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Step 4Make a hole
This part was the hardest for me because I didn't have anything to hold the ring while I drilled it. You need to hold the ring in something that won't scratch it. A vice or vice grips. What ever you use, make sure you pad it to protect the ring. You don't want all that tapping to go to waste.
**Also note that drilling the ring gets it very hot. It can burn you, handle with care**
I drilled a hole in the center followed by a bigger hole and so on. Drill out as much of the center as you can. A dremel will probably work well here. I didn't have one for my first ring. Once you have enough of the center out you can grind away the edges with a file or dremel.
At this point you can play around with the size. Try the ring on and grind away until it fits right.
**Also note that drilling the ring gets it very hot. It can burn you, handle with care**
I drilled a hole in the center followed by a bigger hole and so on. Drill out as much of the center as you can. A dremel will probably work well here. I didn't have one for my first ring. Once you have enough of the center out you can grind away the edges with a file or dremel.
At this point you can play around with the size. Try the ring on and grind away until it fits right.
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I have a drill no dremel, but access to someone who probs does.... once i tap down the ring to the approx size, should I just take it to my friendly artist neighbor to help me get the exact size i need?
Added.
I'm sorry. But that's pretty funny
If you want smaller, start with a dime.
The method I personally used, when I did my coin-ring thing... I found the size I wanted. Measured the distance to where i wanted the middle of the finished ring to be. added that distance again, THEN cut the disc out. For my finger, I ended up cutting a hole approximately 1/2 the diameter.
While hammering, The hole was placed on a steel ring mandrel. Every time I struck the outside with my tiny hammer, the inside received a portion of the impact. The end effect is that the ring gets swagged from the inside AND outside. This not only leads to a THICKER ring(slightly under 2x as thick), but it also gives you a nice, smooth, hammer-finished interior, rather than the sharp ridged interior seen is the final step of this 'ible.
Another possibility, if you do cut out the interior is, drifting the hole, and STRETCHING the smaller diameter piece to fit. This will require you to periodically soften the ring(since silver work hardens), but you could take a disc of silver that will pass through a size 8 ring, and drill/drift it so the size 8 ring would pass through IT instead! (if this didn't make sense, either comment after me, or PM me, and I'll fire up either the camera, or a paint program, and illustrate)
:-)
Keep on hammering.
Much like quarters, only certain years are silver. Modern dimes are composite(laminate?).
1963 or earlier are the years you're after.
If it doesn't quite look like a modern dime design, consider selling to a collector, as the VERY old swilver coins are worth a fair bit more as coin, than as 90/10 silver/copper metal. (FYI Sterling is 92.5/7.5)
You CAN try with a modern dime. They are copper cores, sandwiched between two layers of an alloy of 91.67 percent copper and 8.33 percent nickel. So, you can treat them almost exactly like copper slugs. Like silver, it work hardens, and is softened by heating to a dull cherry(just glowing in a dimly lit room) and immediately dropping into cool liquid. water will work, but a mild citric acid solution is better.
US Size 7 ring and below, for a ring using your technique. 7 would be, slightly thickened edge, and center removed. The smaller the size, the thicker the edge can be made.
Working with the size 7 idea... after the edge is thickened, and center cut out, you would then have a ring that could be stretched to probably size 8 or 8.5. Any bigger, and you would risk breaking the ring. Obviously, you want to soften the ring before trying to do any but the most minimal stretching.