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manwithashadow In reply to SoulStoneDesigns [2006-09-26 18:48:19 +0000 UTC]

well, I kind of cheat. first you make the seat for the setting, you cut a beveled edge on the inside of the seat. The cheating part is when you go to attack the prongs you don’t cut them the size you need them. I used 3 inch piece of 18 gauge wire and soldered it to the side of the seat. The wire is held in place by a hands free set of adjustable tweezers. after your prong is soldered in place you cut it short but not all the way, you must leave enough wire to attach another set of tweezers. You use the extra length left on it to place another hands free tweezers to it as a heat sink so that you don’t melt the prong back off. After you have achieved 4 prongs using the heat sink method, you then cut you prongs the right height. Next you take an file and file the inside of your prongs so they are notched to allow them to bend easier. The final stage is to take a cup bur and round down the tops of your prongs. So the setting is made. In order to attach it to the larger piece, you would solder all the precut smaller pieces together to increase its heat disbursement. Note that trying to solder all the small pieces directly to the larger piece, may result in melting your piece away before the solder actually takes. The use of heat sinks gives you a few more degrees of temperature the piece can take before it collapses in on itself. Years of making mistakes have allowed me to find a method that works!

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