A metalsmith shows how to make jump rings from a 5×5 mm ingot, using a rolling mill to reduce square wire, annealing between passes, then drawing it down to 0.92 mm diameter. He forms the rings with looping pliers and cuts them with shears, covering the full process from raw metal to finished rings.
In this video, I'm going to show you how to make jump rings from an ingot. The rolling mill I use here is a Durston Agile C130 combination rolling mill. I start from the biggest square wire groove and roll it down to the smallest one. It's very important not to reduce the size too aggressively, otherwise the wire will crack. The size of this ingot is about 5 by 5mm. For every 1mm it goes down. I will anneal the wire to keep it soft and avoid cracking. Here I use propane gas and a Sievert burner 3941, 22mm torch head. After annealing, I leave the wire to cool down to room temperature. And then I come back to keep reducing the size. It's very important to maintain your rolling mill. Ideally, you want to clean it once every 1 to 2 months. It's 2mm now. I have to go back to anneal the wire again. As the wire grows longer, I tilt the torch head down to get the length of the frame to cover as much of the wire as possible. In this way, the entire wire gets heated up quicker and more evenly. Once the color of the wire turns dark orange, the wire is soft again, and I can go back to reduce the size of the wire. Eventually, I get the wire down to about 1.25mm. This is the smallest size this rolling mill will take the wire because I need a wire with round profile. From here, I move to use a drawing plate. Before that, I have to file the end of the wire down to fit the closest hole. To save time, I try to get the wire to go through 2 holes in each attempt because I want to achieve my ideal size as quick as possible. The file I use here is cut number 0. Next, I use a self-made tabletop drawing bench to help me get the wire down to 0.92mm diameter. I will have another video to show you how I make my tabletop draw bench for around £25, which is about $30, a fraction of the cost of a manufactured one. This is really handy if you're on a budget. Once I get the wire down to the size I need, I'm back to my bench to form the jump rings. There are many ways to make jump rings. I mainly use two. Here I show you the one using a pair of multi-sized looping pliers. This is a good way to make thick jump rings, especially if you are making less than 20 jump rings each go. It's very important to keep the pressure even when rotating the wire. As I'm making about 10 jump rings in this case, I will stop now and use my shears to cut my jump rings out. All the tools I use in this video are listed in the description below. Now these are the jump rings I need. If I need to make more than 20 jump rings, I will use another way to do it. This I will show you in another video. Thank you for watching. Have a nice day.
This ring took me 3 hours just for the stones #howitsmade #jewelry #craftsmanship
