[Jewelry making - Article 00415] - [Orchid] Lo tech measuring

[John Burgess]

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    G'day; this message was sent to Gary Bourbonaise address twice and
    bounced back as being pornograpy /spam!! Together with a message that
    I had been blocked for spamming.! As you can see, this is not an
    important signal, and it is neither porn nor spam, but it's worrying.
    I have also had a number of mails 'bounced' to me which I never sent
    in the first place! But they were purported as generated by me. And
    they were indeed spam.. But here you  are Gary at last. PS I make
    Norton do a complete check every week, and I update it every two
    days.  Manually Every outgoing mail is checked for viruses 

          G'day. Your recent post in Orchid about the 'rule of thumb',
          made me think of an even earlier form of measurement which I
          adopted as being simple and idiot proof. After I retired I
          occupied some of my time in making and repairing things for
          the local play schools and kindergartens - who were always
          short of money to pay for what they needed.  Being somewhat
          'arithmetically challenged'   I used the very ancient method
          used by artisans thousands of years ago, with no 'body parts'
          measurements. 

          For instance I was asked to make chairs and tables suitable
          for 3 - 7 year old kids.   So I took the size of ordinary
          furniture and  made the things two thirds the size,
          approximately. I began with a piece of flat wood of reasonable
          thickness (about 1/4") and of suitable width (about 1 1/2")
          and length and beveled one edge and one end.   I then marked
          off various lengths; legs, seats, rungs, and so on and labeled
          the marks as to what they were.  A little hole in one end
          allowed me to hang it on a nail when not in use, and I then
          used those marks to cut the timber as required.  Thus, all the
          chairs were the same, and when I was asked to make more a year
          later, I took the measure-stick down off it's nail and off I
          went.   I still have a good number of those sticks hanging in
          my workshop, and found the idea easiest to work with. 

          When it came to jewellery rings , I gave the 'customer' a
          piece of soft iron florist's wire and had them wrap it round
          the appropriate finger and twist the ends so the loop fitted
          the finger exactly as the customer wanted.   I cut the loop in
          the centre, laid the wire out straight on my bench - and cut
          the piece of silver or gold the length of the wire plus the
          thickness of the metal,   Simple! No ring sizers, no
          multiplication by pye - just straightforward.  

          To make a bezel for a  cabochon stone of any shape, I wrapped
          a ribbon of sticky masking tape about 1/8" wide  around the
          edge of the stone and overlapped the ends.  I cut the tape,
          and that was the length of the bezel wire plus metal
          thickness.   No matter what shape the stone, the bezel could
          be bent to fit perfectly and soldered to a base 

Cheers for now,
JohnB of Mapua, Nelson NZ

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