[Jewelry making - Article 00042] - Re: [Orchid] Breaking Jumpringer Blades...

[Tom Colson]

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Hi Bev,

    Based on your description, I suggest looking at how tightly you are
    screwing down the plate on the coil holder. If you over tighten the
    cap screws, the plate might bow slightly. A bowed plate allows the
    coil to move around and a moving coil is the enemy of thin blades and
    clean cuts. Over the years, I've lost both coils and blades to this
    problem when I've stopped paying attention. This problem also exists
    on the Koil Kutter and in fact you have to be even more careful
    because the top plate on the KK is aluminum and more easily bowed. 

    As far as I can tell, the proper amount to tighten the screws is
    until the plate just comes down on top of the coil and then the
    tiniest bit more...maybe an eighth of a turn. 

    If bowing isn't the problem, the only other things I can think of
    are: 

    -Make sure you let the blade spin up to max. speed before starting
    to cut, and then use a slow feed into the coil. If you really jam the
    blade into the coil at the start, it can catch, bend, and chip...or
    shatter! 

    -For small coils (say 2.5mm ID or less), be sure to flip over the
    top plate on the coil holder. This reduces the depth of cut and seems
    to work better. It also prevents you from nicking the bottom of the
    ring. 

    -If you are having to use a lot of forward force to get the blade to
    cut, the blade is dull and should be replaced. Expensive as they
    are, I tend to err on the side of throwing them away because a dull
    blade is dangerous and makes an ugly burr on the rings. You can tell
    if the blade is dull by checking the cuts with a loupe. Rings cut
    with a sharp blade will have a clean, perfectly square cut face with
    no burr. 

    Hopefully Ray Grossman is reading Orchid today and can chime in on
    this if I've got any of this wrong. 

Best of luck with your jump rings!

Regards,

Tom Colson
Renaissance Gecko Designs

 
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