Silver sheet thickness issue

Jewelry Discussion
1

Hi,

I’m a relative newbie so please bear with me.

I have silver sheets in 0.6mm thickness. I would, however, like to
work with about double the thickness, say around 1.2mm.

Is there any way for me to join two sheets of 0.6mm silver perfectly
so I can make rings etc using the thicker 1.2mm silver sheet?

Thanks much for your advice.
Gunter

2

depending on how you want to make your rings. you could solder them
or rivet them.

Pallavi

3

Pretty much your best option is to melt them, pour and ingot and
roll out heavier plate stock.

You could make two rings. One that will fit inside the other and
then solder the edges, but then you have the seam to deal with…6mm
is too thin for most anything wearable.

Have fun and make lots of jewelry.

Jo Haemer
timothywgreen.com

4

Could you not sweat solder the two sheets together with IT or Hard
solder? Then you have securely, permanently melded the two into one
with the thickness you like. And you keep the option of rolling
through a mill to a different desired thickness.

5

Thanks all for your suggestions. I will have to try smelting and
sweat soldering to see if it works.

Thanks again!
Gunter

6

What you do and how depends on what tools you have, and how much
sheet there is.

If you bought it new from a bullion dealer, he will surely take it
back if you havnt damaged it and exchange for the 1.6 mm you want,
with a handling charge of 10%.

As a newbie your skill level does limit you, however, why not
consider it a learning exercise? for example if it were me, id cut a
strip say 10mm wide, scribe 2 lines 2.5mm in from each edge, fold
inwards on these lines so you have a 1.6mm thick strip with a seam
down the middle., on the inside.

Then take it from there to make up a ring, as you know to make a
ring of say 25mm internal dia you need a strip say 80 mm long.

Basic sheet metal work.

You are the smith that needs the learning exercise.Come back and
describe how you folded the sheet accurately, and what tooling you
made up to do this, assuming you planning on making up 20 rings in a
day.

Ted.

7

Hi Ted,

Thanks for your super interesting suggestion.

I would really like to try this, if nothing for the experience.

I’ve been trying to read up on fold forming etc. but rather than
waste time and money (silver) would you please help by telling me how
to fold the 2.5mm strips on the side accurately.

Much appreciated!
Gunter

8

Hi Gunter,

A couple of thoughts more for you.

  1. you should experiment once youve made up your bending tool, with
    .6mm copper sheet, annealed of course, to get the technique right,
    before using the silver, for obvious reasons.

  2. you may have to vary the radius of the 45deg edge from sharp to
    round to allow the safe bending of the metal.

  3. Also, consider making up some other width jigs finished size 20
    mm, so you would have a strip suitable for a cuff bracelet.
    However.6mm silver would be somewhat thin. 1mm would be better, with
    a finished thickness of 2mm.

  4. another thought, to extend 3 above, pierce some rounds 4 mm down
    the centerline of this, before you bend it of course then use some of
    your .6mm copper mentioned in 1 above as an interlay This would need
    to be cut to a width of18mm.

5.your not limited to parallel bending, think of using say a 30 mm
by 5 mm piece of round steel, with another parallel sided piece of 28
mm by 5mm and dress the silver up over the smaller dia by 3mm.

then cut a round of 28mm, and dress down the 3mm upstand to enclose
the second piece. You could also pierce the front piece of silver
with any motive you like and interlay with copper to contrast.

all cold production!!.

How I located my 2 pieces of steel is something you need to work on
yourself. Its easy. You do need to excercise your problem solving
skills, as they get better the more you use them. I earn more from my
problem solving skills than from anything else by doing engineering
consultancy work.

Let us know how you get on.

Ted