Assembly of a wax ring prior to casting - 17 photos.

 One of the most important aspects of wax and metal casting is the assembly of the wax.

 All areas of the preferred wax MUST BE CLEANED of residual that was taken from the rubber mold.

 Here you can see the difference between the 'injected wax' and the 'casted ring'.

  I'd prefer if the Tube for the diamond be adjusted for size BEFORE THE CASTING HAS STARTED.

 This wax ring is too difficult to cast as it appears here. There will be numerous problems starting to occur. That is why the wax ring has been created in two pieces, hence the two sprues being shown.

It would be advisable if you examine the 'connecting' spots to make sure that they will fit together.

When the 'joining spots' are connected, always examine the actual wax for any pinholes. Always examine ANY WAX RING FOR DEFECTS, it's too late after the metal casting.

I prefer to see if the sprues are of the required length. These sprues need to be made long enough as the ring(s) must be attached to the 'wax tree'. DO NOT JOIN THE WAX before the metal casting.

 If you are setting large stones, make sure that the openings are of the exact size. As this will save you much time and labour.

                         QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELF!

 Have you selected the correct sizes of stones? 

Are the selected stones of the correct colours?

Have the wax claws made to fit the stones?

Are the sprues long enough?

Lastly, are these waxes CLEAN?

 Use a low-temperature wax heating pen, why? If the heating pen is too hot, the chances of melting the wax will cause you much 'grief' and time being wasted in casting another wax.

 Every one of these 'shared claws' is of the same size. Thus making the 'stone setting' a much easier task if you are a beginner.

  This is when 'setting stones in wax' can be a great way to get the stones into the metal. There must not be any need for 'pushing claws' after casting.

 You can easily see that only one claw is actually holding the stone.

 This is my 'low-heat' wax pen and I prescribe it for melting wax on the delicate areas of wax jewellery.

 This is the up-close photo of the 'shared claw' ring. You will notice how uniform and thick the claws were made ready for metal casting.

This ring is the same for the two pieces seen in this essay, they were earrings. In fact, the earrings were made for my daughter Stephanie.

 This 3 wax ring style is of one casting. There must never be any residual pieces of wax remaining as it could be a disaster in cleaning after the metal casting.

 If by any chance you see some claws missing or being too short, don't waste your time fixing them. STOP and INJECT ANOTHER WAX FORM. I would, so why should you?