[Jewelry making - Article 00064] - [Orchid] Gold fabrication trade-offs

[Edwards, Robert]

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    In response to your post on Orchid, here are my thoughts on the
    issue, having done all my own gold fabrication for the last couple
    years: 

    If this is a one-time, or very occasional need, you are better off
    just calculating VERY carefully what you need, and then ordering the
    stock from a supplier.  You don;t want to end up with a lot of scrap,
    or run short and pay two shipping charges.  The major problem with
    this is cost, in two different ways -- first, if you only order a few
    pennyweights, the markup on the gold itself is enormous.  Second, the
    fabrication charges are very high. But you need some investment of
    tools and time to make your own, and you won't get paid back for the
    tools until you've done a few ounces of stock. 

    If you are doing this regularly, there are a lot of advantages to
    making your own:  the major one is you don't have to stock all kinds
    of different sizes, shapes, and carats.  When you need a bit of 18g
    14k wire, you just make a button, roll it out, draw it a couple times,
    and there you are.  You substitute a one-time investment in the tools
    for recurring high markups and waits on receiving stock.  You can
    spend a couple hours making a "master sheet" size, say 22g, in alloys
    you use all the time, then when you need a 30g piece for something
    delicate, ten minutes with your annealing torch and rolling mill, and
    you have exactly what you need.  You can recycle your own unsoldered
    scrap, and not lose more money to discounts from refiners.  And
    finally, you can, with some looking, buy gold at MUCH smaller markups
    than even buying casting grain from the major refiners, never mind
    what the jewelry distributors charge! 

    I find that making my own stock makes my gold work more price
    competitive, as well, and I definitely price my fabrication labor into
    the final numbers. Recently, I bid on a job making 14kt gold fountain
    pen nibs for a pen vendor.  The total gold order was just over 4
    ounces, and I was able to reduce my final bid by almost 20% by making
    the sheet stock myself, rather than buying, even at a 100 dwt price
    level. 

    I normally buy gold online from one of several coin and metals
    dealers, and try to pay 3% or less over NY spot, delivered.  I can
    almost always hit 3%, and have gotten as low as 2.1% over spot on a
    few occasions.  Generally, I buy 1 oz Maple Leaf coins.  I try to buy
    on the market dips, as well. This is a price that you would only get
    from the refiners if you bought several hundred dwt of casting grain
    at a time, and you would still be doing the fabrication yourself.  I
    do a lot of work on spec, and probably could not afford to work with
    high carat golds if I didn't do my own fabrication. And, the coins are
    instantly convertable to cash, if needed, and take a much smaller hit
    on the spread than selling fabricated goods to a refiner (on which you
    lose the entire fabrication charge, as well as the spread on the scrap
    buy price). 

    Here's what you are looking at up front, in terms of equipment: 

    Rolling mill -- this is the big one, minimum of $200 for the cheapest
    Indian import, more like $600 to get a Durston mini or similar one
    that will stand up to everyday use and take thick ingots, saving you
    the labor of hammering them down to 3 mm, which is the max the cheaper
    mills can handle. 

    Ingot molds -- combo wire and plate, about $45, and a long wire mold,
    about $30 (very handy if you do a lot of wire work) 

    Draw plates for wire -- $10 cheapest to $30-45 for good ones.  How
    many different shapes do you want to make?  

    Draw tongs -- $15, or use a pair of vice grips that you already have. 

    Melting torch or furnace:  You can't do this with a hardware store
    propane or with the Little Torch (yes I know the LT has a melting tip
    -- trust me, it won't do what you want).  I use a Prestolite air /
    acetylene with the largest "turbo tip".  Works fine, just takes a
    little longer.  Total cost about $150.  Or, if you already have
    oxy/fuel equipment, get a melting torch or old welding torch with a
    big tip for $50-120.  The ideal setup is a HandyMelt electric melter,
    which will run $400 up (used for $400).  Too pricy for me, since I
    have the other torch anyway. 

    Melting dish or crucible and handle -- $15-20.  You should have
    separate ones for gold and silver, the fastidious ones use separate
    crucible for each alloy. 

    Flux -- 20 mule team borax from the grocery store, 75/25 mix with
    boric acid.  $5 for enough to last you forever. 

    Fireproof surface to work on -- I have a slate paver from Home Depot,
    $5, and an old cast-iron skillet to set the mold in (free). 

    The rolling mill is something you will want eventually if you are a
    working goldsmith, even if you buy some stock.  Once you have one, you
    will wonder how you ever did without it, it's that handy.  And you can
    do roller texturing as well. 

    Hope this long-winded explanation helps.  You're going to hear "your
    labor is worth more in making stuff".  Maybe, if you work in a jewelry
    store and the boss buys the stock inventory-- but if you work for
    yourself, it doesn't take long to pay back the initial investment, and
    you bill each project time for the fabrication work anyway, so who
    cares?  For production series, maybe I'd buy the stock; but maybe not,
    as well, as per the pen nibs example. Buying saves time, but costs $$.
     The tradeoff is up to you, as always. 

Regards,

Bob Edwards
Chromis Designs
Washington, DC 

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