Saturday, March 5, 2016

Making a Jewelry Reduction Die

Project:
Making a jewelry reduction die for a neighbor

My Neighbor's Online Store:
https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/InMintCoindition


Difficulty Level (Easy, Medium, Hard, Insane):
Easy

Process:
I'm saving up for a DRO but because I don't want to take it out of our regular budget, I put an ad on kijiji advertising that I can do some minor machining jobs because I just plain enjoy doing it. I got a call from someone yesterday and after talking for a bit we agreed that I would make him a jewelry reduction die for his press because the one he has doesn't have holes big enough for what he wants to do.

He asked where I lived and it turns out that he's my neighbor from 4 houses down the street. I thought that was pretty awesome. So last night he walked down to my house with the die he already had so I could measure it and make him a second die with bigger holes.

This job actually turned out to be rather time consuming because I had to dial in the 4 holes individually on the 4-jaw chuck (once in the front and then again in the back) and it took quite a bit of fiddling around until I had them all lined up.

After the part was machined, I heated it up to a nice bright cherry red and quenched it in water to make it a lot more wear resistant than if I had it left in its annealed state. A quick sanding with some sand paper and it was ready to go.

Videos:


 
Pictures:
A stock photo of a ring stretcher enlarger jewelry bench top sizer band reducer sizing repair tool
Close-up of the ring reduction die
The actual ring reduction die my neighbor brought over
Turning and facing the 4" piece of 10V45 down to size
After the center hole was bored to 0.755"
Drilling one of the holes
Indicating the second hole
After the second hole was drilled
Cutting the chamfer with my boring tool and the compound slide
Another view
The finished part before heat treating
Warming up the ring reduction die with my aluminum foundry propane burner
Getting hotter
Almost ready
Nice and red
Another view
After it was quenched in water
The finished part beside the original one 
The ring with the centre stamped out
The finished ring
Tools:
Metal lathe & accessories
Drill bits
Metal band saw
Angle grinder
Propane torch

Materials:
1" of 4" diameter 10V45

Cost:
$0.00

Time:
About 5hrs

Conclusion:
I think it looks pretty good. I hope it works as planned

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Nice job, you should be selling them online, cannot find reducer like that any where, keep up the great work,nice looks great.

Unknown said...

Nice job, you should be selling them online, cannot find reducer like that any where, keep up the great work,nice looks great.

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