BenchNews

Brazing Platinum Without goggles Mod

LAL — Thu, 07 Jun 2007 04:21:53 +0000

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

Getting the most out of your Rhodium

LAL — Thu, 08 Mar 2007 18:06:06 +0000

At 180$ a bottle it’s no surprise that i have tried to find ways to extend the life of my Rhodiuim. I don’t generally go thru all the steps I should before plating a piece, time constraints usually prevent it, but by going thru a couple of steps I generally get very good results.

The process in pictures

Clear Top Tins

LAL — Fri, 02 Feb 2007 21:18:59 +0000

These things are great! I just got over a hundred of them. You can use them for lots of different purposes, but my main use is for holding diamonds and colored stones. It saves me from having to open the tin to see if I have what I’m looking for. you can get them HERE

Graver block

LAL — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:00:21 +0000

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.

Central Machinery Drillpress Mod.

LAL — Wed, 16 Aug 2006 16:49:23 +0000

I bought the inexpensive drillpress from Habor Freight with visions of doing all sorts of cool things with it. Unfortunately it’s just too small to do anything but be a drillpress. It just wasn’st tall enough to effeciently use my Cross Slide Vise, or my Tubing Notcher. So begins the process of figuring out a way to make those things work, or accept the fact that I had wasted a LOT of money.

the process in photos, here

I’ve been MADE!

LAL — Sat, 06 May 2006 20:45:05 +0000

Benchnews made it onto the Makezine blog today! I want to thank my roomate Sirshannon for suggesting my site. It only took me 3 months to realize that they were intrested…lol Please take the time to check out my company site too, over at LALdesigns. Thanks MAKE!

Nerd Bench

LAL — Sat, 06 May 2006 15:21:14 +0000

A nerd at heart, and research junkie. Just thought I would post a shot of what my computer worstation / jewelry workbench looks like. Keep in mind that this is just 1 of my 5 computers….! A resolution to any problem is just a google search away.

Tool making 101

LAL — Sat, 25 Feb 2006 16:21:33 +0000

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.

It finally got to a point where I was just sick of tearing up my fingers, and at that point I started digging thru my “tools I never really use” drawer. In that drawer there sat a pair of solder chipping pliers, and out came the seperating disk. I hacked the top of them off,

ground out a good portion of the single side with the grinder, and slotted it for the earing post.

Now just make a little triangle shape on the small end, and blammo! 3 prong earring holder. Happy tool making to all!

Flexible gooseneck Camera Mount

Post — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 20:48:25 +0000

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…!

Sorry for the unexcusable delay!

LAL — Wed, 16 Nov 2005 23:48:26 +0000

All the excitement of closing on my very first dwelling thru me for a loop and certainly off track. I feel I have some new drive now! Leading up to the Xmas season there are some intresting projects in my path, and I plan on taking them on in methodical fashion. One of the things that has held me back as far as posting to this site and my business site is the utter lack of photo evidence of my work; that stops imediately. For the last week I have been putting as much effort into documenting what I do as doing it. So keep an eye out for more of the tools I like to work with and possibly some animated tutorials coming soon!