Metalsmith working exclusively with Stainless Steel and Titanium

Working thru the holidays has its ups and downs…the last week or so was a production run of dog tags.  Im not going to bore you with the specifics, other than lots of sanding, some new techniques arose when cutting the stingray leather.  Ill go into that later on when I get a bit more time with it under my belt….anyhoo, onto the photos….

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I noticed its been several months since last posting in the blog-o-sphere…well…Halloween is just around the corner and I have a cool belt buckle that has a skull, it just sort of makes sense…

Buckles are one of those things every man should have…and most have at least one.  From my perspective, dealing in the men’s market, its like a watch, it should be super high quality, last a lifetime, and be pretty bullet proof.  Enter my buckles.  The over all design and shape was an 8 month endeavor to achieve something elegant, yet extremely practical.  Made from two separate pieces of stainless (or titanium) that are machined and welded together to form the unit.  The canvas remains the same on all the buckles I do, with a 3.5″ x 2″ palate to work on, It is a bit constricting, but like the materials themselves, give me a simple frame to do the work in.

Left to Right: Stainless Steel with Stingray Leather, Titanium with Carbon Fiber, Titanium Skull

Left to Right: Stainless Steel with modified barb wire design, Stainless Steel with Streamline design

Titanium with 24K gold inlay and Damele Turquoise.

The last part of the puzzle was finding high quality leather belts to fit my buckles.  Since the attachment is a slot on the buckle in which the leather resided in, held in place with two set screws, I searched high and low, ironically, I found a company in Gallup, NM that produced these super thick solid leather belts (no two part glue together things here), so from time to time Ill make the trip to Gallup and pick some up.

Anyhoo….Ill be getting back to writing up some new how-to’s in the future, just gotta get back to work on it.

Edit:  here is a photo of the belt insertion side…along with one that I totally messed up on, had to make another.  You can see the welding on the titanium and how much material is needed to be removed to achieve the final form.

Hope you enjoy!
P@

www.patpruitt.com

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These were long overdue, but finally bit the bullet and got some new sets from Rio.  I do consider files to be a consumable with the work I do, and would like to get new ones on a more frequent basis.  The last set of diamond files (red handle) I bought almost a year ago to the day, being my first serious set I milked them for 6 months longer than I should have.  The plan will be to replace every 6 months as the diamond coating was flaking off on some of the heavier used files.

The yellow handled ones are the Valtitan brand of needle files, made for platinum and other hard metals.  Since these were in the same price range for a good set of files, I figure Id give them a run for the money.  So far they have a good bite on stainless, but time does tell with them.  My regular needle files are replaced almost 3-4 times a year…if I can get these to last six months ill be one happy camper.

Home made handles for these were in order and something I do with all my files.  I also jot the name of the file on the wooden end for good measure.  Yep, the testing will commence.

P@
www.patpruitt.com

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One of the downsides working with stainless and titanium, sheet size.  A full sheet of stainless is normally 10′ x 4′ at what ever thickness you want, yes, thats feet.  My band saw only has capacity to cut 12″ max.  So what does one do?  Break out the Plasma Cutter and whittle it down to size.

Here is the Miller Plasma Cutter that I was able to acquire many years ago on trade…Ironically enough I traded it for a full Vic9 vacuum casting setup.  Any hoo, one must take great caution using a plasma cutter.  It instantaneously melts the steel/titanium with an electric arc and blows the molten metal out of the way using compressed air.  Hence you have the potential to get seriously burned.  I will admit, I am horrible at plasma cutting, I know enough to be dangerous and get done what I need to do, but doesnt preclude me from using appropriate safety gear, that being a full welding mask, welding gloves, and protective clothing.  Another thing to mention, this process creates a LOT of smoke/fumes, so if you can, do this outside.

The material here is 0.160″ thick 316L stainless steel, a slow and steady hand allows for a decent cut.  The piece cut is 7.5″ wide by X” long and is the basis for a lot of my bracelets that I do.

Up next, 3/8″ thick, 6AL4V (Grade 5) Titanium Plate.  The plate was origionally 24″ x 36″ and I needed to cut it down to a 12″ section to be further cut on the band saw.

Viola’ the plate is cut down…an even slower hand is needed to cut at this thickness…basically the thicker the material is the slower you need to pass along the material.

This is only the first step in the jewelry making process for me…as stated with the bracelet material, taking that 7.5″ x X” long sheet, the next step is to rough cut the sheet to bracelet width on the band saw.  Then Ill take that rough size and then take it to its final width dimension on the CNC.  Only at that point its ready for design cutting, then bending and finish work….as you can see, there are a few steps to prep material before one can even begin to think about design.  Hope you enjoy this.

P@
www.patpruitt.com

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One thing nice about being a metal smith, taking a break away from just making jewelry and expanding the scope of work, diversifying into other markets, and quite frankly just having some fun.  I had some grade 5 6Al 4V Titanium laying around the shop, so I decided to make some gadgetry.  Guys LOVE gadgets…

A Tactical Golf Divot Tool. 6.5″ in length with an integrated bottle opener for those long days on the course.

Precision Tweezers Version 1.0 - 3″ long.

Short run production

I also got to break in a carbon fiber plate as a photographic back ground…adds a nice touch to the *toughness* of tweezers doesnt it…

Hope you enjoy!
P@
www.patpruitt.com

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Creating a show piece is a daunting endeavor, exposing ones self to the critical eye of the judge can evoke many emotions.  Putting yourself, your work, your craftsmanship out into the world for all to see.  It can either have two outcomes…one of success and one of failure, that is not what I am afraid of…

Personally, I try and approach these show pieces as creations that truly flex the skills.  Riding the edge of impracticality, form v.s function, and all that other art school rhetoric.   At the same time, building something memorable and stunning….this time, the flexing of the skills came with something we all take for granted…polishing.

This go around I was perplexed what to do, I wanted to build another vessel but in a fashion that I had not tried before.  This time the piece resulted as a bowl, raised anticlastic style (this is open for interpretation) but super tricked out with hot rod flames…a Hot Rod Fruit Basket if you would….

Cutting the shape was “fairly” easy, about 5 hours on the CNC, not counting several days on tweaking the design.  After the shape was cut (approx 16″ in diameter) the next task was to carve into the 1/8″ thick stainless steel plate to give the flames more body, making them three dimensional if you would.  I gotta say, I’m pretty lucky I get to use air grinders on my work, nothing more satisfying as seeing metal being removed with sparks and what not.  From here came the never ending hand sanding to remove all the grind marks.  It then occurred to me, polishing this thing is going to be one super scary endeavor.  So the next step, before any raising was to commence, was to polish the flat, carved plate to a flawless polish.

“The only thing we have to fear is fear itself - nameless, unreasoning, unjustified, terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.” - FDR

I gotta tell you something, polishing this evoked a never ending, god instilling, honest to goodness FEAR!!!

I have been polishing in one form or another, either professionally, or just goofing around for about 20 years.  I know what a polisher can do….I also know what it can do when things go wrong.  Having seen first hand what kind of damage a flung piece of jewelry can have on the body, in addition to the many stories right here on Orchid of mis-haps on the buffer.

Now imagine holding a piece of sheet stainless 1/8″ thick, 16″ in diameter, that, at this point, looks like a ninja star from hell, and approaching a buffer equipped with an extended spindle turning at 3400 RPM, with a ton of edges for that 6″ muslin buff just waiting to grab a hold of and fling into my jugular vein…I proceeded with caution.  I was scared, and this wouldn’t be the first time on this project….

Hands gloved with fingerless gloves (yes, I know this isn’t recommended, but I needed to hold this securely, and my hands were no where near the wheel, and in my opinion was the right choice) the journey began.  Concentrating, using immense body control and embarking on the first aspect of this polishing job, it began.  8 grueling hours later, it was over…I was spent, I mean exhausted..that was that for the day, I called it an early night and was grateful I pulled this off…for now…

The next day came the raising, not too much excitement here, but watching the vessel take shape was amazing, I kept thinking of all the old smiths and their trials and tribulations as they created their master pieces…not that mine will be any where close to that, but that’s all I could think of.  A leather covered mallet, along with sand bags, and leather covered stakes brought the vessel to form…A hot rod fruit bowl with integral legs (this was the anticlastic part).

Now the second phase of polishing came…so instead of a ninja star from hell, I had a bowl of death, just itching to be flung accross the room…or into my chest.  Again with the gloves and a small 4″ wheel, the final clean up and polish was done…this time only two hours….luck me.  After the polish, simple edge detailing was given to the piece and a good cleaning.

All this, for something that is somewhat practical, but in my mind a stunning piece worthy to show the world and be judged…I still have not conquered my fear…but I do have respect, and more importantly the experience with this particular machine has paid off….I do not recommend an inexperienced metal smith attempt this.

Enjoy….

P@
www.patpruitt.com

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“Soon I discovered that this rock thing was true, Jerry Lee Lewis was the devil, Jesus was an architect previous to his career as a prophet, All of a sudden, I found myself in love with the world, So there was only one thing that I could do…”

Jesus built my Hotrod - Ministry

Yep, you got it, less than 48 hours after giving this thing a good run for its money, I went in under the hood and started the modding.

New, quick change, contact wheels in 1/2″, 3/4″, 1″, and 1.135″ (60mm) stock wheel size.

Repositioned tension arm (10mm reamer required for this mod).  Moved over and down to accommodate a new, longer, tension arm, this is important in using the tiny contact wheels, including the stock diameter wheel, flat sanding plate, and still be able to tension the belt.  I also had to remove a better portion of the cutout for the arm clearance.

Why you ask?  Well, the Wolf sander is a cool tool, but I needed more out of it.  Namely the smaller contact wheels.  That was the easy part.  The business end of the Wolf sander had a cool little stem sticking out where the old contact wheel attached.

Using this as the base, new contact wheels were fabricated, and wouldn’t you know it, laying around in the shop were some 4mm socket set screws that were perfect for this job.  Bore a hole that is tight fitting on the stem, then tap for the appropriate set screw.

Now the contact wheels simply screw on and off, seating down on the flat of the drive mechanism…pretty keen.

With all the new contact wheels made, here’s how they all look, sorry for the redundancy in photos.  You can see how the tension wheel accommodates the different wheels nicely.

1/2″ contact wheel.

3/4″ contact wheel

1″ contact wheel

Remade stock contact wheel. 1.135″, with flat plate installed.  The flat plate can only be used with the stock diameter wheel due to the path of the belt.

NOW I can get into those tiny radii on the parts im working on.

Quite a few hours to do the modifications will save me gobs of time down the road, I am so glad this was possible with this sander…

One other modification I made was to the flat plate itself, knocking off the square edge at the leading edge of where the belt hits quiets it down a hair, and saves on that edge beating up on the splice tape on the belt.  A thing to note, the flat plate is not truly flat due to the punching process used to make it, that will be fixed shortly.

Yeah, now im super stoked with this tool…..The last and only thing I can think of to make this the best tool on the planet is to build an extension arm for the top idle wheel, extend that out further so one can use a more common belt size, say a 1″x30″ or 1″x42″ belt.  Dollar for dollar, the longer belts are still in the $2 range, but your getting 3x to 4x the abrasive.  More abrasive = longer belt life.

Hope you enjoy,
P@
www.patpruitt.com

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On the Left: The Kate Wolf belt sander.  On the Right: The Burr King 760, who will come out ahead?  Only time will tell…….

Just kidding, this is really a review on Kate’s sander, but wanted to give you a small comparison on what I am normally used to working on.  The Burr King single speed 2″x60″ Industrial Belt Sander.  In all reality, this would decimate the Wolf Sander in terms of sheer stock removal, roughing and finishing largish items (even smaller ones too), well it would pretty much decimate any off the shelf sander hands down…but that’s not what I’m here to tell you about.

And just to put things into perspective, this is the size difference.

The Kate Wolf Belt sander is cute!  I got to see it first hand at the Gem Show in Tucson last year when Kate was giving some demonstrations on wax carving…my first response was exactly that…”just cute!  It looks like a toy.”

All kidding aside, I finally had the need for some small semi-automated sanding needs so I figure I would pick this unit up from Rio Grande, others carry this unit as well (retail about $180 USD at this point in time).  Its about the size of my hand, and utilizes 1″ x 10.5″ belts, also available where you buy this unit. The first thing that was really cool…easy to setup right on the bench with the supplied bench clamp.  Second, its driven by any foredom unit making this a very nice variable speed sander.

The bench clamp is pretty universal, letting you position the sander in almost any direction you can imagine.

The other first impression that I didn’t like was the direction of the belt movement, being used to industrial sanders where the belt moved from top to bottom (similar to buffing wheels), the Wolf Sander belt direction was opposite of that, making it difficult for someone like me that has that top to bottom movement ingrained in his psyche a tough thing to over come….my solution, just flip the unit *upside-down*…there, that’s better!  Flipping this upside down now makes the drive wheel the contact wheel.

As mentioned, its driven by your typical foredom unit, a quick release collet type thingy, keeps the flex shaft nice and secure…not to much to add to that, other than this is also attached to the drive wheel.

Putting on and taking off belts is pretty simple, with the supplied allen wrench, you simply loosen the tensioner wheel (resting on finger), put on the belt, tension the belt, and tighten the screw on the other side.  Its a two handed operation, but quick and no fuss.

Now onto the meat and potatoes…as stated, I used to think this was a small toy, geared for the hobbyiest that just wanted a cute little sander.  Boy was I wrong…the construction is pretty damn good for such a small unit.  All bearings look to be sealed so dust and grime should have a hard time getting in there, thus prolonging the life of the bearings.  As for metal removal…that particular function is greatly dependant on the abrasives available for the unit.

Rio only carried the Imperial line from 3M for this unit, although the Diamond line would be a better option for me, Im using what I can get for now.  Ill source the Diamond belts down the road, (Hey Rio…please carry the belts).

For small roughing and fine finishing, this thing is a BLAST to use!  It sits right there on the bench and with the variable speed the foredom gives, you can really tweak on this little machine.  Not to mention having the ability to use both hands with the foot pedal as your speed control is super dope.

The stainless links I am currently working on cut nice and smooth with a 180 grit belt on there.  It does generate heat when your grinding, so I also clamped the piece in a ring clamp to get down and dirty with it.

The drive wheel, with its small radius made quick work of cleaning up this particular part of the link.  A huge time saver versus the filing and sanding I was doing prior, and doing this on the Burr King would have been impossible.  With a smaller contact wheel for the Wolf Sander, I could have even gotten into those tiny radisus on the ends, Ill work on that down the road.

I do hope in the future there will be smaller diameter contact wheels, or in my case, smaller diameter drive wheels to use as contact wheels.  I do forsee some wear related to the contact wheels if used agressively enough seeing how they are aluminium, replacement parts are gonna be in order as well.

Onto flat sanding….yep, it does that too…and really well for small parts.

A little firm pressure is all you need.  The stop bar is a nice touch, keeps the part from flying all over the place, but see this being an issue if your sanding really thin stuff.

All in all, I must say I am really impressed with the short time that I have used this little unit.  Coming from the *big boy* toy world, the Wolf Sander does a great job for its intended purpose.  I can think of only a few things that could be improved upon…allen head screws all the way around for geeks like me that dont like to strip out screws, different contact wheels, and a bigger variety of abrasive media for this unit.

Down the road, ill probably hot rod this sucker out to make it a more agressive tool, namely because I can’t leave things alone, and well, it is robust enough for my work, Id like it to be even more effecient on stainless.  For those of you that are working in softer metals ie: gold, silver, etc….this machine is going to be a dream.

The one thing I didnt comment on was the dust collection attachment that comes with this, in my useage the part gets in the way…plus there really isnt a market for recyling stainless steel filings.

This is definatley one of those tools everyone can find a useage for…do you really need one?  No, but if your doing a lot of repetative operations that requre great control of metal removal this sander will fit the bill.

Hats off Kate, great job on making something we didnt realize we needed.

P@
www.patpruitt.com

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Well, heres another trick that has served me well.  Im in the midst of making a stainless steel manly man link bracelet that requires a TON of edge clean up.  Since the clean up is pretty important and the stainless chews thru any abrasive material like theres no tomorrow, this is how I keep things sanely inexpensive, all things considered.

Start by getting some 1″ masking tape, and cut your abrasive sand paper into strips of your preferred width.  here, I have cut 3/4″ wide strips (19mm for the rest of the world) by 4.5″ long (115mm)

.

Stick the tape under your bench and start applying the strips only half way on the tape.  Once you have enough…

Take that tape with the sandpaper strips and stick it on the front side of the bench, progress to cut thru the tape with a razor or some other impliment of destruction, at the very least score the tape, this makes it easy to remove and go to the next step…

When you need a new roll, grab a piece of abrasive, put it on a blank mandrel, at the edge here, using the side with the tape, not the non-taped side…

Fold the tape onto the other side of the abrasive…

Slowly wind the abrasive on itself….viola’ you have got a nifty sanding roll.  As the abrasive wears out, just tear off what is worn…when you get to the end, rip off the left over abrasive and tape, grab another one and start all over again.

Yep, niiiice & easy…the nice thing about this, the abrasive doesnt fall off the mandrel like the ones that are just held in with a slot, the easy thing about this…well its easy and adapatable to the sandpaper stash that you have.

P@
www.patpruitt.com

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