Zebrano and Silver Ring

[monkeybiter]

A few years ago I made a Zebrano bangle for Blister's turning challenge. SWMBO decided to have a 'significant' birthday so I made this matching ring.
Heat bent Zebrano superglued onto a silver 'spool' custom made for me by a friend, then TURNED to final form on the lathe, smoothed down to P600 and friction polished.
The silver was then wet-and-dried to P1000 and polished with Autosol.
The customer is happy 8)

 

[CHJ]

That's very classy, any chance you did some process images.

Some outstanding questions:-
1. How thick was Zebrano stock when you worked it
2. How did you work it
3. How did you Bond it

 

[monkeybiter]

Thanks Chas. Sorry, no WIP but I'll add some more detail tomorrow, bed in a minute, up for work at 04:45.

 

[MusicMan]

Very cool!

Keith

 

[monkeybiter]

In answer to your questions Chas;

1. How thick was Zebrano stock when you worked it

I found some Zebrano pen blanks and tried to cut a nice thin veneer, but I was too idle to change my bandsaw blade, so I had to thickness the resultant strip on the pillar drill between a sanding drum and a clamped pine block. I stopped when it looked about right, as you can see the strip ended up at 0.75mm.

2. How did you work it

I made a quick and dirty clamp to hold a steel rule down firmly on the Zebrano so I could cut a couple of 6mm wide strips without slipping. I cut them diagonally to make the most of the grain/pattern when wrapped around the ring.

After reading various bits and bobs on bending and watching a video by Ian Norbury I thought it didn't actually look as difficult as I had at first imagined. I put the strips in water overnight, then next day I held a bent stainless steel rod [16mm] in a vice which was then heated with a blowtorch. Before I started bending one of the wet strips I had a go with one of the dry triangular off-cuts, it bent so easily and well that I wished I hadn't bothered wetting at all. You can see it on the left in the first picture.

3. How did you Bond it

The curve of the bent strips [I only used one] was slightly tighter than that of the ring. Before bending I cut a long taper on either end with a small flat chisel, these then 'mated' when in place. I used some past-it Zap-a-Gap to stick the Zebrano to the ring, and the tapers to each other [splice the ends].

The actual TURNING came right at the end, after the glue had set I mounted the ring on a softwood mandrel, in the right orientation so the strip wouldn't unwind, then took the very lightest skim to get rid of any squeeze-out and to flatten back the join.
Very fortunately, the pattern of the wood makes it very difficult to find the join. The external surface of the ring was finished with friction polish, the sides were wet-and-dry'd to P1000, the softwood mandrel was skimmed down a bit and used as a rotary hone to polish the inside with Solvol Autosol. The sides were polished too.

Sorry for the long-winded post, but you did ask.

 

[CHJ]

Thanks for taking the trouble with the WIP images and explanation, so less daunting a process to attempt when you can see how.

 

[monkeybiter]

Very easy as it turned out. I'll definitely be bending again.

 

[Robbo3]

Thanks for the WIP. Very impressive. You make it look so easy.

 

[Phil Pascoe]

I seem to remember from days of doing a bit more silver work blanks for rings like this can be bought, although I couldn't find one quickly. Try Cooksons.

Quarter to five. Morphine withdrawal. Euggh ...