My latest tangent……rings….here only until they break and then they are gone.I must say, these are the lightest and the most comfortable rings I’ve ever worn….I can’t even tell I’m wearing one.
Close up, yeah…they look rough….but, it’s been so much fun. They’re made out of three pieces that fit really tightly together so no glue. The gold finish is Rub n’ Buff. The ‘gems’ of course are resin. I made small holders to use while I was working on them. The green “Peridot” is really brilliant and my very favorite. My brother has been wearing a plain band one and wore it in the shower so all the gold came off. We agreed that he should be my tester to see how they hold up…waiting to see when the first one breaks. I did coat them with some clear varnish after the shower experiment, so I will be interested to see if that keeps the gold from rubbing off.
They do however get an aged look to them when the gold begins to wear…and they remind me of images of ancient rings that have been recovered during archaeological digs.
After making the first one, I realized that it would be very helpful to have a bezel on the top, so I cut one only .028” wide from some veneer. It was very difficult to tell which side had the 3M on it at that point….and placing it right where it should go was a real challenge, too. It did though, make the ‘gems’ look much better.
The little horse was an experiment to see how small of an image I might be able to encapsulate. OK but not great.
When I made my pen I soaked it in super/CA glue - it became both shiny, and much MUCH harder. It didn’t seem to make it brittle either. That could totally work.
What a very nice thing to say! That means a lot to me. I just turned 80 and feel just as strongly about making stuff as I did 8 years ago when I first got my Glowforge. If anything, my lifestyle and ease of living certainly enhance that feeling.
Consumer wood stabilizer is typically powdered acrylic or similar suspended in a solvent. It fills the void’s making the wood surface harder and less porous, but there is no bonding to provide additional strength.
An adhesive such as epoxy or CA might be a better choice, it will take some experimenting.
One form of commercial preparation to produce “stabilized wood” uses an epoxy resin with the powdered polymer, under vacuum.
