[Jewelry making - Article 00367] - Re: [Orchid] Sizing a ring with the laser welder

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>     What it basically is  kick up the volts and ms and take the hz and
>     beam diameter to 0. Blast a 50% penetration a few times and repeat
>     this on the inside of the ring. 

    David didn't show me this, the folks at Alpha supply who sold me my
    own laser did, mentioning that this was the way all the guys in the
    Indian factories did it. With a typical ladies size platinum ring
    shank, a little as one shot at 410 volts, 10 milliseconds, zero
    focus, can completely weld through the entire shank, with just a bit
    of filling in then needed, which I usually do around 330 volts, 3-4
    miliseconds, and a focus around 15 for a nice smooth deposit..  Much
    faster indeed. And because the sizing joint is carefully fitted just
    like with soldering methods, measureing exact amounts of metal to
    add or remove in sizing is as accurate as with traditional methods,
    which may not always be the case if you're doing it by leaving a
    significant gap to gradually fill in with smaller welds. Works well
    with other metals too, though with some one needs to be careful not
    to crank up the volts too high, or one starts to get significant
    porosity from splashing too much metal around, especially with older
    lasers that don't have pulse shaping technology. The main downside,
    of course, to this method is that running the laser at the higher
    end of it's voltage and power range can significantly shorten the
    life of the flash lamp.  So one needs to balance the cost of more
    frequent replacements of the lamp with the time saved using this
    method. 

cheers
Peter Rowe

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