What are my choices?

[MedicineMan]

agreed "I have used it in the past and they work well but it was just to restrictive  for me as far as design goes. If you notice a lot of your mass produced, India and Mexico made pendants use step bezels. ( Cuts down on material ) " "mainly used on thinner cabs."

George, you are probably looking at a type of fire brick, they can be bought in hard or soft. the soft ones allow you to use hat pins, wire, all sorts of stuff to "Nail down pieces during the solder process", also another handy item is binding wire, I use tons of it (spider's on drugs) that way I can do as much Hard solder as possible at one time, that in my opinion make the piece very strong and less likely to break, also if someone down the road has to repair it, they can then step down to softer solders in the repair process without having your piece fall completely apart because of all the softer solders use in construction. Just my thought's amigo... many people use all stages from hard to soft solder. I do also, I just try to use as much hard solder as possible and try to do it in as few steps as possible. Every one has there own style and way of doing thing, it all comes to time building and your style will show through also, then like me you'll get set in your ways....LOL   ( ""my Rant  for hard solder useage"", probably comes from repairing pieces with way to much softer solders and watching things drop like flies) LOL

[Taogem]

I just read your PM prior to coming to this thread Randy.

I mentioned how am sure it will take me much practice. I am reluctant to risk a previous solder falling apart by trying to use the same temped solder on a following solder.

Yet, what you say must be practiced the most and preferred. Maybe it has to do with having the ability to direct flame point more that what I think am able to do with what I have.

Then too... perhaps once I start using the 26 gauge backing it will take less heat to make a solder to that than the 22 gauge I have tried.

I don't know how to practice using "hard" solder more than once without risking previous pieces falling apart. Then contributing to instant and furious blood flow to my head. 

Practice, practice, practice...

[Taogem]

Thanks for sending this link to me MedicanMan.

This is a great place to share it and I will be spending much time reading through Don's site.

10 Good Reasons To Use Hard Solder

[Taogem]

Okedokey....

Got a nice order of all kinds of goodies on the way.

Round, half round, and square sterling. More fine bezel tape. A couple of different fluxes to try. a 6 x 6 sheet for backing. A set of 3M discs that Carol pointed out to me.

I spent every penny of what I might have spent over the next few weeks for rough, but really want to get my feet soaking wet.

I did not get any copper. I did not see it except in large and expensive spools. Way more than I would ever use. Not sure what to do there yet.

Also think may have overlooked something important.

Again, using Phil's pieces as an example. The area of contact around the edges of additional pieces soldered to the backing. The way you have what appears to be built up solder of some kind. Either used for the actual soldering and or added on and built up? Then ground to a smooth contour?

I forgot to ask what is needed to accomplish that. It must be the wire solder that you mentioned Phil? Allowing a person to build up those areas so they can be contoured nicely? I hope to be able and use the 3M discs to do the contouring.

[MedicineMan]

LOL, George you'll always have times where you pull your hair or blood pressure goes up.

Just remember both ways are exceptable, and really boils down to where you place value. Practice is always part of the price. Hard solder really is not a method to fear though. Flame control will gain everytime you fire up. With silver prices low now is a good time to get that practice in also. Don's site has a ton of good info, and one thing he is great at, is doing it the cheapest way possible. So I hope you enjoy. At the same time you've got some great artist's here within Taogem already sharing thier valuable info.. So you are in a no fail situation...Just have fun and enjoy.

Pretty soon, you'll be having me ask "How'd you do that"...

[Taogem]

I don't get the step in step bezel 

These first two pics show the outside and inside of the step bezel tape I picked out from Rio.



When I hold this five millimeter high stone in position for where I believe it might go, it just leaves virtually nothing to hold the stone in place. Not to mention a huge overhang on the back of the stone.



I am not getting the step in this step bezel !

The whole thing looks awkward and out of place.

I was sorta hoping to use this step bezel tape as a means to simply wrap something around the stone without the need of backing. Then a simple bail on top. I get the feeling that at least this particular step bezel tape was meant to be used with a backing. Why would we want such an extreme amount of tape extending from the back of the stone unless the plan was to use backing with it to sort of hide that area?

Also.... give or take about a single millimeter, none of the step bezel tapes offer any more of a lip to hold the stone in place on the step part of the tape.

Is this normal to only have about one millimeter worth of tape extending from the top of the step for holding the stone in place? Someone suggested to me some time ago that the bezel height should be about 2/3 the height of the stone. That makes perfect sense, but must not apply to the use step type bezel tape?

Sorry gang... just not getting this.

Just seems like there must be a better solution/product for wrapping silver around the outside of a pendant, but I sure did not see it in Rio's catalog.

ImageOne gave a 3D view of how to use standard tape with some square wire. Great idea, but all the tapes I have seen in Rio catalog leave me in the same boat. Very little tape left for holding the stone in place. Unless I use about a one millimeter square wire so there is about four millimeters left over to hold the stone in place.

Do I have to make my own step bezel tape so that I can have a little height to work with?

[Steel and Stone]

George,

The step on those is normal for that type of step bezel. I know it does not seem like much but it holds the stones just fine. I used E6000 when I did mine as you have to use some type of adhesive. As for the open back it is also suppose to be like that. Take a trip to a discount jewelry place some time and look at the back of the ones from overseas. Just about all of them almost always use step bezels and some of them have more distance between the back of the stone and the bottom of the bezel tape. I will tell you the step bezels work much better on rounded corners instead of any sharp ones. I learned that the hard way.

[Taogem]

George,

The step on those is normal for that type of step bezel. I know it does not seem like much but it holds the stones just fine. I used E6000 when I did mine as you have to use some type of adhesive.

Ah.... See I thought that the part of the step bezel that is holding the stone in, is being held in not by adhesive but by the slight slant of the stones perimeter. Like in the pic below.

So I need an adhesive like the E6000 you use.

Don't really care for the way the back of the pieces will look like when done. Was not expecting that when I bought the step bezel tapes.

Thinking will try something a bit different down the road.

[Steel and Stone]

Normally the sides of the step bezel are not tall enough to completely roll over the bevel of the stone unless it has a really sharp slope. You do not have the use E6000 you can use any type of adhesive / epoxy / Super Glue.