Making Rings From Sheet Metal

Make custom metal jewelry with brass copper aluminum and nickel silver sheet.

Making rings from sheet metal.

A band ring can be made with sheet or wire. These base metals make beautiful and colorful artisan jewelry without the high cost of precious gold or silver. Sterling silver sheet metal is excellent for making special handcrafted jewelry pieces. Choose from 20 gauge thicker and 24 gauge thinner metal sheet for piercing and sawing into custom shapes dapping doming forming into bracelet cuffs and other fine craft applications.

The benefit of using sheet is it is much easer to work with than wire. Insert the piece of stock into the chuck. In this video i will be showing you how to make this mixed metal braided ring from just wire and sheet metal. Choose a metal gauge.

I prefer standard 8 gauge half round wire for ring making but you could use 6 to 10 gauge round half round flat or square wire as well. Half round wire or square wire. Measure the length of the ring that you want to make using a ring mandrel. Things you ll need 12 to 16 gauge wire ring mandrel ballpeen or forming hammer plastic or rawhide mallet optional pliers jewelry saw and blades or wire cutter soldering torch equipment solder soldering flux acid pickle bath metal files wet dry sandpaper polishing machine and tripoli white.

After chucking up and testing for wobble select a tool bit for parting. Choose from 16 gauge thick to 28 gauge thin silver sheet for piercing and sawing into custom shapes dapping doming soldering forming into bracelet cuffs and other fine craft applications. Use this chart to find the length of sheet metal you need for the metal gauge you re using and ring size you want. Typically about seven inches is long enough to make several rings and to allow for some error in work.

20 gauge sheet works. Find the ring size in either of the first two columns at left u s. The metal can be turned on only one point but only if the piece short enough to not wobble. If you want to make a ring for another use simply create a rectangle the same length as the desired circumference of the ring.

Thanks to benjamin todd of stonybrook fine arts. Make sure your sheet metal is thick enough to prevent razor like cuts from the metal edges. Video tutorial for metal rings. Start with simple ring bands or stacking rings you can make by simply combining silver wire with basic metalsmithing and texturing tools likes hammers and files.

Decide the width of the band and indicate it on the sheet. You are going to need to get your hands on some. If this is your first band ring i would recommend using 18 gauge 1 mm or 16 gauge 1 3 mm sheet. 24 gauge sheet works great for metal stamping and metal embossing.

Cut your metal band to the millimeter length indicated. The benefit of using wire is it gives instant shape for example.