[Jewelry making - Article 00510] - Re: [Orchid] Roller Printing Text

[Terry Ogden]

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Hi Elkka

    I don't recall your post, so this is probably out of sync with the
    original question. I make nearly all my own tools with steel and wood
    and try to obtain my goals with what I have on hand. Some times I
    think there is nearly as much creativity in making the tools as the
    jewelry. 

    http://onlinemetals.com/ can provide the materials at a reasonable
    cost and in smaller lots. They also have very good background
    information on the qualities of the products they carry. 1018 would
    be "ok" to feed between your rollers (with padding just incase of
    trapped grit, test to preference although, I have ran bailing wire
    with no ill effects to my rollers, they are very hard), 1018 is mild
    and can be hardened to a small degree and there are materials which
    will put a very good surface hardening on it, you can generally get
    this from welding supply houses. For material to make your dies and
    stuff from for repeated use, tool steel can be obtained from
    http://www.jlindustrial.com/ (tool steel I would not run unprotected
    it will mar your rollers), again the prices are very reasonable. I
    suspect you have a kiln of some type, and that will handle your heat
    treating requirements, or a torch will also work, but for long
    lasting dies, and good even treatment of pieces, I prefer the oven. 

    Another thing to consider, bolts, I use grade 8 depending on how
    hard you need to make dandy dies and punches. I would not use the
    cheap bolts they do not form well or smoothly and deform easily.
    Hardened bolts can be had in local supply houses as small as #4 up to
    2 inch in diameter and 10 to 12 inches long. You may have to treat
    them before fabrication, and then re-harden them after words, but it
    will work and for small things it is very handy and a large range of
    sizes, I leave the heads on it is easier to hit unless it is going
    into a press. Another thing is local steel suppliers, they will have
    rolled and plate in nearly every dimension, use the cold rolled
    products, hot rolled is very scaly and holds dirt and grit very well
    which will muck up your jewelry tools. 

    Etching steel, you bet, check sites on the web for etching solutions
    or you can get pre-made. Also, these guys
    http://www.photofabrication.com/ did work for a Micro house I used to
    work for and they were able to make some dies for us that were superb
    and extremely tight tolerance. This is a good paper on salts etching
    http://www.artbag.dk/ge/uk/updates/saline-etch.pdf, with recipes,
    there are a lot of others. The salts are safer than the acid, though
    still hazardous, Ferric chloride can be obtained from Radio Shack or
    other electronic supply in small quantities. 

    Yes your band saw will cut metal, and they do make blades for them,
    look in the yellow pages for saw shops to make a custom blade(for
    mine about $6.00 each), or you can get pre-made from J&L and a lot of
    other sources. If it is a wood saw you will have to reduce the speed
    to the neighborhood of about 320 to 600 IPM, Bimetal will last the
    best, but hardened blades are OK and cheaper. For small stuff, just
    get a metal blade and feed sloooooowwwwwww, heat is the problem here,
    the teeth strip right off the blade. Do not try to hold the part by
    hand you will get a pinched finger and a broken blade. However, two
    vice grips at each end do work well when rested on the table. If you
    need to change pulleys on your band saw to reduce the speed, Ace
    Hardware sells pulleys and mandrels (to make a speed reducer) which
    will works well, but is time consuming to make but once done, you
    will have both in one machine. 

    Last but not least, have you thought of etching or embossing a blank
    roller? 


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