[Jewelry making - Article 00285] - Re: [Orchid] Idiot-proof way to close tube settings

[Peter W . Rowe]

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>>    the angle of the burnisher does not completely limit the angle 
>>    you can get with it. You don't just push the thing straight down. 

>     I do understand this, though I really appreciate the effort of
>     describing the process (as others may as well). So far, I haven't
>     been able to get this to do much on faceted stones, but I will
>     revisit it. I really do need to make the process as "idiot-proof"
>     as possible, since I'll be doing it with beginners, in a hotel
>     conference room.

    Noel, it's probably also worth mentioning that using these can take
    some strength. Unless the tube is very thin or soft, one often has to
    push rather hard to get it to appreciably move metal. 

    One other trick in tube settings worth mentioning applies only to
    smaller tubes where it can be still just a tube, when you set it,
    rather than attached to something. This usually means you're able to
    set the tube, and THEN solder or weld or otherwise attach it to the
    jewelry, and for this at it's easiest, you need to be able to start
    with a length of tube long enough so you can chuck the tube into your
    #30 style (jacobs chuck) flex shaft handpiece. Alternatives would be
    lathe chucks, drill press chucks (harder to do since you're working
    upside down), or the like. With the ability to spin the tube under
    power, you can hold a suitable setting bur or other bur just in
    pliers in the opening of the tube while spinning it (rest the tube's
    upper edge on a groove in the bench pin to be sure it spins true),
    thus cutting the seat in a lathe cutting like operation. Put the
    stone in, hold with a tiny bit of sticky wax if needed, and then,
    with the tube spinning and braced against the bench pin, simply press
    a burnisher, or prong pusher, or almost any other flat steel surface,
    against the upper wall of the tube. You can burnish the thing right
    over in seconds. Works great with diamonds especially, where you then
    can take a small bullet point burnisher (made from an old burr, or
    better, a small carbide one), and then burnish the inside bright edge
    of the tube (still spinning). With the tube spinning, the result can
    be not only a very quick setting, but super clean. You can even, if
    you like, then finish by spinning the now burnished sharp clean edge
    of the bezel against a millegrain tool for a perfect millegrain on
    the edge (sometimes hard to get when hand millegraining a small
    diamber tube setting...) I've used this method many times when I
    needed a bunch of small stones in tubes where I could attach them
    after setting. After it's set, you can saw the desired length of the
    tube with it's set stone off, spin the new edge against a file to
    clean and level it off, then repeat. If you mount a saw blade in your
    saw frame with the teeth pointing up, then spinning the tube (if
    held, as I do, in the left hand when I do this, so the side of the
    tube facing you is spinning down), then you can saw off the tubes
    quickly just by holding the saw blade against the spinning tube, to
    get a nice level cut too. (cut a slit in a zip lock back, put the bag
    over the tube, and hold the saw blade in the slit, so you're cutting
    the tube off inside the bag. keeps it from flying off to parts
    unknown when it cuts through. 

    It's a great way to set a bunch of small tubes when you need to do
    one of those "diamonds by the yard" sort of chains, or otherwise need
    lots of small tube sets. It's limited mostly by the maximum size of
    tube you can fit in your chuck, and soft stones will be hard to
    burnish the inside edge without damage. And obviously, if you're then
    soldering the tubes to something, the stones need to survive that.
    Laser welders, though, remove most limits in that regard... 

Peter
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