BenchNews

I can’t stand wearing goggles, or any other kind of eye wear while working at the bench. That fact led me to think of something I learned while attending the Revere Academy. With a lens from some welding goggles and a paper clip you can rig up the little device seen below. Just slide it down toward the gas adjustment valves when not in use, and toward the nozzle when in use, and you have yourself a non intrusive welding eye shield.

If you work in multiple locations like myself, you understand the dynamic of not being able to (or wanting to) have a duplicate of every one of your tools at each location. There just happen to be a pair of dark lenses at 2nd location I work at, and after months of holding one of them in my hand while brazing, it finally dawned on me what I had learned at the academy. I learn by seeing things, so check out the pics



one of the first things we did when I attended the revere Academy in San Fransisco, was make a wood block to hold all of our gravers and other tools. It is one of the simplest and useful things you can have on your bench.

The right tool is 75% of the job, and every now and then there comes a time when you just don’t have the right tool. Thats when you have to make it! Take this 3 prong earring holder. I love the 3 prong look, but they are the hardest damn things to hold.

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In following thru with the effort to document MUCH more of what I do throughout the days and weeks, I turned to one of the best new publications I have seen in quite some time, Make Magazine. With a little inspiration from one of Make’s articles, I constructed this mount for my bench. Now it is a trivial job to photogragh, step by step, all that happens on the business end of my workplace…!

One of the best bench mods I ever did was to permanently attach my benchmate articulated 3rd hand to my bench. It folds neatly out of the way and is always on call when I need it, without taking up valuable bench top real estate.

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I have been finding trade related tips in the darndest places latey, namely popular online blogs. Here is one that struck me as particularly usefull. It explains a technique for removing a ring from a swollen finger without having to cut the ring itself. I am actually pretty excited to see if this works (Im sure it does), but I think there will be a number of customers who will be relieved that there is another way. Even though ring cutters are very safe, I can’t help but notice the looks of concern on the customers faces when doing the cutting. Any way here is the link to the original post.
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I have desperately been needing a pen plater. I had previously purchase one of the disposible ones to try, and found it very lacking in effectiveness. So I finally pony-ed up the $115 to buy the Samson Economy plater from one of our favorite suppliers. I got the plater today and upon inspection noticed that all it is, is a “2 amp regulated dc power supply”. Guess what a google search of that term brings up….
THIS
Nice, huh! Now Im going to opt and get the nice pen and clamp as replacement parts from that very same supplier, but Im sure you could fashion them yourselves. Even with buying the nice attachments Im coming in about 50$ cheaper.
It still blows my mind when I think about companies putting a sticker on another companies product, doubling the price, and calling it there own. Go get your new pen plater now, hell, get 2, at $23 how can you go wrong.

What, you don’t believe me? How would you like to replace your big smelly oven, your way overpriced timer/ controller, and that vacuum machine with a $75 microwave from Walmart? Well, if you master this, it appears to be entirely possible. So who’s going to try it first? I want to hear about it.

I had an extra ring clamp for my Benchmate system so I decided to modify it for holding bezels eazily without mess.


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Speeding things up at the bench is the key to doing quailty and profitable work. Doing quality and profitable work makes you a valuable jeweler. So here is a leg up on knowing more than the next guy.
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