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Annealing & Doming the Metal

Lesson 3 from: Beginning Sawing & Piercing for Jewelry Making

Bonnie Heras

Annealing & Doming the Metal

Lesson 3 from: Beginning Sawing & Piercing for Jewelry Making

Bonnie Heras

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Lesson Info

3. Annealing & Doming the Metal

Lesson Info

Annealing & Doming the Metal

It's a work around for this obviously this is all a sort of fairly large expensive piece of equipment is there a workaround if you don't have the full uh torture eso you can use a um but you know a plumber's torch those like simple torches oh, here we are that you find in a in a hardware store this is straight propane when you're working this small yes, you could definitely use that if you're around this this will be the biggest size you could use a criminal a torch let's say ok, um so here's our igniter but there are multiple purposes if you don't want to have a full tank set up um so to ignite the gas for turning on the red valve here slight turn looking right in front of it is that spark I'm gonna add my oxygen and I'm just going to start heating the metal half the torch about an inch apart inch away I mean, from the surface of the metal it's going to start to change color and that's how you gonna know it's reached the temperature that it needs to be at using the plane's ready to ju...

st beat the plaster? I'm sorry I thought all right board this is a type of fire brick is they're referred to that can't take the heat um just a support while you are suffering or in ealing so when it gets to a dull red a little less than what it just got there you know you're in neil's okay? So racy that color dull red just like that doesn't have to be this bright orange she don't need to go that far you're not gonna melts your piece with this torch but you do want to make sure that you don't go too far because you just you don't need tio takes up too much time so turn this off properly I'm closing the oxygen to the right then the gas to the right okay this's very hot so we're going to actually pick this up with some tongues usually give it a few seconds before you quench it so doesn't shock the metal too much otherwise it'll work just put it in there really quite and believe it or not cool enough to the touch you ready? So I'm gonna put this in an acid overhears notice that's all black now totally oxidized all the copper that's in the brasses rise to the surface in needed dirty so I'm gonna put into an acid which refer to his pickle over here and I'm just going to drop it in here with my tongs leave it in there about a minute or two um sometimes it could take longer the magic spends on how fresh the pickle is yes is it? This is this's borg acid. So there is citric acid that some people use, but, um, this is a little bit more powerful than that. You know what that is? A heated he did? Yes, it is heated in the crock pot. Help speed up the process. So that's why we left them there. So once that is out of there, which only takes a few seconds, so might be ready or ready when I grab it out of there. I'm not quite, but we need to move on. So now something that's actually useful when you were working with small parts were ok. See, in front of the events of white tank the white great. Thank the great. Hank. Okay, on the floor right in here. Okay, thank you. So as I was saying, sometimes it's really good to have a little basket inside of your pickle pot that allows you to grab things easily. She could pick up the whole basket. Thank you. And just deduct it into your quenching water here, which is baking soda water so it actually is neutralizes. Um, the pickle and then you're ready to go. So sometimes it's a good way to clean it by taking a scotch bright pad and just going over the top edge of it now we're ready to dome now we're cleaning this first, so we get back to the finish that we had initially and also we're cleaning it with the pickle just so that it doesn't affect our tools. That kind of oxidation can effect the tools, make the tools dirty, and then that could be transferred on to other projects later on, so we're trying to avoid that by cleaning it all right, gloves, the torso presuming this acid is ok to touch it is it is ok it's not highly toxic. Citric acid is considered to be a little more user friendly, if you will it's not the end of the world if it gets into a cut, it just feels like lemon juice can kind of mine early eat away at your clothes but it's it's not an extreme thing to have on your home at all. So coming over here, we're going tio start shaping this, you might notice here on our sample pieces that they're slightly don't, so I want to give it a little shape before we start to clean it. Now I'm gonna start by taking a non marring hammer plastic mallet is referred, teo, and kind of shaping it over this form here, um, in your tool is we referenced the tapping set, which I'll get to in a minute so you can do this initial shaping even just into a towel it's basically just kind of hitting the center out getting those edges kind of just puckered a little bit we're going to move on to using the chopping said which is this here stopping block has made different sizes for creating half spheres so I wanna place this in here I'm gonna grab the largest dap which is this right here and I'm going to once again use a hammer that can get scratched on the surface can be your ball peen could be the brass mellat and I'm just going places in the center and I'm going to just pucker that ever so slightly now this becomes a matter of preference you know it could be puckered extremely could be where you're placing it when it's in here if it's centered if it's off centered it'll make certain areas pop out more so knows I put a little bit more on this sites that kind of domed a little bit more if you want to be an even dome just kind of rotate when you're hammering now about a kneeling allow this metal be soft enough for us to do this that's why we did that process yes how long does the kneeling last can until you work hard on it? So this process of me hitting, bashing, tapping even that is the most minor way of work hardening your metal and so if I and you hold it, put in a box, come back ten years later, it's still being kneeled. It'll be dirty looking, but it'll be a kneel, so until you physically change them about their structure of it, it will actually still be, um, softened for you. Ok, so now, ready to clean this piece up. So thes techniques changed. Depending on the metal orders, it'll apply. Whether you're using silver or gold or bronze, or whatever it is, they're actually it's all the same. If I was working and silver, I'd be going through. Also, all these air really basics, once again, that's. Why we kind of started here, so that it all kind of comes forward, really simplistically for you. So silver, gold, brass, copper, it's, all the same.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Bonnie Heras - Beginning Sawing and Piercing Supply List.pdf
Bonnie Heras - Sawed and Pierced Earring Template.pdf

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