with swarf drill unevenly and drift. Most of what we drill is rather thin, so one application of lube will usually suffice, but a second application of whatever lube you use won't hurt.
- One of the dirty little secrets about jeweler's burs is that they really don't do a very good job removing chips. They'll cut just fine, but often the swarf doesn't have anywhere to go except into the flute of the bur, and if it isn't designed to eject the chips, and most aren't, the bur becomes impacted very quickly. Stop and clean the bur more often than you think might be necessary. Another strategy might be to sneak up to the final size by using intermediate bur/ drill sizes. For example, if you're wanting to set a 3 mm stone, it's common to have the through hole 1/2 the diameter of the stone. If you start with a 1.5 mm drill and it drifts a bit, it's a little more difficult to correct than if you started with a 1 mm drill. Let's say you get to a 1.5 mm hole successfully. If your next bur is a 3 mm setting bur, you're asking it to remove quite a bit of material in one go. It will probably go more efficiently if you hog out some more of the unneeded metal with one or more intermediate burs before you use the final size bur. Unless you're using a cylinder bur, in which all of the flutes have the same geometry, clearance and chip load ability, most burs have a "sweet spot" where they are most efficient. A round bur, for example, doesn't remove metal very well from the "South Pole". It's got flutes there, but it'll cut much more efficiently at the "Equator". Look at any bur you grab and you can judge where it will cut best. If you only want to remove a very slight amount of material, then use the less aggressive part of the bur, otherwise, the time you spend grinding away with one, final size bur from a too-small pilot hole can be much more efficiently used with a couple of intermediate bur changes, with each of those burs cutting a lesser amount very efficiently, and then being "traded up" to the next most efficient-cutting bur. In very short order you'll be at the final size and all it will take is a minor bit of cutting to get the perfect fit.

Standard disclaimers apply; talk to 5 jewelers and you'll get 7 opinions, hope this helps, your mileage may vary, etc.

Best regards,
Doug

 

[Dani Girl]

My boss told the Orange City Life newspaper I had a story that should go into their paper.

 

[RDP]

:banana:Congratulations!! Danae, very well deserved recognition,

Richard.

 

[Brian Marshall]

Which reminds of the time that we had just hired a new bench jeweler... and she claimed that she was very experienced.

I was working on a different bench, so I asked her to go over to my bench and get me the file card.

I needed to clean a drill bit or a bur and I had it in my hand, thinking she knew what I needed it for.

She came back and handed me me some 3" x 5" file cards that we used to use for job tracking...


Brian

 

[Dani Girl]

In my defense Brian 90% of the nice things about me said in that interview were my boss going on about me... I am shy you know. I claim not that I am great... I just reference feedback... subtle difference

 

[Brian Marshall]

Danae, one of the points about the file card story - was that you need one - if you do not already have one.

Not just for cleaning files, but drill bits and burs too...

You will wear out your fingernails clearing them of wax and swarf groove by groove.


The name may be somewhat related to "carding wool" using a similar device.

Those used for wool are coarser and larger as seen here - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SA8oCxLN7sQ

I also have another similar one around here that is used on the dogs coats. Kind of a fine toothed wire brush.


B.

 

[Brian Marshall]

A 'file card" is shown at around 3.32

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOR2UwZRBws

And again at around 4.54

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3Glnnby0d0


B.


PS. Chalking your files is also helpful... especially with draw files.

A squashed flat brass cartridge case makes a good file card for smaller areas and specific burs. The longer the case and larger the caliber (rifle) the easier it is to hold. 45/70 is good.

Rub the flattened brass on a clean file or bur until it conforms to the spacing - then use those "teeth" to push the crud out from between the teeth of the clogged file or bur.

 

[Dani Girl]

I did buy a file card the other day, don't know if some are better than others, I don't mean the paper ones.

I got some artwork for a customer done and approved and I got one side of this knife done today. I guess I will finish it tomorrow. I'm trying to go through some things I've started and things I've bought to work on then shelved and clear off my benches. Finish things I start.

 

[Omar Haltam]

looks very nice

 

[MoldyJim]

Someone is going to be very pleased.

 

[Dani Girl]

What? Slip! Me? Never!

A loud painful sounding sigh was ushered but no swear words. Good chance to practice my burnishing and try my new burnisher... which looked fine to the naked eye but under the scope I could see the tip was not broken but never actually worked on ... sand sand polish polish... then burnish... then re sand.

As a an extra touch I also polished the front bolster curve and re sanded all the machine marks out of the bolsters.

 

[Dave London]

Yep the engravers eraser,still a PITA. Good recovery keep cutting

 

[Dani Girl]

 

[Big-Un]

I just read the newspaper article on you, quite a task as it was really small letters on my computer, and noticed the name Jeff Freeman as your mentor. I believe Jeff is the same person that took a class with me (and several others here) at GRS in Emporia from Rex Petersen. If he is the same person, give him my regards. I once called him and forgot the time difference, turned out to be way early in the morning his time! He ws very gracious and we talked far longer than we should have, seeing as I interrupted his sleep.

Bill

 

[Dani Girl]

http://www.abc.net.au/news/rural/2017-02-09/saddle-tree-maker-hangs-up-tools/8254498?pfmredir=sm

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100013365228137

Yes, that would be Jeff. He's done a couple of courses at GRS, I think with Sam & Dianne, Rex,... there might have been another.

I'll try to remember to pass on the message. I'm going to start joining him at the lapidry club in town Wednesday nights after my physio appointments. They reckon with exercise they can work the gristle off my muscles and make my shoulders stop crunching... we'll see. :thinking: