[Jewelry making - Article 00256] - Re: [Orchid] Rolling out 14K

[sbright]

========[ Invite a Friend - http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm  ]========

Hi Aimee

    There are a lot of experts on this, but here's how I do it. After
    casting your ingot, rinse and wipe it dry. Any 'ol paper towel will
    do. Anneal to a red color and keep the metal red for 1 minute for
    each milimeter of thickness. (This is important- dont rush it) Let
    it cool for about a minute. Put it in the pickle. It should not make
    a whole lot of hiss when you quench it. If it does, you'll have to
    re-anneal. Go ahead and roll it two or three times, making sure that
    you feed the ingot in the same direction each time. Don't flip it
    around. Then reanneal the same way. Keep an eye on the metal to look
    for cracks developing. If they do you may have to fuse them back
    into the metal while annealing. By the way, stop rolling at the first
    sight of cracks and go straight to the annealing process. When you
    get to the thickness you want, anneal one last time. Bending the
    metal will harden it so don't worry about the gold band being soft.
    Having said all of this, if the mystery gold was dental gold, I'm
    not sure you will have any success with this. They alloy dental gold
    so it wont "dent" or distort while you're chomping on that tooth for
    20 years so that gold is meant to be really hard so it won't bend.
    (hopefully that was not the mystery gold) When you are peening on
    the cracks, you are work hardening that spot in your metal. You will
    have to anneal after you do this. (But why? Just fuse the cracks.)
    Also, don't pass through the mill twice at the same thickness. You
    are work hardening the metal and it will probably crack. One last
    thing, when you are annealing, try to keep the red color even accross
    the ingot so that the metal is the same "softness" across the whole
    ingot, otherwise you will get unpredictable results when passing it
    through the mill. Good luck. 

Stanley Bright
aandmjewelers.com
____________________________________________________________________
T h e   O r c h i d   L i s t
Open Electronic Forum for Jewelry Manufacturing Methods and Procedures
____________________________________________________________________
Orchid FAQ:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/faq.htm
Orchid Archives:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/archive
Orchid Galleries:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/gallery.htm
Invite a Friend:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/invite.htm
____________________________________________________________________
Tips From The Jeweler's Bench - Article Archive
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/tip_sear.htm
The Jeweler's Selected Bibliography List
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/jewelry-books
Buy Orchid Jewelry:
~ http://www.ganoksin.com/shop
____________________________________________________________________
-Unsubscribe:
-Email: orchid-request AT ganoksin.com Body=unsubscribe subject=blank
____________________________________________________________________