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Here is your next issue of E-BENCH. Thanks for subscribing.
<=> <=> <=> <=> E-BENCH <=> <=> <=> <=> The E-Mail Newsletter for Bench Jewelers
July 2004 Volume 5 Issue 07 circulation over 3,100
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<=> <=> ABOUT THIS NEWSLETTER <=> <=>
E-BENCH is a FREE monthly newsletter for Retail Jewelry Store Owners, Shop Managers, Bench Jewelers and Anyone Else That Is Interested.
We encourage you to forward this newsletter to anyone that you think may benefit from it, provided you forward all of it without modification and not just portions of it. This document may NOT be distributed for profit. E-BENCH is a copyrighted newsletter and all rights are reserved!
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E-BENCH is a BENCH MEDIA Publication BENCH MEDIA is a B W Simon Company Bradney W Simon – Publisher Daniel Spirer - Proofreader
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<=> <=> <=> TABLE OF CONTENTS <=> <=> <=>
REVERE’S TIPS FOR JEWELERS Tips for Jewelers, Who Do Repairs from Alan Revere
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 and more productive from Bradney W. Simon CMBJ and E-BENCH Readers.
GERRY’S GEMZ Stone setting tips from Gemz Diamond Setting
WORKSHOP SAFETY FOR JEWELERS Tips from Charles Lewton-Brian
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PLATINUM TECHNICAL TRAINING TOUR 2004 Technical Training for Bench Jewelers This bench jeweler session will feature invaluable, practical information about working with platinum, straight from PGI’s Director of Technical Education Jurgen Maerz. Among the topics: – Platinum alloys – Ring sizing and repairs – Finishing techniques – Casting techniques & porosity
REGISTRATION Call 800 207 PLAT with your choice of tour location, number of people who will be attending and payment info. Upon receipt of registration, a final confirmation will be faxed.
FEES Payment Methods: Credit card, check or cash (at the door of event) Bench Jeweler Training: $30 per person. Stores sending five or more people receive a group discount rate of $25 per person. Beverages and appetizers will be provided for general sessions. Each session will feature raffles with exciting giveaways, and every attendee will receive a goodie bag!
TOUR SCHEDULE: LOS ANGELES – AUGUST 11 Marriott Los Angeles Airport
SEATTLE – AUGUST 17 Renaissance Seattle Hotel
SAN FRANCISCO – AUGUST 18 Airport Marriott
DALLAS – SEPTEMBER 8 Omni Dallas Park West
HOUSTON – SEPTEMBER 9 Marriott JW Hotel
BOSTON – SEPTEMBER 21 Marriott Boston Burlington
DC METRO AREA – SEPTEMBER 22 Marriott Fairview Park
MIAMI – OCTOBER 7 Marriott Miami, Dadeland
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<=> <=> REVERE’S TIPS FOR JEWELERS <=> <=>
Tips for Jewelers Who Do Repairs from Alan Revere Revere Academy of Jewelry Arts
AN EASY WAY TO FILL SMALL HOLES IN METAL
Let’s say that during the final polishing of a cast ring with an opal you discover a pit in the metal that’s too big to burnish closed. Or maybe you fabricated a hollow ring with a small air hole in the back, to allow gases to go in and out during soldering, and you now need to close the hole. In either case, you cannot fill the hole with solder, nor can you bur out and then solder in a plug. What do you do?
Here is a surefire way to fill a small hole in metal, either in a fabricated or cast piece. Begin by drilling through the hole with as small a drill bit as possible. Now select a piece of round wire made of the same alloy as the piece, but slightly larger. Using a file, taper the wire so the tip will go in the hole.
Now place the wire in a pin vise and slowly jam it into the hole, twisting it as you force it in. When the wire will not go in any further and fits the hole tightly, cut it off and file it down until it’s flush with the ring. Sand, polish, and voilá—you have totally hidden the hole. There isn’t even a solder seam to discolor.
This Tip is from the forthcoming book "101 Bench Tips for Jewelers" written by Alan Revere and published by MJSA/AJM Press.
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Creativity is a drug I cannot live without. Cecil B. DeMille
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Go to www.jdn.cc and join JDN, the information & trading network for jewelry industry professionals. At only $29.95 a month it’s a bargain!
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<=> <=> <=> FEATURE ARTICLE <=> <=> <=> THE BEST LAID PLANS A Bench Jeweler’s Guide to Planning Their Daily Work Part 2 of 4
Can you imagine going on a vacation without doing any planning. You just get in your car and start driving. Each time you come to a junction in the road you randomly choose to turn left or right, or go straight, and you spend your entire vacation haphazardly choosing which road to travel on.
You may be an avid skier and you just happen to come upon one of the most beautiful Ski resorts. However, because you did not do any planning you are there in the middle of the summer and there is no snow. Or you may love to go to the beach and you spend hours driving down a road that just happens to be parallel to a magnificent beach. You miss going to the beach even though it is only 5 or 10 miles away because you don’t know it is there. You may enjoy amusement parks and spend your entire vacation driving around the country and never find an amusement park, simply because you did not do any planning for your vacation.
I’m sure you’re thinking “That’s crazy; no one would take a vacation without at least planning on where they are going.” However that is exactly how many jewelers work. They take a job envelope out of their work box and work on it. Then they pull out another job and work on it. All day long they work haphazardly on jobs that just happen to be pulled out of the box without giving any thought to their work or making any plan. Most Americans spend more time planning two weeks of vacation than they do planning the other 50 weeks of their year.
Let’s take the vacation analogy a little further. Suppose you did plan your vacation. Your plan was to head east to spend a couple of days at a beach, then travel north to spend a day at an amusement park, and then drive west to spend a few days at a mountain cabin before heading home.
You leave home driving east toward the beach, but before you arrive at the beach you decide you have been going east long enough and you want to start going toward the amusement park and head north. After just a few hours of heading north you decide you’re tired of going north and really want to head toward the mountains and so you turn west. A while later you realize that you really need to be heading toward the beach as that is your first destination, so you turn the car around and head back east. Before you know it your week vacation is up and you have not reached any of your destinations. You have spent the entire week driving in circles.
Now I know some of you are thinking that is the stupidest thing I’ve heard of. No one would ever spend their vacation driving in circles, and I agree. However, that is exactly how many bench jewelers spend their day. They work on this project for a little while then they start doing a few repairs. A while later they are tired of doing that so they start something else, then they go back to what they started in the morning, but before finishing they start a few more repairs. On and on they go working in circles all day long and at the end of the day they cannot understand how they could work all day long and not get anything finished.
Often bench jewelers feel that planning their day’s work is too restrictive and confining, and they like to be more spontaneous. I agree to a point. Planning can be very restrictive. I’m sure we all know people who plan their vacations that way. They schedule down to the minute where they will be at each moment and what they will do, and look out for the person who would dare change those plans. However, let’s not throw the baby out with the bath water. The opposite extreme of not planning at all is just as detrimental to our productivity, if not more so. Planning should be seen as a tool to help us reach our destination rather than a strict set of rules that cannot be broken.
Plan your work and work your plan. If you fail to plan you are planning to fail. These are well-worn phrases about planning your work to accomplish more. They have been widely used because they are true. One minute spent in planning saves several minutes in execution.
A ‘To Do’ list is an excellent tool to effectively plan your workday. On it you can list all the activities needed to be done, and then schedule those activities in the order you want or need to work on them. An alternative to writing a To Do list is to use a ‘To Do’ card system. Each project is written on a card and filed in order of importance. Then work on the project on the first card. When it is completed, throw the card away and move on to the second.
For jewelers planning their work, a deviation of this card system is used. Instead of writing out cards for each project, the job envelopes are used. A daily work tray is used to place the envelopes in. Organize the envelopes so that the envelope in front will be worked on first. The second envelope will be worked on next, etc. The envelope in the back of the tray will be worked on last. If it is not finished it would be moved to the front of the tray the next day.
Sort the Envelopes To organize the envelopes, take all the jobs from the workbox filed under today’s date. When the day’s work is pulled out of the box, move the divider to the back of the box. Then the next day’s work is always in front of the workbox.
Sort each job into groups of similar work. Place all the downsizings into one group, the upsizings into another, place all the chain repairs together, place all the retipping together and a group for all stone setting, etc.
If one piece of jewelry has more than one job to do, place it in the group of work you will do first. For example, an envelope with a ring to be sized and a stone to be set should be placed in the group of ring sizings. Later in the day after the ring is sized, place the ring back in the envelope. Then move the envelope to the group of stone setting jobs.
Envelopes should never have more than one piece of jewelry in it as in a ring to be sized and a chain to be soldered. If it does, take one item out of the envelope and write out a new envelope for it. This way you can place the envelopes in the appropriate group of jobs.
Once you sort the envelopes into groups, look them over. If only one or two jobs are in one group, check the due dates to see if you can wait a day to begin them. Next check the workbox and see if there are similar jobs to do the next day. If you can wait a day and group this job with similar work tomorrow, file it back in the workbox.
Next, check the workbox to see if there is a job or two of work similar to what you will be doing during the day. If there is, pull them out and add them to the appropriate group. One or two jobs added to a group of work will not take much additional time to perform. It will take much longer to do this job by itself tomorrow.
By grouping your work together like this, much more work can be accomplished in the same amount of time. A typical schedule would be to size rings every Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings and repair chains on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and saving the afternoons for larger more difficult repairs including stone setting, prong retipping, custom work, etc.
In arranging, your workday, be cautious of the fact that; Work Expands to Fill the Time Allowed for It. Have you ever noticed on days where you have a lot of work to do, you concentrate your efforts and finish all the work. However, on days where you do not have as much work to do, by the end of the day all you have accomplished is that work. You have not accomplished nearly the amount of work that you know that you could have accomplished. Somehow, these few jobs just seemed to take all day to do. If we have an eight-hour day to accomplish our work, we usually take eight hours to accomplish our work regardless of the amount of work that we have to do.
Step back and look over the work you have laid out to work on and ask yourself: Is this a full day’s work? If not go back to your workbox and take some additional work and start to work on the next day’s work so that you will have a full day’s work to do today. It also never hurts to be a little ahead in the shop.
Another method to fill the day with more work is to keep large jobs in the back of your tray. This would include remounts where you need to solder crowns and set stones, as well as all custom work. Each day in the afternoon as you get small blocks of time you can start working on these jobs. Break these jobs down into several small blocks of time, instead of having to plan for a major portion of a day to do that one job. Work on these jobs over a period of several days a little bit at a time. You can finish a large job, which would normally take several hours, during the time that would normally be wasted.
It can also be time used for making custom pieces for stock. By placing a few stock jobs in the back of your work tray, you can begin work on these when you have extra time. You can also spend this time cleaning the shop. This will result in extra profits from the refiner, and increase productivity from the clean organized shop. In addition, any maintenance work can be done during this time.
These are a few methods to fill in extra work at the end of the day. By doing them you avoid falling into the trap of having a small amount of work expand and fill your whole day. You will be more productive and add extra profits to the shop.
After you have sorted through the day’s work, put away your workbox. Place it either back in the safe or in a drawer; some place that is out of sight because as they say; “Out of sight out of mind”. You will not be able to achieve maximum productivity if you are distracted by the amount of work you have to do during the next several days. To be most productive you must concentrate on the work you are doing. You cannot concentrate on that work if you keep looking back through your workbox. You cannot concentrate on the task at hand, if you are concerned about how you will finish all the work in your workbox. It also helps keep your security tighter. You do not need to have all of the customers' jobs lying around the shop.
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<=> <=> QUOTE WORTH RE-QUOTING <=> <=>
A mistake is only a mistake if you don't learn from it. Anonymous
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The Ganoksin Project
www.ganoksin.com
The Gem and Jewelry Pre-Eminent Online Resources. Open to the
public
Free of Charge.
A substantial library of articles, publications, reports, and technical data on gem and jewelry related topics; as well as a sizable collection of art and jewelry galleries, for both the casual visitor and the professional, also host the popular Orchid online forums for jewelers.
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<=> <=> STEWART'S BENCH TIPS <=> <=>
Bench Tips from Stewart’s International School for Jewelers http://www.stewartsintlschool.com/
How To Repair A Broken Hollow Chain By Jim Stewart
Take time to clean the chain because oils and hairspray may get inside the hollow links. You may have to clean the chain using a mixture of one tablespoon of Red Devil Lye to a few cups of water at 180F. If you use this solution you will need proper ventilation. You can cut through link one on both sides using an ultra thin cutoff disc or you can unsolder the links using a small reducing flame and twist the link a little using soldering tweezers. Now weave link one into link two and solder together using paste solder. Then weave the other link one into link two and solder the same way. Paste solder is not necessary but it is a little faster.
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Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later. Og Mandino
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Run Your Shop Without It Running You A Practical Guide To Efficient Shop Management
With over one hundred and fifty pages of information, illustrations, and worksheets, this is the most comprehensive book on Shop Management available today.
This Valuable Guide Is A Must In Every Retail Jewelry Store
“For too many years, Simon says, jewelry store owners have believed the fallacy the shop can’t be a profit center. He destroys that notion step-by-step with a practical book that shows owners and shop mangers the keys to profitability.” Professional Jeweler Magazine
Only $39.95 (US dollars) plus S&H - $4.00 US, $10 International
Send your order and check to: B W Simon 106 S. Pinepoint Dr. Spartanburg, SC 29307 U S A
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<=> <=> AT THE PLATINUM BENCH <=> <=>
Tips that working with Platinum or working at the bench in general - easier from Jurgen J. Maerz CMBJ, Director of Technical Education for Platinum Guild International http://www.pgi-platinum-tech.com
* Installing a simple wood screw on the side of your bench will make it possible to open and close jump rings with ease.
* When remounting diamonds from an old ring, it is usually somewhat difficult to clean them. For a quick and easy solution, place a small amount of table salt into your hand and add the diamonds. Rub the salt and diamonds together. The abrasiveness of the salt will clean the stones without scratching them. Once they are clean, just rinse the salt away using warm water.
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<=> <=> QUOTE WORTH RE-QUOTING <=> <=>
Common sense is genius dressed in its working clothes. Ralph Waldo Emerson
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SIMON SEZ SEMINARS
Bradney W. Simon is a JA Certified Master Bench Jeweler with over 26 years experience on the bench. He is the Editor and Publisher of E-BENCH, BENCH Magazine, and BENCH ROM, and is an accomplished platform speaker, providing Keynote Speeches, and Educational Seminars.
Topics include: Shop Management Bench Tips Jewelry Demonstrations
For information on having him speak for your organization, log onto; http://www.BWSimon.com/SimonSez Seminars
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<=> <=> <=> FAVORITE TIPS <=> <=> <=>
When setting marquise stones, bend the
side
prongs over the stone first. Then when the
side prongs are tight, bend the tip
prongs or
V-Tips over the points of the stone to
protect
them from chipping.
Setting the stone in this manner limits
the
amount of pressure applied to the
fragile tips
of the stone.
When setting pear shaped
stones, first bend the
point prong or V-Tip. Then place the stone
into the crown, and push
the remaining prongs
over the stone to secure
it.
Setting the stone in this manner limits
the
amount of pressure applied to the
fragile tip
of the stone.
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Grind a knife-edge on the end of an
equaling
needle file. Then, it will be easier to insert
into the seam of a joint to true it up
before
soldering. This works particularly well on
truing up the ends of a shank when
sizing.
Another method to true up the ends of a
shank
when sizing is to re-saw directly
through the
seam. The sawblade will remove a little metal
from each side of the seam creating a
perfect
tight fitting seam.
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Use only plumb solders for
retipping. Low
karat solder will tarnish
in time leaving a
dark line on the prong
where the solder is.
This is also true for
soldering crowns to a
ring. If a customer comes in complaining of a
dark spot around the base
of a crown, it is
from using low karat
solder. To fix, remove
the crown, clean off the
old solder from the
ring, and install a new
crown with plumb
solder.
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ALWAYS check the stone with a loupe or microscope before you begin to push the prongs over the stone. Then check AGAIN once the prongs are part way down and the stone no longer rocks. The small amount of extra time taken to check the seats can save a lot of heartbreak latter.
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Fasten down foot petals on
your flex shaft and
steamer.
Then they cannot get kicked
around and you will
not waste time looking for
them.
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If you have a tip you would like to share with our readers send it in an e-mail to
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Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds. Philippians 4: 6&7
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BENCH ROM The Multi-Media Magazine for Bench Jewelers
BENCH ROM is an affordable method to learn new skills and develop your career. Discover New Techniques Learn New Tips to Improve Your Work See New Products and Technologies Demonstrated All right from your home or shop without having to travel to a seminar or trade show.
“Bench Rom is great,” says jeweler Bill Scores “It’s like being in the shop of a Master Jeweler and watching over his shoulder.”
Log onto www.BWSimon.com/BenchRom for more information or to subscribe
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<=> <=> <=> GERRY’S GEMZ <=> <=> <=>
Stone setting tips from Gemz Diamond Setting http://www.gemzdiamondsetting.com/index.html by Gerald N. Lewy
ARE YOU HAVING AN “EMOTIONAL” INVOLVMENT….with your Retail Jewelry Inventory? It isn’t worth the effort!
Buying jewelry and selling jewelry are two completely different things. When you sell jewelry to a customer you want to impart an emotion to them, as the pieces will represent some special occasion to them: a birthday, anniversary, wedding, even bereavement. It is important that they feel emotion when buying these items because they do not necessarily represent an object but a feeling. You need to help them attach this emotion to the piece because that helps them to feel comfortable buying the piece.
However buying the jewelry that you are going to sell to someone else should not carry this same emotional attachment to you. If you buy pieces because they have a strong emotional attachment to you, then you won’t have a vested interest in selling the item to someone else (which is why you are in business). Also if you buy a piece because you feel strongly about it, you are unable to look impartially at whether or not the piece will appeal to most of your customers. If it doesn’t appeal to them, then you are the one who gets stuck with the inventory and won’t have the money to pay your bills. Inventory cannot make you money if it sits in your cases. As styles change, or even your own taste changes you will suddenly find that you have far too many of those pieces that appealed only to you in your cases.
“Gerry, the Cyber–Setter!” very attached to gemz@ican.net and also involved with www.gemzdiamondsetting.com …get my drift?
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<=> <=> QUOTE WORTH RE-QUOTING <=> <=>
Choose a job you love and you will never work a day in your life. Confucius
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New from MJSA/AJM Press The AJM Guide to Lost-Wax Casting
Learn from the masters how to achieve smooth, porosity-free castings! The AJM Guide to Lost- Wax Casting offers an abundance of best practices, handy tips, and troubleshooting techniques. How to create trouble-free master models to proper breakout procedures.
Contributing experts include: Charles Lewton-Brain, Jurgen J. Maerz, Gregg Todd, Michael Bondanza, and many more.
For sample chapters and more information, go to http://www.ajm-magazine.com/pub_press.php
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<=> <=> WORKSHOP SAFETY FOR JEWELERS <=> <=>
Workshop Safety Tips From Charles Lewton-Brian
SMALL CHANGES COUNT Have you noticed how these days any reduction in overall fat content in your food is considered a good thing and that small reductions in fat consumption in your diet add up to overall reductions in fat in your eating habits? That is the basic idea in safety and substitutions to lower risk. No particular magic, just a consciousness of the problem and a concerted effort to reduce all (or most) contact with hazardous substances and procedures in your workshop. Any reduction in contact is a positive reduction.
For more information on Workshop safety from Charles Lewton-Brian log onto: http://www.ganoksin.com/borisat/safety.htm
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<=> <=> Thank You for Reading <=> <=>
We are on the World Wide Web. Visit us at http://www.BWSimon.com A complete archive of back issues of E-BENCH is located there.
Visit often, as we will be making changes to our site, adding additional useful information for bench jewelers.
<=> <=> SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION <=> <=>
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Information provided in this document is provided ‘As Is’ without warranty of any kind, either expressed or implied. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information concerning the subject matter covered. It is provided with the understanding that the author or publisher is not engaged in rendering legal, accounting, or other professional services. If legal advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional person should be sought.
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For editorial suggestions, comments, ideas or requests, please send an E-Mail to
Copyrighted, 2004, BENCH MEDIA. All rights reserved.
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