Stone Setting questions

[Dale Hatfield]

Anyone have any tips for setting stone this way.
I have made 4 attempts to bead set. One in steel it wasn't easy but it stayed. However the brightcut around stone was a hack job at best.
I then tried in copper and the beads didn't hold and the brightcut was even worse.
I understand how to drill and make sure that stone sets at the right level.
I have a bunch of 5mm stones Ruby, Garnet.
Any rule to how thick the metal has to be based on the stone height?

 

[GTJC460]

You don't need thick metal to set any stone in it. But you do need to protect the culet of the stone.

For instance, many of the mountings with setting plates are hollowed out behind the plate. The plate being only 18-20 ga sheet fitted to the top of the ring. I've personally bead set diamonds in metal as thin as .4mm thick without issue, just have to know what you are doing and how to make that work for the item you are making.

If you are just practicing on regular sheet, 16-18 ga sheet will suffice. One of the major obstacles is eliminating vibration, flexing, and bending in the piece. I'd personally recommend using 1" squares of hard rolled brass for practice.

 

[Gemsetterchris]

Can you post a picture of what you've done so far?
5mm is quite big, metal thickness will depend, probably you need at least 1mm.
Your stones being deeper than that will of course be visible above & below the metal.


Don`t try to set them deep so the table is flush with the surface, you`ll be having big problems with that size stone.