Ronda Coryell uses 1 cup hot lemon juice with 1 teaspoon of salt or 1 cup of hot vinegar and 1 teaspoon of salt to make a pickle for Argentium.
When cutting small pieces of metal with a guillotine shear, tape the piece of metal to a sheet of paper. You can then use the paper to hold the metal in place and keep your fingers away from the blade.
Epoxy can be dissolved in methylene chloride which can be bought quite easily as paint stripper. You could try a bit of acetone or amyl acetate (nail varnish removers) first as many epoxies will be softened by these.
To prevent bubbles and air gaps when molding resin, use a disposable craft paint brush to coat the inside of the mold with resin. Then pour the resin over the stir stick, allowing it to drip into the mold. When mixing epoxy or resin, leave the stirrer in the left over epoxy and if you need to check on how the epoxy is setting, you won't have to disturb your work.
Old clock gears with their attached shafts can often be used for wax carving. They can be chucked right into the hand-piece.
If your tools are flooded with saltwater during a weather emergency , rinse in clean water and store completely submerged in clean water until you have time to dry and restore them.
Mark a line on a domed or rounded surface by using masking tape.
To have your Rolling Mill flat heads refinished: Pacific Reamer and Cutter Service Inc., 4115 Broadway, Oakland, CA 94611 phone: 510-654-1844
Quiet Down Your Bracelet Mandrel - Contenti Newsletter May '1o The loud sounds made when forming and forging on a typical hollow steel bracelet mandrel can be significantly quieted down by stuffing the mandrel with random pieces of plain old foam rubber.
Soldering Tweezers as Angled Weight from Alan Revere. One of the most difficult aspects of soldering is often just holding the pieces in place long enough to heat them. Added to that, when the solder flows, it can lubricate the contact area so that the top piece can literally swim around un- controllably. The key here is to find some way to hold the pieces in place. Most jewelers already have a ''third hand," on their bench. These are soldering tweezers mounted on a stand, intended to hold an assembly in the air for soldering, use it as a weight. Do this by adjusting the angle of the tweezers in relation to the base, so that the tip of the tweezers is over-bent, so that the front of the base of the third hand is partially lifted off the bench top. The angle can be adjusted to add weight.
