How To Project #1, part 2 of 2

Continuing our project that we started the other day....

Okay, so you've got your domes done.  Let's go ahead and make the rest of your parts, shall we? 

Step 1

Make the jump rings to connect the domes.  You'll need the 3/16" dowel and the 20g sterling round wire.  Sand the end of your wire (however much you're going to use) with 400 grit sandpaper.  Clamp the dowel in a vise.  You want a short end sticking out on one side. Coil the wire around the dowel, making a nice tight coil, with no spaces.  Each coil will end up being one jump ring, so if they're all stretched out they won't be round.  If you have trouble getting started, clamp the end of your wire in the vise, right with the dowel.  Then you'll saw into your rings and the dowel at angle.  Make sure you only cut the top side of the rings--cutting at an angle reduces the odds of cutting all the way through. 

They may pull apart slightly as you cut.  That's normal.

As to how many rings you should make, that's really up to you.  You will need three rings of this size for this project.  I usually make a few extras.  A lot of the time the first coil or two isn't as tight as the rest, and a few extra jump rings are always handy to have around.  If you decide to make a billion and the end of the dowel starts getting in the way, cut it off.  You're using it as a disposable mandrel.

Now, some books will show you to make the coil and then use wire nips to cut the rings.  This is perfectly fine--if you don't care how it looks, or about the sturdiness of the closure.  The difference is easily illustrated.

A jump ring cut with wire cutters only has one very small point of contact to keep it closed.  If you saw your jump rings, the entire end of each ring touches.  This also makes soldering much easier, and there will be soldering quite soon.

Once you've cut your 20g jump rings, switch out for the 1/8" dowel and the fourteen gauge wire.  Repeat the procedure so you have at least two 14g jump rings.  Don't forget to sand with 400!

Step 2

Cut the neck wire and make the hook.  For the neck wire itself, take the 14g and cut an appropriate length.  I'll be honest, I just wrapped it around my neck and eyeballed it.  Remember when you do this that your class will take up 3/4"-1", so leave it a hair on the short side.  If I were to measure what I cut, it's probably around 15" or so.  You may need more or less, depending on your neck size.  File the ends flat.  You can use a machinist's vise for this if you have one, or just do it by hand.  Sand the length with 400 grit when you're done.

The hook is trickier, and I apologize that I have no pictures.  You might want to try it in copper a couple of times.  I've actually done this clasp several times before and screwed it up (in my defense it's been a while). Again, sand the end of the wire before you get started.  Take the end of the 14g wire and hammer it flat.  Round off the end with a file.  Take your round nose pliers and make a bend at the end of the flat portion, then make a curve just past that in the opposite direction.

Here's some diagrams to give you and idea of where you're going with this.  Once you've gotten the hook formed, bend the end down a little bit.

Cut your hook off the wire.  Leave a little extra on there, about like in the illustration above.  File this end flat.  This will give you a base to solder with, and space to operate the clasp.

All of the parts we've done so far today can be worked on while you're waiting on stuff in the pickle, as well as after you've completed the domes.  Either way, you should have all your parts now.

Disregard the smaller jump rings in this illustration.  I initially made them with a 1/8" inner diameter, which doesn't let it hang right.  This is what happens when you design on the fly.

 The hook and larger jump rings.  These three pieces will form the clasp.

This is what your smaller jump rings should look like.

Step 3

Solder the clasp to the neck wire.  You will need at least two grades of solder (hard and medium, or if you feel really confident, medium and easy).  You'll solder one ring to each end of the neck wire, and then the hook to one ring.  This could, theoretically, be accomplished in one go, with one grade of solder, but let's take things one step at a time.

So, lay the neck wire down on your soldering space, and butt a ring up to each end.  You want the joint to be flat, so everything is on the same plane.  When you've got the rings soldered on, if you look at it from the side it should be a straight line.  You may have to get creative with your setup--my soldering block is only six inches square, so I had to improvise with old ones.

Here's my setup.  It was tricky, especially with the blocks being different heights.

If you're really struggling, just do them one at a time.  It's better to spend more time with your setup, than solder things together wrong.  Taking shit apart sucks balls.

Anywho, once you're set up, dab some flux at the joints, put a small piece of hard solder on each joint, and fire up your torch.  Ordinarily you'd have to heat the entire piece to get the solder to melt, but where you're dealing with such small pieces, you can focus on the ends.  Heat one end until the solder goes liquid, then the other.  Be careful not to melt your jump rings.  

Once you've got the jump rings on there, you can put the hook on.  Again, things are going to be tricky.  You want to hook in line with the neck wire, so you can't just lay it on it's side.  There's a few options for set up here.  You can use a third hand to hold it in place, or you can carve a groove in your soldering pad to hold it.  I recommend the latter--it's more stable, and isn't a heat sink.  Just use some tweezers or something and dig until you can put the hook in it and have it butt up nice and smooth to one of the rings.

Here's my set up for soldering the hook. 

Use medium solder for the join so you don't undo your last joint.  Fire it up, but be careful you don't overheat it.  I'll be honest, when I did this, I overheated it and the neck wire popped off the jump ring.  Because I was an overconfident idiot, I used medium and easy, and had to use an anti flux on the hook joint so I could put it back together.  Learn from my fail.  Don't overheat it.  If you're really worried, you can go ahead and put something on the wire to ring joint so the solder won't flow, just in case.  Yellow ochre is traditional, but gross and messy.  Water based white works well, but make sure you have ventilation.  Regular white out will make really nasty fumes and I can't in good conscience recommend you use it (even though it works just as well and is easier to find).

So, you've got your clasp soldered on.  Yay!  Now file and sand any excess solder off your joints (don't be a Messy Milton).  I have some nifty bits I like to use in my flex shaft for this--they're silicone, so as you use them, they'll wear down to various useful shapes, making it easy to get into odd corners and inside jump rings.

This one is about used up, but you can see how such a slim finishing bit would be handy.

Also, at this point, make any final adjustment to the hook.  The above picture is how the clasp actually works.  You should feel some resistance as it passes over the jump ring, but things should still move smoothly.  Carefully bend the closed neck wire into a smooth round shape.  If you have some round of the appropriate size, you can form it around that.  Otherwise, well, do your best. 

Step [whatever step we're on now.  You think keeping track of all this is easy?]

Okay, you've got a neck wire with a clasp, three jump rings and three discs.  Use the jump rings the connect the discs together, then to attach the disc assembly to the wire.  Strictly speaking, you should solder those rings shut, but soldering 20g jump rings is a tricky task (use easy).  I'll leave it up to you whether you want to do it right (and solder) or take the easy way out and run the risk of catching the jump rings on something and losing a piece. 

 

Oh, hey, look!  You're done!

Feel free to try variations.  You can play with the disc size or number, you can bend the neck wire for a more conforming fit, you can mix metals, whatever you want.

NEXT TIME:  Words I Hate/My Problem With the "Green" Movement (Including the Fact That Green is an Adjective, Not a Noun)