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The E-Mail Newsletter for Bench Jewelers
April 2002
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<> <> <> <> <> TABLE OF CONTENTS <> <> <> <> <> REVERE FINDING TIPS Useful tips to help you find things in the studio from Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts
FEATURE ARTICLE Learn how to make your shop more profitable, a new technique, or brush up on basic skills. STEWART'S BENCH TIPS Bench Tips from Stewart’s International School for Jewelers
AT THE PLATINUM BENCH Tips for working on Platinum from Platinum Guild International
FAVORITE TIPS Tips and Tricks to make your work on the bench a little easier
GERRY’S GEMZ Stone setting tips from Gemz Diamond Setting
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Here are some useful tips to help you find things in the studio
FINDING THE RIGHT SANDING STICK By Alan Revere
After wrapping abrasive paper around a paint stick or piece of wood molding, use a permanent marker to put dots on both ends of the wood to indicate the grit; oo for 220 paper, ooo for 320 paper oooo for 400.
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If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause and say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
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WASTE NOT WANT NOT By Bradney W. Simon CMBJ
When it comes to recovering precious metal, nothing is worthless. However, when you walk into many repair shops you will find people behaving as if it were. Many people do not realize what a valuable asset their scrap is, and have been pleasantly surprised by the amount of additional revenues received from a refiner when a clean and orderly shop is maintained.
A dirty shop affects profits because of the high value of the metal that is used in our work. Small pieces of gold on the floor from filing, buffing, and other operations in the shop, cling to the bottom of shoes. If the floor is not swept regularly, the gold literally walks out the door of the shop. If not collected at the source, gold dust is spread around the shop. It is then carried out of the shop on workers’ hands, clothes, and shoes.
Bench Sweeps
More precious metal waste is generated at the bench than any other area in the shop. Always use your lap tray to collect metal filings and save these filings in a container to send to a refiner. Some refiners will supply you with a plastic jar with a screw top lid for these sweeps. Any type of container with a wide mouth top may be used; an old coffee can with a plastic lid works well.
To keep your bench clean a regular procedure should be followed. Clean out your lap tray on your bench during the day as needed. Then, at the end of the day, brush off your bench top, empty your lap tray, and, sweep the floor. Doing this while the jobs you worked on during the day are in the cleaner helps to establish a routine. Perform a more complete job once a month.
Polishing Waste
A timetable for changing filters on a polishing machine varies greatly with the type of dust collection system you have. If dust accumulates on the wall near where the air comes out of the dust collector you have waited too long to clean it out and replace the filter. Changing the filters regularly not only helps profits by accumulating more precious metal dust, but also improves the health of the workers by not having to breathe all the dust and dirt into their lungs.
A sample schedule for a typical tabletop collector would be to clean out the polishing machine once a week, including vacuuming off the filter. Always vacuum from the side dirt enters the filter, never from the other side pulling dirt through the filter. Then change the filter every other month.
Floor Sweeps
Don’t let gold dust walk out of your shop - sweep the floor of the shop daily and mop monthly. Dump the dirty water from mopping in a sink with a gold trap in the drain. Never dump the water in the toilet or other drain without a trap.
Sink Trap
Precious metal particles are washed down the drain in many shops. To avoid this install a special precious metal trap in the drain line on the sink in the shop. There are several styles available from tool suppliers. Be certain to purchase one that is made to trap precious metal particles, not just loose stones. For the retail shop, the small drum trap with a separating screen is adequate. Clean this trap out whenever water slows going down the drain.
Used Tools
All broken sawblades should be collected and not thrown away as fine particles of gold are caught in the teeth and can be refined. Also all old emery paper, burs, bristle brushes, rubber abrasive wheels, anything you use to sand, grind, or polish gold needs to be saved with the polishing waste after they are worn out.
Choosing a Refiner
Refiners vary greatly in the minimum fees they charge and the rate of return they give. You should contact several refiners and receive their pricing chart before deciding upon the refiner to use. Find a refiner whose pricing structure fits with the amount of scrap you have to process. Never Pay A Minimum Refining Charge; if you do you are paying too much to get your scrap refined.
Sending in your scrap on a consistent yearly basis has its advantages. You can compare your return from one year to the next to make sure you are getting maximum return on your scrap. By keeping records, you develop a history of your precious metal recovery. This will help you predict what your returns should be, and investigate any major variations.
A typical timetable for a retail shop is to send in the low-grade scrap for refining once a year. This could be done around the first of the year after cleaning up the shop from the long Christmas hours. At that time, send in the high-grade scrap as well. Send both packages together with a note to the refiner, stating that you want the two packages refined in the most economical manner. Depending upon the size of your lots, they will refine them either together or separately whichever gives you the better return.
Enough high-grade scrap should be accumulated by the end of the summer to send it in a second time. Usually, not enough low-grade scrap is accumulated to send it in more than once a year. This has worked well for many stores. You need to weigh your scrap and decide what timetable would work best for your shop.
I must emphasize that time spent cleaning the shop is not extra time you need to find. It is time you would spend looking for stones etc. if you did not do the cleaning. It is just spending your time differently. If your bench and shop are organized and you clean it regularly it does not take that much time.
The following are a few tips to help you maximize the recovery of precious metal in your shop.
Workers should always wear an apron in the shop. This keeps gold from filing, grinding, and polishing operations from accumulating in their clothes and being washed down the drain. Thin leather with a tanned smooth surface is best. Cloth aprons, such as denim, are better than nothing, but they will accumulate precious metal down in the fabric. If cloth aprons are used they should not be washed but sent to the refiner to be burned and the gold recovered.
Place a piece of leather or mat board in the bottom of your lap tray. This will aid you in cleaning the sweeps out of your lap tray. Simply pick up the leather by the corners and dump the sweeps into the container for bench sweeps. This also protects stones from the hard metal bottom of the lap tray, when accidentally dropped.
A shop vacuum cleaner is a necessity. This makes clean up easier, and you will then be more likely to do it. This vacuum is for shop use only, and should never be used outside of the shop. Save all bags and send in with the polishing waste.
Place a doormat in the doorway of the shop. Employees can wipe their feet on it as they leave the shop. This will help in removing particles of precious metal off the soles of their shoes. Replace the mat annually and send the old mat to the refiner with the polishing waste.
If you pay the minimum refining charge you are paying the highest price to have your scrap refined. Always accumulate your scrap long enough to get beyond the minimum charge of the refiner. Never pay a minimum refining charge; if you do, you are paying too much to get your scrap refined.
Do not sell your scrap to a broker who comes into your store, estimates its value, and pays you cash. His margin more than exceeds the money you would save by cheating Uncle Sam on your income taxes.
When accumulating scrap always keep in mind this thought:
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Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry. James 1:19
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<> <> <> <> <> STEWART'S BENCH TIPS <> <> <> <> <>
Bench Tips from Stewart’s International School for Jewelers http://www.stewartsintlschool.com/
REMOVING A DENT FROM HOLLOW JEWELRY By Jim Stewart
There are many ways to remove a dent from hollow jewelry. One method is to pour water into an opening, filling it to the top. Then put tape over the end and put in your freezer. The water will expand when frozen pushing out on the dent. You may have to do this more than once to completely remove the dent. This also works in removing dents from candlestick holders.
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Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives Willa A. Foster
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Tips for working on Platinum from Jurgen J. Maerz CMBJ, director of technical education for Platinum Guild International http://www.pgi-platinum-tech.com/
Sometimes when annealing platinum it is possible to contaminate the platinum with other metals. Some filings or solder chips on a soldering surface or any other metal on the bench can be melted into platinum, thus contaminating the area.
To repair, grind the contamination away with a ball burr leaving a hole that can be filled. Next, take a small piece of the same platinum alloy the object is made of and weld it to fill the hole. Filing the excess metal away, you create an invisible repair. To prevent this contamination from happening in the first place, soak the platinum in a 10% solution of Nitric acid for about 10 minutes, before you begin annealing, welding or soldering.
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SIMON SEZ SEMINARS
Bradney W. Simon is an accomplished platform speaker, providing Keynote Speeches, and Educational Seminars. Topics include:
For information on having him speak for your organization log onto; http://www.BWSimon.com/SimonSez Seminars
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A small cotton buff for your flex-shaft can easily be made to polish recesses and other areas that are small and difficult to access. First, take an old ball bur small enough to fit into the area. Then wrap cotton around the bur by holding the bur against a small piece of cotton while turning slowly in your flex- shaft. Apply rouge to the cotton and use to polish the area.
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Use the edge of an old file to reshape or true rubber based emery wheel and points.
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Grind a bevel on the end of the shank on all your burs. Then they will be easier to insert into your flex-shaft handpiece when using.
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Before beginning to set any stone remove all tools from your lap tray. Even a diamond can be chipped it if hits a hard steel tool when dropped.
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Be careful when retipping any stone with points such as pear, marquise, and princess shape stones. Metal and stones expand and contract by different amounts when heated and cooled. A problem can develop during retipping if solder is allowed to flow completely around the point of a stone. The solder will contract as it cools squeezing the point. This may cause it to break off.
The best method to retip a stone with a point is to make a cap in the shape of the prong. Then with a minimum of solder, attach the cap to the top of the prong. Do not allow solder to flow under the stone completely encircling the stone point. If the prong has worn to the point that it needs more work than just a cap, it is best to remove the stone and replace the crown or prong.
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When doing channel setting place a strip of tape over the stones. This will keep them from bouncing out of place when hammering.
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Rings with by-pass shanks are right hand and left hand specific and are not interchangeable. When creating a ring with a by- pass shank, the side of the shank closest to the hand should come from the side of little finger. The ring will then sit straight on the finger. This is because the skin joining the fingers together is lower between the little finger and the ring finger than between the ring finger and the middle finger. If the ring is built with the shank going the other way, the shank will contact the hand on the middle finger side first and cause the ring to twist while wearing it.
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Sizing heavy gent’s rings can be difficult because of the metal thickness in the shank. Straightening the ring on a ring mandrel can be particularly challenging. Using a lead-filled weighted rawhide mallet, or a dead-blow mallet will provide the extra force needed to make this job easier. In addition, when spreading a shank for up sizing, one of these mallets can be used to force the ring down on a ring mandrel, after sawing through the shank.
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After coiling wire around a mandrel, thread the saw blade through the coil to cut the jump rings apart, and saw from the inside out. This makes sawing the coil easier as blades tend to slide when starting to cut from the outside of the coil.
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If you have a tip you would like to share with our readers send it in an e-mail to mailto:Brad@BWSimon.com
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If you like Favorite Tips then you’ll love Favorite Tip of the Day a bench tip provided daily Monday through Friday on various Internet web sites including: http://www.jewelrydealersnetwork.com/ http://www.ganoksin.com/orchid/orchid.htm
If you know of a jewelers’ bulletin board or discussion channel that you would like to see Favorite Tip of the Day posted on, have the administrator contact me at Brad@BWSimon.com
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Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan “Press On” has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race. Calvin Coolidge 30th U. S. President
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Stone setting tips from Gemz Diamond Setting http://www.gemzdiamondsetting.com/index.html
CHANNEL SETTING By Gerald N. Lewy
If I have to hammer a channel-set stone to secure it, I do not do the hammering while holding the ring in a wooden clamp. I find that the wooden holder absorbs the downward force. A better approach is to place the ring on a steel mandrel. On a steel mandrel, the hammering has more force and the movement of the gold onto the diamond/stone is more definite. You can apply more downward force with less repetitive hammering motions.
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Copyrighted, 2002, B W Simon. All rights reserved.
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