Errors in retipping claws => 4 photos

 I was looking at a friend's mother's ring and noticed some irregularities with the centre stone claws.

 This ring caught my immediate attention, and I asked her to let me take a few photos of it. Here is what I saw, an amazing discovery, agree?

 Her ring was recently retipped, and one claw was not even resting on the stone. We both were in agreement that this should be attended to as soon as possible. Imagine having a 'keepsake' diamond held in place with only 3 claws?

 

  Just because the ring was highly polished does not mean that it has no further problems.

 When you are examining any 'previously worn' jewellery, always check the condition of the claws =>before and afterwards.<=

 Just for some interesting pieces of information. You can see that the 4-claw settings were soldered together with the collection of other wedding bands. I hope that this is a good lesson for you.

 

How does your watch movement, move? => 8 photos

  I took these photos with the aid of my 600x power Digital Microscope. You can now see the jewelled stone that enables the rotating gear to move relatively easily and with little effort.

 I won't go into details on how the gears are held in position. But suffice it to say, the ruby stone allows a smoother-running and more accurate timepiece.

  Here you can see the two ruby stones that were cut to exacting proportions. The gems were shaped to allow the gears to rotate without any friction.

 What keeps the ruby stone in place? It is the "snap-on" locking gasket. Instead of oiling the rotating stem every few days or weeks, the Ruby stone will allow the twisting stem to rotate for years with no problems.

 For a better running mechanism, the manufacturer designed this movement with 5 Rubies. The optimum number of gemstones is 21.

 The more synthetic gemstones being used will allow the watch movement to effectively run without any undue friction.

 

CAD created "AZURE" design => 9 photos

What is an "AZURE" pattern? Where is it used and why? 

                                 ====================

  When there is a hollow ring to be worn, the thin edges will dig into the skin of the finger.

 This flat plate will sit against the finger and relieve the wearer of the ongoing pain in the finger.

 In this photo, you can see many areas of residual wax remaining, and this needs to be corrected. PLEASE BE VERY GENTLE.

 These 'Azure' patterns are difficult to cut by hand. The next option is to create the design using a "Computer Aided Design" program. This will create an estimated 38-40 holes, all in a symmetrical pattern. The number of holes depends upon the size of the ring.

 Can you imagine a hexagonal pattern cut by hand for your numerous rings? Once the pattern has been created on your computer, all that is left is to hit 'start'.

 You will then have many ring inserts sitting on your bench, ready to be soldered into the rings.

 

 This is where the 'Azure' inserts will be positioned. There will be no more 'edges of the rings' cutting into the skin of your client's finger. Such a nice relief, eh?

 There will be times when the wax casting might not be clean, and having wax everywhere. The only option is to carefully open up the holes to remove any residual wax. DO THIS BEFORE YOUR METAL CASTING.

  

  When the metal casting has been completed then you can trim & file the pattern, then polish the insert. I'd do all of the cleaning just before the complete assembly.

  Be very gentle with this wax form; don't harm the wax in this delicate stage. Have the sprue resting against the underside of the plate. Don't put any finger pressure on the oval of the plate, as this might break the wax.

 When you have the sprue attached to the underside of the plate. Stop what you are doing and proceed to the metal casting. Why is this?

 REMEMBER that the wax is VERY DELICATE and the chances of breakage are at 90+%.

 This is exactly what 'we' are aiming for, which is a clean-looking Azure plate.

 

EXTREMELY THIN Bracelet, with many sprues => 11 photos

 This bracelet is wide, but extremely thin. This was a challenge. I decided to attach numerous sprues just to allow the metal to flow with ease. (I even thought about not starting it, but my client needed it as soon as possible).

 Given the size of this bracelet, the weight is only 2.6 grams. Attaching the many wax sprues was a great challenge for me.

 

 When viewing the thickness of the bracelet wax, you now readily see the problems waiting to happen without the many extra sprues.

 If I didn't have these extra sprues, the bracelet would not go through the complete casting process.

There would be missing sections because of the thin bracelet.

  I wanted every millimetre of investment to be able to receive the hot flowing metal. 

 I used three thicknesses of wax rods. What you are looking at is almost 2 hours of 'planning and sprue assembly'. There was a 60% chance of complete failure. OUCH!!! 

  I had to 'double and triple check' to see if all of the sprues were attached to the inside of the bracelet. Every contact had to be thoroughly attached to the underneath bracelet.

  The top section was very important to my client for obvious 'horse racing' reasons.

 When I looked at only three connecting wax rods, instinctively, I thought that these would not be enough. I kept adding more sprues until my mind was clear on the outcome.

 That ultra-thick piece of wax is where the injecting wax would enter the crucible. I had to inevitably think of everything, this is what I was getting paid for!

 Every sprue connection had to be 100% secure for the final casting. Did I go overboard with the attaching MORE sprues? I'd rather be extra safe than be sorry and waste my time and ruin my client's confidence in me.

 This bracelet was nearly "a disaster waiting to happen". But thinking of the outcome in adding more sprues saved this bracelet.

"Horse ring" wax sprues - 11 photos

 This ring has many opportunities for 'failing', as many areas need extra wax sprues. I will explain the reasons in detail. 

 The first chance of failure is insufficient wax flowing to the 'stirrups'.

  As I don't want to disturb these stirrups, I'll just have to work around them.

 The bottom of the ring is quite thin, and an extra amount of wax is needed to avoid any unforeseen problems.

  I coloured the eye in case I wanted to set any gemstones. I always plan ahead for any gentle modifications.

 These details are so delicate that any wax sprues might just ruin the facial contours. The nape of the neck must not have any filing, as this could again cause many filing & polishing problems.

 To overcome any metal not flowing to the correct spots, I decided to add extra sprues where necessary.

  The wax sprue at the bottom wasn't enough for the metal to flow. So I decided to add one more to the inside of the hollow sections, namely the head areas.

 This head had so many areas that must not be touched, I just avoided that delicate area at all costs.

  How was I going to polish the metal? My only recourse is to 'Magnetic Tumble' the facial areas, but not TOUCHING THE HAIR AND OTHER DELICATE AREAS. Big challenge!!!

 I am obsessed with the flow of metal to many areas. I inserted another wax sprue just in case one section wasn't to my liking.

 It's nice to add a new sprue, but it's another thing that the sprue joins correctly to the ring.

 You can easily see cracks in the wax, as this is a major problem, as the sprue might just break away. 

 I created a flat-shaped sprue to join the ring. Why is this? 

The metal will now reach all areas of the inside of the shank.

 

MY CAD ring => 4 photos

  All together, this was one of my nicest creations. This ring was of a 3-piece construction. I tried to mix two metal colours into this ring, and it was successful.

 I wanted to show how the wax image would look prior to metal casting. All of the stone setting is to be initiated AFTER METAL CASTING. I name this process "planning for setting & spacing".

 In this wax format, I must be wary that there are no irregularities or defects before the actual metal casting. There must not be any spacing at the end of the claw setting, as seen here.

 This added ring with '8-circle' has a definite purpose. This ring is named as "Azure" it is used as a resting place for your finger. 

My CAD designer (at the time) never heard of this name; he was glad that I taught him about it.

 Without this particular added 'inside ring' is a testament to my training many decades ago. 

Cleaning your 'ring top' settings => 8 photos

 I've been displaying the same photos of my creations. Each time, I would use different explanations based on these topics.                                                      ==================================

 These holes are still to be drilled through for stone setting. I would prefer to do the actual drilling when the ring top is in metal. In wax, there could be problems when dealing with ultra-soft wax.

 

  I always prefer to add 'extra sprues' when working with new rings. These need to have the metal flow into deeper recesses of the ring.
 This photo shows why I used a 'split-sprue' layout.

 Any wax contacts that are connecting to a ring top should not interfere with the pattern. You can see that I've added more 'joining wax sprues' to the rear of the ring-top pattern.

 You can now see that no sprue is interfering with the basic design.

 Clean up any residual wax that is remaining. If the wax is like this, 'messy and mediocre' in its application...STOP and start again!!!

 There are still a few remnants of wax lingering in many of the setting holes. BE GENTLE WITH THE WAX.

 That is exactly why 'drilling in the metal' is best under these delicate circumstances.

 I used a '3-toothed' bur that is just fantastic in opening up the hole. This hole is where the 4-claw post will be inserted after metal casting.