Make a silver ring for 25 cents

Step 6 What to do with your new ring?

Wear it, propose marriage, sell it, give it away. Sadly you can never use it to play a video game or spend it like a quarter, but I think it's worth much more than 25 cents now.

I hope you give it a try. It's really very easy.

Comments

[techformulae]

I have made two so far.
Drilling the hole is the hardest part.
My first one, I drilled a small hole and then bored it out.
Very slow, and, I lost most of the silver (I was going to melt it down)
The second ring, I tried to drill many small holes around the edge.
I broke many bits this way, but , I think it might be the best way
to go about it.

[phapboy]

Yeah, I'm having a hard time drilling out the center. My Dremel will only hold bits up to a certain size and I'm not sure if my drill is strong enough to drill through it...

[squiggy2]

No drill should have trouble if it's a real silver quarter. Take it at a nice slow speed and work your way up in steps from your pilot hole

[techformulae]

My dremel didn't have any trouble with the silver ring.

Once I had a small hole drilled, I then used a reamer bit to slowly
open the hole. (diamond coated dental bits)
Like I said earlier very slow, and all I had left of the center
was silver dust.

On the second ring, I drilled a LOT of holes around the edge
of the coin, and then played connect the dots with the reamer.
So I still have the coin center to melt down later.

[wrush]

now i just have to find a siver quarter :/
anybody know if you can use a nickel???

[squiggy2]

I'm Australian so excuse me if I'm wrong, but I am going to assume a nickel is made of nickel. In which case it is quite a bit harder than silver - almost as hard as some steels. This means the spoon tapping method won't work, and in general shaping it will be much more difficult. That said, its only worth 5(?) cents so there's no harm in trying!

[rbohringer]

Instead of drilling you could use a nail to make a hole and file to do then you can hammer out till the right size

[lknowles]

I remember doing this for my girlfriend in High School 40 years ago! Does this qualify as "retro"? We only used the bowl side of the spoon and used a real spoon...not the light stainless steel ones today. Nice job!

[dholland3]

That is awesome!!!!

[gogglecrab]

wonderful job!

[ccobra]

thats soo kool i love it lolz

[aesel]

that is so beautyfull!!

[SFX Master]

Being a fan of Blade and Underworld, I am so gunna do this.

[72bobbert]

Nice! I'm going to try to start with a hammer and then use the spoon to smooth out any rough spots.

[zigzagchris]

my plan allso

[zigzagchris]

nm, dont drill the whole in while doing it it. Made it much more work then it needed to be because it adsorbed the blow of the hammer.

[brianpxbd]

Hi All, sounds interesting, but all the hard work of tapping to form it. If you have access to a lathe, I suggest you clamp the coin against the lathe spindle /chuck/faceplate etc.. with a running centre and use a hand roller to form the edge. I would advise annealing the coin first (that is make it very hot, but not melting, and plunge it in cold water), this will make the coin very soft and malleable. Without pictures it is difficult to explain to someone without lathe knowledge, so if you wish to use this suggestion, I would recommend you ask a engineering machinist for help! To make it easier to hold the coin in the lathe, one could drill a hole in the centre and mount the coin on bolt with a nut to secure it, and then hold the bolt in the lathe chuck!

[purplefiona]

nice suggestion, I was wondering if a lathe would do it. Thanks!

[GatheringAwesome]

Hi, This is really cool! I was want to make one as christmas present and was wondering if there was an easy way to engrave something in it? I have some ideas but i'm not sure what the outcome will be. Thanks!

[Kbub]

I like this. So I spent my afternoon making one out of a regular old 1983 quarter. Turned out great. I used a tack hammer and a smooth faced brick as an anvil and I got the thing hammered down in an hour.

[tanis9319]

please answer can you make me one i can never finde a 1964

[xenobiologista]

If you don't have the resources to make your own jewelery try looking on etsy.com, it's a marketplace fo rpeople selling handmade stuff. There MAY (I don't know, haven't checked) be rings made out of coins there.

[Bad Maxx]

This is an Awesome Ible! But I too would say finding a silver (Pre 1965 US Quarter) Quarter in your change has become extremely rare. That said, I suppose it does happen from time to time. When I worked at a casino in the late 1990's I found a few as the slot machines would not accept them, and explain the value and the fact they were silver until you were blue in the face, the customers rarely took their silver quarters back home with them, but rather "just give me one that works" was the usual response and I would "buy" them. Our scales* also separated the silver and foreign coins that might have ended up in a slot machine's hopper and I usually bought these as well. In three years I bought about $20 worth 25 cent at a time. With the millions (literally) of quarters I would see every day, that is 80 quarters out of an estimated 300 million quarters. (PLEASE SEE EDIT) My point is if you think you might wait to find one in your change, you might miss out on an excellent Instructable, silver quarters can be found all over the internet (eBay, collectons.com etc) for a few bucks. (EDIT: Apparently the state of Texas has "tons" of them) * The coins were weighed not counted as were the bills)

[paqrat]

This is actually more of a question than reply and your having worked in a casino I thought you might be in position to know. I have heard that there used to be a ?con? using coins with some sort of cord attatched in slot machines? I think the idea was you put the coin in, it triggered the slot machine then you pulled your coin back out, thus getting to use the same coin many, many times. If someone were caught doing this I would think it could be prosecuted by federal prosecutors. If a prosecutor came to find that a school was turning out such coins there might be a warning to cease and desist. I think the same sort of scam was used in pay telephones.

[Bad Maxx]

Sorry for the Hijack of the discussion here, if this is inappropriate please delete it! To the question "I have heard that there used to be a ?con? using coins with some sort of cord attatched in slot machines?" Well actually yes once upon a time this was an actual scam or con, but long ago this issue was addressed in the coin accepter. At the time I worked there the big scams/cons were devices created to artificially affect the machine's "computer", and taking advantage of a glitch in some of the "sit down" quarter slots that allowed a customer to cash out their quarters while simultaneously hitting the coin return, somehow this tricked the machine and allowed them to keep the credits on the machine for the coins they were receiving. It took a very long time for the casino to catch that particular glitch. Our casino probably lost close to $35,000.00 along with other nearby casinos with the same slot machine losing a bit more. (As soon as a scam is suspected the casinos in general share what they learn with other casinos) People were constantly trying magnets on the screens thinking it would screw up the machine, all it did was temporarily mess up the screen itself (just like if you take a magnet to a tube TV or monitor) and we would have to degauss it. However many other devices were created but it was usually a person or two that would be using the device, not a widespread scam. Eventually they would be caught, the machines modified and wait for the next scam... These were almost without fail created by someone who purchased an actual slot machine and through trial and error would figure out a way to get the machines to do something they were not designed to do. As far as getting Federal time, often the person would plea bargain and show the casino how the scam worked.

[tjdrumman]

you can make one with a normal quarter looks cooler

[QueenQuill]

I'd be happy to make you one, for a price. Interested?

[target022]

I don't have any silver quarters either. I've only ever found 2 in my life. Try it with a regular quarter. It will look copper instead of silver.

[sparktech]

youve only found two??? come to Texas (if you are not already here) im 14 and have found at least 50 or so and my dad has a ton of them he lets me have them if i want :) go to the old rundown stores and stuff that look like they dont get business at all and just ask if you cant rade a dollar for 4 quarters hehe or if you can go to a coin collectors place they generally have some or the bank...you can get them there if you go to the right bank happy hunting!!

[tanis9319]

thanks i will try i might put a pic on here

[Marsh]

This is a great job! I'm going to make one for sure! Just as soon as a silver quarter shows up in my change.

[kenzieboppers123]

This is VERY interesting and I like it a lot!!

[Ikkalebob]

Awesome instructable! Do you think it would work on other coins because I dont live in the US?

[thegreat58]

If you have fat fingers, silver half dollars work too, if you have really fat fingers a silver dollar will work as well.

[IncrediblyCondensedBlackMatter]

Updatexs: ive honed this process and ive made 3 rings at this point. firstly, a hammer is a VERY good idea for normal quarters, if you have the means to polish it. i just sand the outside with a coarse grit then tap it with a metal rod. ive also developed a really good technique for widening them and getting all the ridge in the middle gone. a tapered rod, a propane torch (makes it quicker but not necessary) and a jewelers hammer all have helped alot. thanks for making this, my friends love these rings!

[target022]

Nice work. I always thought about using a metal rod for the middle of the ring. Where did you find a tapered one?

[paqrat]

A jewlers supply should have one. I have seen solid steel ring sticks. These also have the advantage of having sizes marked on them. They are also available (or were, may still be) in aluminum for for this I think I'd go with the steel. Sorry, no idea of the price.

[ironsmiter]

Firemountain Gems
Ring mandrel, steel
$23usd.

not the cheapest place to get one, but if you're already ordering...

[paqrat]

I am not sure if they carry it but if they did I think I'd be more inclined to get one from Rio Grande.

[ironsmiter]

Rio Grande does have them, under "bench tools". their cheap one is even the same price :-)