Chris Botha's Digital Art

Biker Guardian Bell.

2012-02-18T16:35:00.001+11:00

Hey all, been a long time since I did this, actually forgot about it, was a fun reject, I made it for myself but have since sold a few :)

A pictorial :)

The Cad of course

The CAM

Cutting up the huge wax block

Lathing it to size

Transfer from lathe to mill

Start roughing

Start Final outside cutting

Finish outside

Sacrificial wax holder for bell

Cut to fit bell

Wax welded into place

Interior of bell being cut

by this spiral path

All done, remove bell

And the final piece! ready to hang on ur bike!

Building Earrings.

2012-02-18T12:05:00.003+11:00

Once again, video explains it all :)

and the Video :

Complete workflow layout, crossover sweep.

2012-02-18T12:02:00.000+11:00

wont say much, videos speak for themselves.

CAD:
CAM:
Finishing and Setting.

Testing my LiveScribe

2011-12-26T20:48:00.000+11:00

Frequently my biggest problem is forgetting what happens in a consultation, the sketches remain, but the context is missing.. this should not be a big issue really, unless you have high volume and 5 clients all want similar things... so I'm turning to a slightly higher tech pen.. the LiveScribe, it allows me to use a regular pen on paper, and create a digital drawing (saving extra step of scanning/photographing sketches) as well as recording the audio which is then tied to the drawing, i tested this at home with my 4 year old as a prospective client ;)

a nice "halfway" between the digital cad world and the analogue pencil sketch.. and easier for clients to use than a tablet as well...

4.5ct Saphirre Pendant remake

2011-12-07T17:56:00.000+11:00

A Red Bull kinda start to the day..

and set!

RockaBilly Bling Plastic Mould Cutting

2011-12-06T19:15:00.001+11:00

Hey all, been a while since I have posted anything, its the silly season for jewellers...

A mate of mine, Colin Creed, had a design he needed machined, but the detail was too fine to hold in wax so we decided to give mould cutting a swing.. something new for me...

Firstly, the artwork and its origins, can be found here,

Rockabilly Bling

http://colincreedtattoomachines.blogspot.com

This artwork was converted into 2.5D geometry by Colin Creed and supplied to me as a reverse negative for pathing, which was done in Deskproto,

Then off to the mill, the plastic material was harvested from a bread board I bought at a $2 store locally.

the video sequences follow logically and some images of the final mould at the end of the post.

Thanks for your interest

and some closeup imagery still :)

rip her up!!!!

2011-11-14T10:50:00.001+11:00

wooooooooooohooooooooooooo the world saved from yet another shit idea...

A few clips in no order..

2011-11-14T07:56:00.001+11:00

slow news week ;)

This clip I shot for someone ona facebook forum, to "digitise" a design, and also to illustrate surface modelling in rhino with no plugin help.

and these two are jsut clips of some waxes.

That Design Process again...

2011-11-08T13:18:00.003+11:00

for those who might be interested ;)

This customer baulked at 3 cad drawings in a row.. finally I sat down with her, and with a paper and pencil I nailed that sucker down!

remember.. very often, the old way is the best!

Tsplines Webinar

2011-11-03T09:19:00.003+11:00

Thanks to the boys at Tsplines for having me on their webinar.. loads of fun!

Surface and Boolean moddeling..

2011-10-31T20:16:00.000+11:00

old skool is Kool!!

Rehashing T-Splines..

2011-10-30T17:32:00.002+11:00

Been some time since I played with T-Splines then in one week I have had about 4 jobs, and a Webinar! I will post video of webinar when its available, but here are some Spliney images so long ;)

these pieces to get champaigne diamonds

This was the model I did for the Live webinar. A dual headed snake biting into a black Pearl.

And i was DRESSED for the occasion!

Info Here

http://www.tsplines.com/blog/2011/10/jewelry-webinar/

and this was just fer kicks!

OMG more hinges!

2011-09-29T18:37:00.000+10:00

The Statement ring!

2011-09-26T08:04:00.005+10:00

Tired of traffic, tired of midgets and New Zealanders? .
Do you need some special finger vocabulary to add impact to your gestural finger motions from your bike or maybe from your car window?

Look no further!!!

The latest pieces off my desk, I am making it for myself, for when im on my bike.. grrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (insert mental picture of mad growling nuthouse biker)

A simple statement of fact, to be worn together on one finger, or next to each other, and dependant on the situation you may want to leave a "lasting impression" on someone, or your personal STAMP of dissaproval.. we offer a REVERSE version to cater for this need, so the person being brought to a better understanding will be able to read it properly everytime they look in the mirror.. a meaningfull memory...

or you might even be just be feeling romantic.. who knows, so many great uses for the most meaningfull and diversified phrase in our English language...

I will be adding [YOU] and [ME] rings to the collection for added finger vocabulary, for those special moments ona date, swopping in the [ME] or [YOU] ring will quickly take it to the next level, or end it...

We will produce in gold, silver, brass and stainless

contact me if you interested...

Design@digital-jeweller.com

(PS. you do not have to be a biker or nuthouse car driver to wear this, you can also be mentally unstable or even work in the post office.. there are many reasons you could enjoy this piece of statement jewellery...)

Our first set finished up now.. I LIKE IT!!!!

How to unset 66 stones in 7 minutes.

2011-09-14T10:54:00.001+10:00

Using specific gravity, and fluid dynamics to unset 66 stones using science and chemistry alone. No damage to any stones, no hand tools damaged. Photos will say whats needed for the jewellers who know. Be warned, not for the feint of heart. A few degrees will mean the difference between sucess and the garbage can...

Save us from the artists...

2011-09-14T07:19:00.000+10:00

sometimes my job entails rescuing people from jobs they got coerced into...

Step by Step 4 carater.

2011-09-13T08:32:00.000+10:00

I will let the pictures do the talking.

A little hand made action...

2011-09-08T07:56:00.000+10:00

To dispel the myth that I only work in cad.. I just happen to only mostly post cad work ;)

its only an apprentice level job but in plat these things can be tricky to keep clean
, nice 2ct stone in it.. as i recall.. hmmm E VS.

Who loves Emeralds!!!

2011-09-07T18:49:00.001+10:00

aka.. the story of two burs and a saw blade and a big old pair of brass cahoona's...

Thought I would create a post of my emerald jobs.. jewellers love to see these.. everyone breathes a sigh of relief that it didn't cross his bench...

This was a handmake and set by moi... sweating blood...

ANd this one was a recent head remake and reset.. not sure why I keep punishing myself and setting these myself...

And this is the part that gives setters the sweaty nightmares....

(ever hear them green stones go Keerunch!)

And this a was quicky sizing, I happened to have the images to show somone else the soldering goop i use..

Pretty in Pink.

2011-09-02T19:14:00.007+10:00

A love job for a friend, who is making it for his daughter :)

4pp natural pink argyle diamonds... if need to ask how much they cost you probably don't want to know...

My Article in the Australian Jeweller.

2011-08-29T11:33:00.002+10:00

I have removed the article from here, It can now be accessed here, I think you need to be subscribed to the site.

http://www.jewellermagazine.com/Article.aspx?id=1860&h=The-future-is-now

Building a Crossover Sweep in Tsplines

2011-08-23T06:46:00.000+10:00

A classic crossover sweep ring explained from a tsplines point of view :)

My Apple MacBook CAD experiences...

2011-08-05T08:16:00.002+10:00

I am slowly trying otu a few cad apps on the macbook, i will update this blog as i try new ones out,

so far Rhinoceros and Silo.

I have have actually had more success running Rhino based plugins in Parallels.

Rhino4 (windows version with Tsplines plugin)

and Gemvision Matrix (Rhino plugin)

Another Stunner!

2011-07-07T08:24:00.000+10:00

not going to get too technical but images follow logically :)

Organica, wearable art!

2011-06-30T18:30:00.001+10:00

The new design from DJ.. the Organic ring, something just a little different!

A unique expression of fluid organic motion in a beautifully crafted piece of wearable art.

(soon we will add bangles and earrings to this collection, and maybe diamond pieces)

No two of these can ever be exactly the same and the manufacturing requirements mean they cannot be mass produced either
so your ring is your only, forever.

We make these to order in Silver, nine carat and eighteen carat gold, we can also cater for platinum.

Prices range from $390 to $5000

Each order is a new design, done by myself and is unique to you.

The same as the very fabric you are made from is unique to you.

Stop following the sheep.. make your jewellery say more about you and less about what everyone else says you should be.

Fusing Platinum... not that hard if you know how ;)

2011-06-22T19:15:00.003+10:00

A few tips on fusing platinum. the art of fusing platinum is overlooked.. its too easy to just solder it.. but often soldering platinum will buy you heaps of problems down the track..

This method below can also be used on 18 carat palladium based white golds and with a steady hand and some experience 18 carat yellow too. (in the case of golds ignore the warning against using flux)

[edit] Added clip of actual fuse.

Preparing your platinum:

Cleaning, cleaning, cleaning..

this cannot be overstated. Dirt and saw teeth and file teeth and other detritis from rolling will make their way into the join area and also the metal area around the join. At the extreme temperatures required to do a fuse these polutants will destroy surface adhesion and also affect the "flow" of the metal, and this is amplified in the case of soldering instead of fusing.

I like to do all my papering and sawing and other preperation then soak my join in h2so4 for about 10 minutes and give a good scrub with a brush then steam my joint.. just for kicks. (Back when i was a platinazi I was known to soak it in nitric too.. jsut in case...

Once we have determined that our work area is clean lets move onto the actual fuse process.

1: The ring. In this case I am assembling a cast piece with a hand made collet and I want my shank sized before the time. I prefer a fuse because it does not leave a line or run the risk of breaking after the ring is finished, or the line "wearing in" or polishing in after some time (or worse yet the join mysteriously just jumping open as the platinum age hardens (ruthenium))

2: The sizing. I cut the required amount out of the shank as per usual and bend it in till its all nice and tight again.

3: preparing the join. I file a V groove about 25% of the way into the join with a square file, right around the join.

zoomed 16X

CLEANING CLEANING CLEANING time.. refer to beginning of post. This is the time to soak this ring in h2so4 while you prepare the fuse metal.

4: the fuse metal. This platinum must preferably be the same platinum alloy as the ring, you can get away in some cases but preferably try use exactly the same alloy. Mixing cobalt and copper for example wont be an issue but almost anything to try use to fuse with ruthenium based platinums will give you poor bonding and or porosity issues. To ascertain if you are using ruthenium based platinum, try melting a small amount and let it cool, typically it will have a "crytaline" surface.. only use other ruthenium platinum with this.. even then its pot luck with fusing this alloy, unless you buy a laser and work under argon.

Copper platinum work great with fusing, but are generally very soft unfortunately. I find the cobalt platinums to have very good bench and casting qualitys.

Back on track, roll some of the platinum down the same way you would solder, but leave it heavier at around 0.3mm or so, paper it and CLEAN IT.

then clip of a small section about +- 1mm bigger than your join area right around. you need to fill the v groove you file in step 3 so bigger groove = more metal, use your common sense.. and practice because too much platelet and you wont melt into the join enough and if not enough platelet the fuse will be concave and your shank will be too thin.

Insert this into the CLEAN join area, steam it once more just for kicks :)

DO NOT USE FLUX

DO NOT USE FLUX

REPEAT

DO NOT USE FLUX

5: The fuse (oxy/lpg)
(hahaha yes yes.. i hear the laser boys laughing at me now.. shhhhh back in your cages...)

this is quite different to soldering where all the heat is concentrated close to the join area with the aim of quickly sucking solder into the join, relying on zinc/cadmium etal to flow and bond for you.. (actually those last are in fact why simply soldering platinum quite frequently results in join breaks)

You will need to start out with a very sharp small flame about 4mm of high flow rate blue tip like so

start out by warming the bottom third of the shank to bright white (1300-1500c)(wear protective glasses please)

once the lower third to half the shank is so bright and hot that my camera would not even expose the picture (1500 - 1700c), you are ready to fuse..

At this point you have been heating like a regular anneal.. sweeping back and forward with the flame, time to cut the flame back with more oxygen to 1.5 - 2mm and increase the heat (1750c ++)..

the effect here is to melt the platelet into the groove, heat directly from the edge of the platelet with a small concentrated flame so you dont ALSO melt the actual shank.. , melt it toward the shank, let physics sort the rest out.. this will require some practice at first to get the melt right without it dipping into the shank.

This is what you should see after.

If you observe bubbles, pitting you are most likely working with ruthenium based plat or you have dirt on your material.. or you did not listen and you used flux.. Platinum is a clean metal and wont oxidise in fusing.

6: Burnish/harden, I like to hammer a fuse and burnish it. I will typically size a platinum job
half a size to a full size too small just so that I can hammer the join area to work harden it, I then burnish the join area as well to eliminate any possible subsurface voids (highly unlikely) and further work harden the area.

7: paper and polish. The subject of finishing and polishing platinum is worth a blog post all on its own , suffice it say

FILE -> 400 grit ->800grit ->1200grit -> 2000grit grey -> 2 grades of polishing compound and this is not yet ready to get a final rouge....

and hopefully you have this.. a seamless join that no amount of polishing will dig into (i hate seeing platinum rings polished and showing the telltale solder seam)

and some close up under 16X of the seam area.. (the proof of the pudding...)

HTH
Regards
Chris

Milling hollow tube

2011-06-21T08:22:00.001+10:00

You have to have that grown....

famous last words..

Milling hollow tube is not easy, or hard actually, just irksome, some manual wax joining and cleaning is required, but the total hand time is still less than the time required to file growlines off ;)

The model, split in half

Bearing in mind that you need some excess wax for the wax weld I draw a little lip near either edge of the split tube

then send it off to Caro for milling.. (a wife that can mill.. is worth a mill???)

I split it all up and align along the support tabs using them for a quick fix hold solution

after which the wax weld begins in earnest...

a little working off of the join and a dip in my magic polishing solution ;)
(no, I wont tell you the exact mix of Shellite to water and the temp required in the ultrasonic ;) )

and they done! lets hope the caster knows what to make of them...

Saving the Bracelet

2011-06-20T14:40:00.000+10:00

Being a jeweller will typically mean I have the unpleasant task of telling people their jewellery is dead. Hinges worn through, or just generally just finished. People vest a lot of money and emotion into a piece of jewellery and sometimes they will spring for a "save" even though the cost is prohibitive.. This is the story of one of those pieces..

This Bracelet is worn through in all its hinge areas and was breaking continuously, so we are going to beef it up with some eighteen carat rails and turn it into a hinged bangle rather than a bracelet.

Firstly we need to roll down some beam and turn it into the wire for the rails

Then the awkward job of tacking the rails onto the bracelet ends. this part is done free hand.

after which we can wire the remained up and start soldering it all together

Give it a nice bath in H2SO4 for 30 minutes or so..

then start shaping it, this will require a resolder here and there as solder tends to be brittle...

and finally the single hinge in the rear is added

finally some polishing and a good swim in the rhodium and she is good as new!

Something old.. Something new..

2011-06-20T08:22:00.001+10:00

I recently sold my MDX-15 scanner, it which was a great help when doing wedders.. so typically when my next fitted wedder comes along I had to reinvent the wheel for myself.. (funny how quickly you become reliant on technology)

the ring is to be "flowy" but to sit snug on the ring surface as well..

"flowy" = T-Splines of course.. fitted.. well thats another story.. so I married old and new.

I brought some pictures of the ring into Rhino and scled them, then using a tsplines torus primitive I made a band, grabbed a few edgeloops and pushed and pulled till it looked about right.. remembering to leave it a touch wider for step2.

The lovely wife them milled the wax blank for me and time for step 2, which is basically melting the master ring into the wax pattern.. this is how I was taught to do it as an apprentice.

I placed the original ring down on a steel surface and lightly warm the metal.. heat here is critical.. too hot and you destroy the blank, to cold and it does not impress on the wax.

HEAT and PRESS!

carefully you seperate the two, too much force will break the wax, but hopefully you end up with a perfect pressfit :)

voila!

The proof of the pudding is in the eating so here is the finish article :)

My new toy - Asus EP 121

2011-06-12T10:34:00.002+10:00

After having owned the iPad and the iPhone for quite some time, I have come to understand that Apple has great design.. nice features, but no actual real world interoperability with regular stuff working people use.. .. My iPad ended up being used as a glorified game toy by the kids.. Angry Birds mostly.. My iPhone I will admit is one of the nicest devices I have owned, its a real pity its antenna is such a P.O.S.

I managed to trade it for something useful ;) , a tread mill! And then I sold off the mdx-15 and decided to get myself another mobile computing device to replace the iPad, this time I considered more carefully so I didnt get suckered in by good looks, rather than actual usefullness...

The result was the Asus Ep-121.

Some few clips of me using it :)

Me playing with Tsplines

Colin playing with MOI on it:

Me playing with Matrix

lastly ;) me watching Buck Rogers on it whilst on the treadmill.. hehehe

Ye old fashioned handmade...

2011-06-07T14:22:00.001+10:00

had to copy an existing ring, no time to cad it, so handmade. about 6 hours all up..

I will not see this finished, it gets the halo set, then the four prongs dropped in..

1: Forging the Shank. The image below represents the raw beam (top) rolled down to the right thickness (middle) then rolled flat to around 0.3mm narrower than the shank needs to be. (bottom). This is then annealed then bent round (far bottom) and soldered. The shank is usually easier to make in platinum as you can fuse it, as opposed to white gold which is soldered and leave a join. (i hate joins...)

2: The shank. (lost one image somehow). The shank bent round narrower and a few sizes too small. This is so that i can hammer it upward on my mandrel to the correct size. This achieves three things. I can taper my shank appropriately by concentrating hammering the bottom 2/3rds up, it widens the ring to the correct width which minimises filing and lemel loss. Finally it work hardens my metal which makes polishing easier and a more durable piece. (i also draw my cad shanks 1.5 sizes too small and a little thick, so i can tap them up, it does all the above but also aids in porosity elimination in those unfortunate bad casts...)

The shank is split inwards at the joint and then along the shank either side of that split. These areas will be bent upwards to make the shoulders.

3: The basket. This section is made from leftover beam, rolled sideways to give me a flat metal area around 20% wider than my diameter of my head and 0.2mm thicker than my basket needs to be.

This then gets punched round and folded inwards to the correct diameter leaving the correct size hemisphere.

4: the head. This is also pierced from rolled beam, hammered down with a big hammer to work harden the metal (tiny beads will be used in setting, tiny beads want resilient metal.) I dome the metal slightly to represent the stone angle on the Halo and then drill out the centre stone section.

The head is drilled for the stones (and usally the prongs are let in too, but in this case its so tight the setter requested setting the smalls first). the basket claws are filed from the hemisphere. The pieces are highly polished in all areas inaccessible after joining and the head is assembled.

5: The head and shank are both buffed prior to final assembly

A coating of boracic acid is applied to protect the surfaces from oxidising in hard to reach areas, and the piece is soldered together.

Finally I QC everything.. this piece was a copy and copy's are always harder to make than just starting from scratch, and in my version I allow around 5 to 10% thickness prior to setting, this allows for little "slips" that may possibly happen, and if there are no "slips" usually the client is not put off by having a slightly sturdier ring.

Oval Prongs in flip plus rotary milling.

2011-06-03T07:51:00.002+10:00

The question I field more than any other when it comes to milling, is usually tied to when the person asking, is trying their first attempts at flip plus rotary pass milling, where alignment becomes super crucial for the first time. This post is to help you get a grasp on indicating where you error may lie. You need to grab a good gauge and measure your prongs, cut a job with a prong that has a exact measurement, say 1.5mm then measure which way round the prong is oval , and more importantly whether it is a THINNER oval, or a THICKER oval. (ie, prong is thicker or thinner than the 1.5mm it was meant to be)

Oval prongs usually indicate an issue with A or Z axis errors or alignments. I will attempt to explain this in the pictorial below. They can however look like each other depending on the positive or negative value of the error. SO measure twice, sketch your oval on paper with its measurements and then read on.

For this exercise I drew a very simple exaggerated shank with four claws.

1: Prongs oval THICKER than the correct size ACROSS the shank.

This usually indicates an issue with Z0 in your flip cuts. It was too high, or too low, if Z was too high (ie not cutting right down to 0) then usually your prongs will be oval across the shank.

In this example I used a Z error of 0.22mm, the cutter did not go down far enough. which in a flip will result in a total error of 0.44mm, these numbers are highly exaggerated and the scenario is not actually 100% accurate, its for explanation only.

this error from the top looks like this,

correcting for this is easy, reprobe your tool, check for chipped cutters, and cut a few test pieces and guage Z thickness. You may need to reprogram Z offset in your controller software.

If the prongs are oval in the opposite direction but THINNER across the shank , in other words the oval presents in opposite direction, but the claws are too thin ACROSS the shank, then usually this will indicate your Z is cutting too far downwards in your flip.

The same corrective steps as above will be required.

2: Prongs oval THINNER than the correct size ACROSS the shank.

This error will usually indicate an error in Y in your flips, or A in your rotary pass. It presents as follows

and is usually the result of A being out like this

The first image shows a hypothetically thicker prong along the shank but since the prong has already been cut in the flip, by the time it comes upright for the pass in A part is already "missing" and the opposite part will be cut away, leaving only the centre section which I shaded.

If you own a mill with a A homing setup, follow your mill instructions on getting that sorted out (I dont have much good news for you users tho, typically automated A setups in mills using wizards are the users who present this error the most) for the manual guys, index properly when you setup your hub/arbor. I have a variety of units that will allow automatic indexing but I STILL cut an indexing pyramid into my shanks to visually check alignment... anything with moving parts will like to give you a run for your money... trust your eyes.

Oval in the opposite direction but THINNER than the correct size indicates

In mills with cheaper or badly produced rotary units this error can also be a backlash issue in the rotary. I find physical backlash error to account for less than 1% of these issues, usually its poor alignment.

3: Oval along both axis.

This is a tricky one, very tricky indeed.. it can represent a combination of the two scenarios above or could introduce an entirely new problem. Y axis misaligned in your flips.

It looks like some variant of this,

and is the most typical isseu reported because it has the highest likelihood of occurring, and unfortunately this usually means you were lazy and did not spend enough time tramming and dialling in your milling machine.

Tramming and dialling in properly will solve ALL the problems above usually.

If there is enough interest I will expand on the area of tramming and dialling in your milling machine.

Regards

Chris

The Cross

2011-05-21T15:39:00.003+10:00

The Cross :)
The brief was to make an ornate cross, 90mm high by 65mm wide with scrolly work in it..
I drew the base with Rhino to get us as far as a weight estimate then filled it in with tsplines for the curly wurly stuff :)

Just dumping in here.. only part done, will sort once its all uploaded :)

Start with a clip of the first bit :)

and some imagery :)

The Raw Tsplines geometry in production

Aclose up of the detail

The Render

Off to DeskProto for pathing

And onto the minitech for milling.. roughing pass.

and the first bit done :)

The Final bit, the knucle that holds it all together

Then time to split off the supports

and assemble!

A quick dusting of ocre for pictures, then split it all back up for casting..

Finally Finished :)

The chain procured and the St Christopher attached

And just as an idea of scale :)

(some months on from this I have recieved a repeat order for a second cross, 20% smaller than the original)

The Ouroborus.

2011-05-19T20:08:00.000+10:00

The final stage in a a very long job has been completed.. the Ouroubus is ALIVE!!!

This was an awesome job to work on. I produced this piece for Holloway Diamonds.. it is truly fanstastic to have so much gold to play with ;)

I am only the designer so the client details are not mine to share or expand on, but to own a piece of this magnitude you are SOMEONE..

The deal with an Ouroborus is that it is a mythical magical beast that swallows it own tail, the ultimate symbol of eternity, rebirth.

according to Wikipedia

The Ouroboros (or Uroborus)^[1] is an ancient symbol depicting a serpent or dragon eating its own tail. It comes from the Greek words oura (Greek ουρά) meaning "tail" and bόros (Greek βόρος) meaning "eating", thus "he who eats the tail".^[2]
The Ouroboros often represents self-reflexivity or cyclicality, especially in the sense of something constantly re-creating itself, the eternal return, and other things perceived as cycles that begin anew as soon as they end (the mythical phoenix has a similar symbolism). It can also represent the idea of primordial unity related to something existing in or persisting before any beginning with such force or qualities it cannot be extinguished. The ouroboros has been important in religious and mythological symbolism, but has also been frequently used in alchemical illustrations, where it symbolizes the circular nature of the alchemist's opus. It is also often associated with Gnosticism, and Hermeticism.

the piece was based on some rather sketchy pictures and some images from the web, lots of reasearch as well as months of emails between Holloways's and the client, it finally arrived at me as a patch work of imagery and instructions.

There is a Video clip of the piece at around 80% complete at the bottom of the post.

The initial CAD work looked like so..

and from this the feedback was "too many teeth, scale not snakey enough.." thank goodness tis only CAD!

Some design alterations and a few tweaks arrived at this basic idea

which was .. naturally.. LOVED..

it went off to casting.. 100 grams of gold.. :-) !!

and then after some huge amount of clean up, fitting a spring hinge and setting the diamonds and rubies we finally have this magnificent piece!

I love these projects :)

Here is the clip. its in 720P if watch on youtube :)

Wax Video

2011-05-17T08:23:00.000+10:00

A job my wife cut for me :)

Design and video.

Hear no Evil.

2011-05-15T12:21:00.000+10:00

This job is for another jeweller.. a series fo three rings.

See no evil, Hear no evil, and talk no evil.

intersting one :)

And the hand components in wax :), a series of six sets cut.

Another From-To.. upside down black diamonds!

2011-05-12T08:13:00.000+10:00

Some stuff from my daily grind :)

2011-05-10T07:53:00.001+10:00

The design process..

2011-05-05T07:38:00.000+10:00

I am often asked how the cad process works. how do I "just draw" a ring..how do I know the client will like it?

the answer is simple.. I don't. The process is the same as any jeweller uses, a consultation takes place, some ideas are gathered from the client, a general direction.. then a quick series of hand sketches take place with the client, to cement the direction of the design.. then finally we do cad to verify the design.. the cad component is actually the easiest part of it all, if all the other steps have been done properly..

Starting a CAD job with all the info makes it a breeze.. if you approach this the wrong way around and try to sell the cad first, you will find yourself chasing your own tail and redrawing work countless times. The act of sketching in front of the client makes them part of that process, makes them the "co-designer" and when they see "their" ideas come to life in cad, they embrace it, rather than the opposite, seeing a cold cad image and then trying to apply their needs to it and forcing you into a endless spiral of redrawing.

Custom CAD is not easy.. you are not selling a fixed item, you are applying mass production systems to bespoke clients...

Embrace the old way!!! Sketch sketch sketch!

(then cad your ass off)

The sketch of the client idea..

The Cad, resulting from the design variations picked by theclient.

The finally the groovy bit.. machining the wax etc...

The raw casting back from the casting house.

and the cleaned up casting, ready for setting.. will update post once its back

And that concludes the entire series from an idea in pencil.. right through to the finished article.

Thank you for taking the time to read through it :)

Some handwork.. how I LOVE hinges....

2011-05-03T15:56:00.000+10:00

Holloway Render

2011-05-02T19:56:00.000+10:00

Hey.. cant all be dead possums and geometry nighmares.. have to do paying work from time to time!

http://www.hollowaydiamonds.com.au

how a ring is born...

2011-05-02T09:35:00.000+10:00

CAD and CAM components complete..

I will update this once its been set :)

Art Nouveau..

2011-05-01T19:31:00.001+10:00

never trust a friend....

2011-05-01T10:02:00.000+10:00

Niko sent me this pic.. of course the first thing I do is to make fun of him.. then model the fishook, then post it everywhere I can!

Some more tsplines and keyshot...

2011-04-30T09:44:00.000+10:00

Keyshot rendering...

2011-04-28T05:53:00.001+10:00

Still prefer Vray.. but this is easier...

wax my turtle!

2011-04-26T20:14:00.000+10:00

tsplines turtle model... sometimes I make the wierdest stuff..

Carnival Mode!

2011-04-26T17:49:00.001+10:00

Dead Possum!

2011-04-24T18:24:00.000+10:00

and sometimes you model stuff that just makes you go.. WTF???

(lol, this is actually a mock up of a model in tsplines i did for someone i know.. jsut for kicks, but it supposed to be a dead opossum.. New Zealanders....)

quadball doggy....

2011-04-24T18:20:00.000+10:00

dont ask.. moddeling organic stuff is still new to me... this started out life as a quadball.. The remnants of which are left in the throat area ;)

(Undigested cat???)

Triple Dodecahedron model..

2011-04-22T22:40:00.000+10:00

I did a nurbs dodecahedron Frabjous model some time ago.. figured I would give Tsplines a go at it as well...

Here is the old original model I did.

And this is the Tsplines version, starting at the polygonal dodecahedron

then the dual inner and outter triangle dodecahedron merge at their intersection points

and then finally the two together..

LOTR inspired piece...

2011-04-22T11:09:00.000+10:00

Watched lord of the rings last night...

ummmmmmm....

2011-04-20T20:19:00.000+10:00

some Tsplines stuff with the kids..

2011-04-17T10:41:00.000+10:00

some sunday morning fun with the kids :)

RhinoCam fully 2D puzzle bangle..

2011-04-16T23:38:00.003+10:00

I am cutting this for someone else, its hardly an earth shattering design and i could have just done it as autoflip and rotary.. but.. I figured, what would be the most difficult way for me to do this..

Figure out the curves.. and cut the entire job as a 2d profiling and pocketing operation..

2 things i learned..

1: 2d work is trickier than it looks

2: In 2d this job will take 47mins @ 400mm/min.. in autoflip+rotary i was looking at 7 hours...

(it actually took 22 minutes to cut at +-900mm/min average velocity)

Minitech / 123WaxRing Setup and Usage

2011-04-16T23:38:00.001+10:00

I have long been enamoured by the fixture from Lex at DeskProto and after some discussion he happily provided me with a unit for testing. I have copied this post from our old forum where more in depth information is available.

I locked the fixture into my Sherline rotary and the time arrived to dial this sucker in!

The fixture relies on a perfect A and Z and X setup, Y and Z should both already be setup before you even set this fixture up since you will be locking into your rotary unit and would have this dialled in.

Lets get to it!

1: Finding perfect A... easy! roll the whole unit in A against a table square on your mill table, set your jog to 10% and slowly roll until no light is visible between the square blade and the fixtures top surface.

2: Click in the A DRO in Mach and type in 90 (or 270 depending on which side you setup the fixture table) then run the command G0A0. Simple - A is now perfectly flat to the spindle and A is now set :)

3: Time to setup X.. this too is pretty easily done, but make sure you are 100% carefull in this step, the 123waxringWizard software relies on X heavily, even a minor misalignment here will be amplified in your final model.. measure twice, cut once. To setup X drive the back of a 3.17 (1/8th) cutter up to the very edge of the fixture like below, CAREFULLY, set your jog speed right down when you get closer. when you are touching the fixture zero out X and drive directly upwards in Z away from the fixture, now time to correct our tooltip width, run the command G0X-1.585 then rezero X. Thats it for X.

4: these images are merely the way that I verified my Y before cutting, I am including them because all thing swith movable parts are subject to tolerances so screwing the fixture into its Sherline adapter may introduce errors, and even tho they are minor in most case its good to know how to look for them. Basically i drove my cutter to the very edge of each pin in Y and check the Mach DRO for position in Y on either pin, these should be virtually the same number only different in positive/negative assignment. Y verified!

5: Time to cut.. The software would have told you what thickness disk to use, lock it in the fixture with the chosen cutter in place and probed.

The first path will complete with half the disk cut away to reveal one side of the ring.

Turn the disk over and lock it back in. Cut the second path, you should be left with a well aligned flip cut wax, ready for the final rotary pass.

Lock it onto the rotary pins and lets finish this up!

And we are done!

Thank you for taking some time to read through this pictorial :)

Regards

Chris Botha

RingSize Cutter Setup on Minitech

2011-04-16T23:37:00.001+10:00

Hi all, another copy of an older post being imported to our new shiny forum :)

If like me, you find yourself to be loosing the manual dexterity required to get in small areas without destroying a wax, I will bet you are wishing you had a tool for separating your core from your ring without all the PITA...

Well I use Brants arbor for my cutting and it occurred to me after seeing Leo's post on his cutter that it could not be so hard to do! This pictorial covers that bit of journey ;)

1: Find some nice extruded acrylic and a imperial bolt.. turn the acrylic blank in your lathe and glue the cut off bolt into it.. simple enough? No lock it into your 4 jaw chuck and simply mill a copy of Brants Arbor into the front of it! Thank you Colin for your help here!

2: screw that sucker down to a handy spot on your mill table, make sure it snot a place that your spindle assembly will crash into anything else.

3: drive to its dead centre (little spot in my case left from turning it) and svae X and Y and Z as a fixture offset in MACH.

4: Usage.. cut a regulr flip, followed by a regular rotary pass as per usual.

5: Move the ring over to the new acrylic fixture on the table, nice snug fit! Run some code to cut the fingersize, in my case i use the following recipe but you can use the circle cutting wizards in mach too or simply code a cutoff path in your favourite pathing application.

[QUOTE](Radius Fingersize)-(Radius Cutter) and replace the three sections marked in red with that result. the section marked in green is where you would set your depth.

My offset in mach is setup to X and Y being at the center of the hub and Z0 being at the top of the fixture, which is 6mm deep, so basically anything over z-3 will be cutting below the middle of the model. In this case z-5 which is 2mm below the center of the model, easily cutting through the supports.

G00 Z10.0000

X0.0000 Y6.8000

G01 Z-5.000 F150.0

G17

G03 Y-6.8000 I0.0000 J0.0000

Y6.8000 I0.0000 J0.0000

G00 Z50.0000

G00 Y0.0000

M05

M30

[/QUOTE]

6: and she is done!

Thanks for reading the full pictorial and I hope it helps you in some way,

Regards

Chris Botha.

Mdx15+FourthAxis and 123Waxring setup.

2011-04-16T23:35:00.003+10:00

Hi All,

Having set up and used the 123WaxRing fixture on my Minitech Minimill I was very taken with it, and noticed one important thing about it, it is SMALL!!

So small in fact that I was pretty sure I could get it to fit inside my MDX-15. This is no small feat by the way for those of you unfamiliar with an MDX-15.. its Z space is extremely limited.

Anyhow, in case anyone ever feels the need to hook up a good fixture to a neat little hobby mill I hope the following pictorial will help you :)

What will you need?

1: 123Waxring fixture.. and obviously Deskproto.

2: an MDX15 mill

3: A Fourth Axis after-market rotary unit.

Lets get to it!

1: The first problem I had to overcome was how to fit this onto my rotary unit.. not an easy one to overcome as the rotary unit cannot support much weight as it is so a tight slimline method was required, I tested a few ways but gave up on them and then settled on the next method. I took one of my supplied Spigot Boss's and hooked it into my lather, I cut a ledge the same size as the ledge on my 123waxring fixture, to ensure a nice concentric fit..

2: I eventually found the right size bolt to fit into the back of the 123waxring fixture and bored and glued it into my spigot boss.

Which resulted in a nice clean slim setup!

3: time to see if it would fit .. it did! wooooooooohooooooooooo

4: Dialling it in is slightly more complicated than the process found here because of the poorer controller system available to these units, but the principals are the same. A slightly more manual approach is required, but if you own an MDX15 you are already accustomed to doing everything slightly harder.

Time to load a path and test it!

5: Flips cut good!

6: let that rotary run!

and the finished result was damn good!

All up I would have to say that I am glad I own a Minitech now and I am not reliant on my MDX, but if I was then I have to say that this route of MDX15+FA+123WaxRing would be the only way to use it. The features of the 123WaxRing system, not requiring a 180 flip and using one X all the way through make usage of the complete system far simpler than any other method. If you setup your X, Y and Z datums once and then didnt turn off the mdx or close the controller application you could hypothetically cut as many rings as you liked after each other without any further setups.

If you are doing this or want to do this and are unsure please feel free to email me on the board for more detailed information.

Kind regards

Chris Botha

Using MDX-15 Scanner for making fitted wedders.

2011-04-16T23:35:00.001+10:00

I had a couple of matching wedding rings to make and usually , like most people in the cad game (and handmade game) I use the paper and pencil trace on a mandrel. This method however leaves much to be desired because it does not take into account any slope in the rings head, hollows or undercuts, and is subject to distortion when being re-wrapped and is really only useful if the ring has a subtle curvatures.

The solution has been under my nose all this time.

My MDX-15, which is a capable entry level mill, but is also configurable as a 3d scanner. So, I tried the scan option method.

I set the XY pitch resolution to 0.2mm as I only need a basic shape not a detailed copy, so it took an hour to scan both rings as a single operation, I then imported the mesh to Rhino , projected a circle against it to create my "follow" curve and got perfect fit matching wedders at around 5 minutes design time each.

I can kick myself thinking about all the time I have wasted in the past with post casting issues, scaling and with having to try fit these things properly by hand.

The scan method allows me to accurately place my designed wedder against the "ring" it is intended for and make alterations as required at cad level. These jobs are unfortunately not for myself so I wont see them again, but I am willing to bet my bottom dollar they will fit EXACTLY.

I think I am going to get a little more use from my MDX-15.

Images follow logically.

Kind regards

Chris Botha

Dragon Ring

2011-04-16T23:34:00.002+10:00

Was going to do a tut on this pathing but I am having trouble with periodic crashes so decided to do a step by step pictorial instead.

Here are some videos followed by the pictorial.

Pathing the ring PART 1

Pathing the Ring PART2

Cutting the ring PART1

Cutting the ring PART2

Cutting the ring PART3

1: Setup huge wax block

2: Check X old fashioned way ;)

3: Run the roughing paths with a 3.17 EM

4: Cut the hole for Brant's arbor.

5: Start indexing path, this one includes all blockers in place and is low res at 0.05mm stepover.

6: Hide the side panel blocker and go in at 0.02 stepover

7: Cut the indexed taper ball areas at about 50 degrees

REPEAT 5-7 at A180

8: Use paint to check that detail is ok before removing from mill.

9:Rotary phase1 , full cut at low res 0.05mm Blockers back in place.

10: which will be followed by three index's at 290 - 0 - 70.

11: Time to decore that sucker

12: and get some sleep...

the HUGE ring!

2011-04-16T23:33:00.001+10:00

Well guys, Colins client gave the thumbs up for this project, and it is a project... Colins conception and MOI signet, Berts artwork on the scrolls, and I will be pathing and cutting...

I will leave it to Bert and Colin to post their respective imagery as they see fit I will contain myself to only the pathing and cutting :)

Thank you Colin for allowing us to post on this job :)

So...

Rhinocam died in the bum on this job, a simple case of not enough memory to finish it, so fell back on DeskProto for pathing it. A little more cumbersone in the setups but not a major hiccup at all, and the paths generate FAST.. I had forgotten how fast DP generates :)

I picked this strategy:

A roughing with a 3.17EM leaving 0.8mm skin, followed by an entire finishing pass with a 0.127mm tapered pyramid at 50 micron stepover. I followed that with three index cuts from 90, 0 and 270 respectively with the same cutter at 20 micron stepover.

almost 2 million lines of code in total.

In case you cant concieve the actual scale of the job ;)

Fingersize and outter diameter! WOWZA!!

Topdown X and Y size!!

Images Follow.

Setting up in DeskProto

Three layered roughing passes

Full rotary pass

Top down from 0 degrees

index from 90 degrees

Index from 270 degrees

Ok roughing done, now the first finishing pass :)

Had to cut up a energy drink can to get a tube remelt thick enough

off to the trusty lathe for finishing and truing

Hook her onto the conical clamps and setup time

load path

and rough!

roughing done after 3 stepdown levels

finishing pass started :)

Rotary pass done, 2h later

add some oil.. (some people claim this helps, i use it but honestly cant tell any difference when using it)

start the index passes (new cutter.. grr K.O'd the last one with the oild bottle!

90 and 270 degree indexes done, time for the big one, 0 degree index.

finally done!

Huge Amethyst Ring..

2011-04-16T23:32:00.003+10:00

A sneak peek into next job, one more for colin, oversize head and shank for a LARGE amethyst.

This is the stone, usb jack for proportion :)

The shank is not worth going into detail on, just a pic, simple flip cut

SOme pathing imagery

Half the job to be cut

Roughing the rotary pass

Finishing the Rotary Pass

Top Down Roughing

Top Down Finishing

Melt some tube!

Hook some oversize wax into the lathe :)

Surface it

Load into Mill

Roughing

[video=youtube;XJYVsiIG8h4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJYVsiIG8h4[/video]

Roughing COmplete

Finishing Starts

Finishing Finished.. 5 hours later....

Rotate Fixture upwards 90'

Zero out X and Y

Zero out Z

Top roughing

ROughing done!

Change cutter and rezero fo final pass

[video=youtube;ZrQqIWpYYsk]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrQqIWpYYsk[/video]

Finishing pass done!

Cutoff Profile operation

and she is done.. phewwwwwww

Cutting up Heaven

2011-04-16T23:32:00.001+10:00

Caro's Coffee Can

Resulting pour

Trimmed on BandSaw and finished on lathe

Roughing Path

Rough that sucker!

Longest roughing I have ever done :(

4 Sided index Paths with blockers

4sided index starts

Indexes with large tool done.. 2.5hours too..

Final small tool indexes for company logo will be done tommorow..

And DOne

Saving Grannies Ring...

2011-04-16T23:31:00.001+10:00

I had a nice project to work on here.. saving grannies ring.. this mount is super old. the stone is unrecognizeable cut too. im guessing some windowed rough.

Doing a job which has this much sentiment and very littel actual design characteristics left is always shaky business.. Granny will remember it like the day she first got it, and you need to try live up to that...

wisps of original ring supplied

grab decent picture if possible

bring into Rhino and orient it as best as possible.

adlib the design around what little we do have.

layout for milling.

milled wax.

Cast model.

Some assembly required

and model assembled.

a few before and after shots..

I likely wont see this again, but the setter will mount the stone and apply some millgrain around the mount still. If I get finished imagery I will post it :)

Tongue in Cheek.. cad vs workshop

2011-04-16T18:53:00.000+10:00

This is a post from the old forum, stumbled onto it again on FB, thought I would transplant to here :)

1: Old ring (see naked edges causing BlockInstanceDiamond to fall out.)

2: Start by taking Primitive BOX and Extrude to Rectangle

3: Use BEND command

4: Extractisocurve, Pipe, Booleandifference

5: Extractisocurve (change direction) pipe, booleandifference

6: Examine for naked edges or bad geometry

7: Soften and filletedge 0.125 then HIDE

8: Old geometry WireCut

9: Cap ends, examine for bad geometry

10: UNHIDE head section into file

11: BooleanUnion

12: Examine for Naked Edges

13: Explode old geometry, extract BlockInstanceDiamonds

14: Align BlockInstanceDiamonds to new Head

15: CageEdit to secure BlockInstanceDiamonds

16: Examine for naked edges and bad geometry

17: Apply texture and materials

18: Finally Render!