Revision as of 20:13, 29 March 2013

Fine Metalwork Bench

This is a bench and hand tools for fine non-ferrous metalwork, e.g. for silver jewelry-scale making. We also have a [[Link=Equipment/FlexibleShaft|Flexible Shaft Drill[] at the same bench.

These are Category Red tools: induction is mandatory.

The current owners are: Peter Sewell

Health and Safety

Avoiding Tool Damage

It is vital to avoid contamination of the tools for fine metalworking (on silver or copper) with particles of iron, steel, or lead, otherwise pieces can be ruined when they are soldered. Accordingly, this bench and the fine metalworking tools must not be used on any materials except silver, copper, or gold: especially not for steel, iron, or lead.

Some of the tools have polished or machined surfaces that are easily damaged, e.g. the planishing hammer, triblet, and bench block. These must not be used for hitting anything other than silver or copper (e.g., do not use the planishing hammer for hitting a punch!).

It's important not to contaminate one grade of abrasive with another: particles of coarse abrasive on a fine polishing wheel can scratch a piece heavily.

All the fine metalworking tools must be put away in the right place (one of the drawers of the grey filing cabinet) after use.

Consumables and Stock (to pay by use)

If you use any of the following, please (a) write in the fine-metalworking stock book the thing and the amount you've used, your name, and the cost, and (b) put the cost in the MakeSpace cashbox. If we're close to running out, please let the owners know. The prices below are designed to just break even, not make a profit.

If you want to buy your own stock or tools, UK suppliers include Cookson [1], Sutton Tools [2] and HS Walsh [3]. It might well be worth clubbing together with other people to get volume discounts and share shipping.

• Saw blades: £0.30 each, per broken sawblade or if you want your own.
• Abrasive paper: £0.75 per sheet or £0.20 per quarter sheet
• Small drills: £1.00 per broken drill (the set of 20 Drills 0.3-1.6mm is around £14 + shipping)
• Copper sheet 24 SWG (0.56mm): £0.04 per square cm
• Copper sheet 20 SWG (0.91mm): £0.05 per square cm
• Sterling Silver Sheet 1.00mm: £1.00 per square cm (measuring the aligned bounding box) (cost is £46 for 75x75mm)
• Sterling Silver Sheet 0.50mm: £0.50 per square cm (measuring the aligned bounding box) (cost is £25 for 75x75mm)
• Sterling Silver Round Wire 1.00mm: £0.10 per cm (cost is £14.24 per 2m)
• Sterling Silver Round Wire 0.70mm: £0.05 per cm (cost £3.52 per 1m)
• Sterling Silver Round Wire 0.50mm: £0.03 per cm (cost £3.52 per 2m)
• Sterling Silver Square Wire 1.00mm: £0.10 per cm (cost £4.34 per 0.5m)
• Sterling Silver Hook Wire (NVK 023X): £1.30 per pair
• Sterling Silver Ear Pin, 11.1 X 0.8 (NVJ 102X): £0.10 each
• Sterling Silver Scrolls 110: £0.15 each
• Sterling Silver Round Snake Chain 18"/45cm 1.2mm (VVO R12H): £5.50
• Silver 1.6mm Snake Chain 18"/45cm (VV3 80H): £6.00

Other Consumables

• hard silver solder paste (£33.61 per tube, but a tube lasts a long time) [4]
• polish and polishing wheels (buy your own if making substantial use of these)
• Picklean Safe Pickling Powder (£6 for 150g)

Tools

Workholding

• 2*Bench Peg And Anvil (these clamp on to a bench edge, to support work) [5]

Files and saws

• 6"/150mm Flat File, Cut 2 Vallorbe
• Set Of 12 Needle Files, 16cm - All Cut2 (one has to avoid contaminating silver with iron, so we'll want separate files for ferrous metals in addition to this)
• Grobet/vallorbe Saw Frame Adjustable [6]
• 6" Deep Adjustable Saw Frame [7];
• Vallorbe Saw Blades Grade 2/0, Bundle Of 12*12 (£30.82); Vallorbe Saw Blades Grade 6/0, Bundle Of 12 (£3.70) (those saw blades are consumables - they break easily)
• Straight 7"/17.5cm Shears (£12.54) (for brutal cutting of sheet metal. It's usually preferable to use a saw instead, tl leave a square edge without bending the metal)

Hammering

• Flat Stake (this is a small anvil with a machined-smooth surface on all sides) [8]
• Round triblet (for forming rings and suchlike) [9]
• Planishing Hammer (a polished-surface hammer for surface finishing and work-hardening) [10] (on back-order)
• Rawhide mallet [11] (for hitting things without marking the surface)
• Generic ball-pean hammer (a non-polished hammer for hitting punches etc.)

Pliers and tweezers

• Cookson 5 Piece,115mm Pliers Set (box-jointed with smooth jaws)
• Ring Bending Pliers, Cookson Value Range
• 5.5"/ 140mm Maun Flat Pliers Parallel Action [12]
• Tweezer set [13] (brass and plastic tweezers for pickle, reverse and third-hand tweezers for soldering, fine tweezers for manipulating tiny things)

Soldering

• Hand Torch [14] (for soldering or annealing small pieces, up to 10-20mm. We also have a larger torch with the glassworking kit)
• Magnesia Soldering Block [15]
• Soldering Sheet 300mm X 300mm X 9mm [16]
• Picklean Safe Pickling Powder 150g [17]
• TBD: crock pot of some kind for keeping pickle warm
• hard silver solder paste (£33.61) [18] (consumable) (this is great for small-scale work; for bigger things one wants strip solder and flux)

Marking out

• 150mm Ruler * 3 [19]
• Standard Steel Scriber [20]
• centre punch [21]
• digital calipers [22]
• 3" square [23]
• magnification: Optivisor 2.0x No5 (NB: this is *not* eye protection)

Flexible shaft drill tools

• Polishing Kit No 2 [24]
• Set Of 20 Drills 0.3-1.6mm (£15.96) (consumable) [25] (on back-order)
• diamond burrs (set of 30) (4.80) (consumable) [26]