Nickel Ring / Pendant

Use a nickel to make a ring or pendant for your sweetheart. Click the link for the mens version.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Mens-5-Cent-Ring/

Tools:

Sliding square
Razor blade
Center punch
Small hammer
Large hammer
Mandrel (I used a pry bar)
Rotary tool
File
Drill press
Sockets
80 Grit sand paper
400 Grit sand paper
2000 Grit sand paper
Polishing Compound 

Step 1: Mark the center

Center the coin in the carpenters square. Using a razor blade score a line in the center. Rotate the coin 90 degrees and score another line. Where the lines cross is the center. Now use a punch to mark the center. This helps you in the next step.  

Comments

[Axtklinge]

Really nice and inspiring work.
Thank you!

[Lounies]

What is the top tool in the bottom picture?

[Mrballeng]

It's a pry bar.

[embochner]

thanks for posting this its really cool, im working on one now. its not coming out as nice as yours. i didnt have a socket to put the ring to work on the inside so i took a scrap of plywood and drilled one hole the size of the ring halfway through one side and a hole slightly smaller through the other side to create a little ledge for the ring to sit on snugly to work on the inside. i colored the ledge orange in the attached photo to be able to see it better.

[Mrballeng]

Awsome! Thaks for posting pictures. It's a help to everyone including me. Your ring is looking good. Keep in mind I ruin a whole bunch of material before I come out with anything worth while.

[leah_thomas]

Wow, my mom just taught me how to do this a couple of weeks ago. She used to make them when she was a kid. But this is far more advanced. She gave me a nickel and sturdy spoon and said to hit it over and over again. It sounded like a cowbell on helium. Then you drill it and beat it some more.

[htonks]

So I don't think I fully understand- you put the coin at like, a 90 degree angle to the anvil- basically so they are side by side... Then you hammer the coin, on the face side / tails side against the anvil, and also along the edge of the coin? (smooth edge)

[Mrballeng]

What your hammering is the edge of the coin. As you hammer the edge it will flare into the ring thickness you want. Hammering it will it's through a steel rod also flares the inside.

[snoopindaweb]

I made 1 with a 48 50 cent peice, I drilled It 1/2" used a small Jewellers Anvil & Hammer & Tapped, Tapped, Tapped for about a year fairly often. I can still read under the folded edge most of Liberty, In God We Trust, Half Dallar, United States" Other side, etc. I left the Narfy "Hammered" finish.
Sooo.

[cook$]

This might be a stupid question... but what is a nickel made of? I'm trying to come up with a UK coin equivalent...

[SignalCorpsOperator]

Since the later '30s, the US nickel has been composed of 25% nickel, with the remaining 75% being copper.

During WW2, the US nickels made had about 9% manganese in them, to act as a "filler" metal. The shortage of metals for the war effort made it necessary to put something in the mix.

Good luck !

Tom

[Mrballeng]

Really you can use any coin you want. However, if the coin is one metal sandwiched between another (like the American quarter) you may end up seeing the inner metal if you sand too much.

By the way. Some one on my "VIntage Locket" instructable started up a conversation about UK coins and I have to say you guys have some awesome coinage.

[rperki8]

The nickel is made of 75% copper and 25% nickel. The ten pence coin has the same composition.

Source:
US Nickel
UK ten pence

[guardinggnome]

Nice Instructable. I did tried but tweaked it into a necklace. (not ring is act pewter using lost wax method. another instrutable) The ring around the heart is the nickel. thanks so much :)

[Mrballeng]

Really cool. They're gonna love it.

[BrandonZV]

Would you ever make one of those pendants and sell one to me? This looks amazing, but I just don't have the time or tools to make one.

[Mrballeng]

Well, I'm not open for business just yet. If I start I'll be sure to let you know. Thanks for the complement.

[BrandonZV]

Oh that's to bad, because sadly I don't have the tools, and I don't believe my father does either, to make these things. I just got done looking at your teardrop pendant and fell in love with it, I love things like this. Anyways, tell me if you ever do open for business or just want to sell some.
Thanks

[scoochmaroo]

I want these for myself and future husband! It seems like sizing would be haaaard.

[Mrballeng]

A while ago my wife's grandmother was taking some old jewely to the second hand store. I took a few pieces and melted them down into a golden blob. I hammered the blob into a disc and made a gold ring. On Christmas morning I found out it was too small.

So. I hammered some more. Polished. And now she wears it all the time. It's not as hard as you'd think.

If you post what sizes your looking for I'll post an instructable on getting a ring just the right size.

[The Ninja!]

I love the pendent, I'm thinking of making one for my lady friend for valentines day, but I'm not quite sure i understand how to get the loops so small. If you could give a quick run-down or something that'd be awesome, and hopefully I'd be able to make one, i don't have anything too fancy, or jeweler's tools, just a file, hammer, drill and dremel.

[Mrballeng]

I posted pictures.

http://www.instructables.com/id/Joining-Rings/

[Mrballeng]

For the benefit of ninjas everywhere I will post an instructable specifically for pendants. But in the mean time and because Valentines Day in creeping up on us, I will post a slide show on that specific pendant and explain with pictures.

[theblorg]

Oh yeah also, isn't there a legality issue with this? If I do remember so, somewhere in some document it says you can't tamper or alter US currency? I was just wondering

[Mrballeng]

Is it illegal to damage or deface coins?

Section 331 of Title 18 of the United States code provides criminal penalties for anyone who “fraudulently alters, defaces, mutilates impairs, diminishes, falsifies, scales, or lightens any of the coins coined at the Mints of the United States.” This statute means that you may be violating the law if you change the appearance of the coin and fraudulently represent it to be other than the altered coin that it is. As a matter of policy, the U.S. Mint does not promote coloring, plating or altering U.S. coinage: however, there are no sanctions against such activity absent fraudulent intent.

http://treas.tpaq.treasury.gov/education/faq/coins/portraits.shtml#q13

[PhantomJACK]

Yes, it is a felony to deface government currency.

[crittergitter]

Be that as it may, they don't seem too concerned with all those machines you find at tourist traps that will flatten you coins into some novelty badge.

[blumeanie]

Right it's only illegal if you try and change the coins to be fradulent and pass them off as another coin or form of currency.

[CamillaLuvzMusic]

All they're saying is if you cut the middle out and make that pendant, its not a nickel anymore and therefore you cannot spend it. Therefore you can use the penny pressers but you cant use your pressed penny to buy anything. So as long as you dont try to spend it nothing will happen

[timdgoodpaster]

I made one ring and gave it to my wife, then she let my sister see it and I made another, The sister showed it to another sister and I made another and so on.
They all loved it and it never tarnishes.

[Mrballeng]

Did you make it off of this instructable? If so, how'd it go?

[timdgoodpaster]

I didn't make it from instructable. A man I worked with told me how to do it. The process is much like showen here.

[Peter Sanders]

Hi

Waaaay back in 1967 myself and other apprentices did something similar.

We used the newly introduced (Australian) 50cent coin. This was approx 30mm or 1.25" in diameter. We would hold the coin between our finger and thumb, with the edge resting on an "anvil", something heavy anyway. We then slowly rotated the coin as we hammered the top edge. This of course slowly mushroomed the edge to approx 6mm or .25".

We would then lay the ring flat on the anvil and lightly hammer the mushroomed edges to make them a little thicker. The center would then be drilled out with a reasonably large diameter drill and the remaining internal "edge" was filed away leaving a wide ring.

Nice job with your rings :)

Regards

Peter

[Mrballeng]

Thank you for your comment. As I've read, coin smithing is a dying trade. Especially since silver use in coins has been widely replaced with other metals like bronze, copper,and zinc.

[theblorg]

How did you make the ring in the last picture? the thicker one.

[Mrballeng]

See the second paragraph in step 3.

[mhcgusto]

Wait so how do we combine 2 or 3 rings? im not sure i can tell from the picture...

Btw that necklace thing with the 3 loops looks awesome im definitely making that next

[Mrballeng]

To join rings you cut a section out of a large ring. Then you form it into an oval shaped link. The oval shap helps the rings stay stacked on each other. Use cone nose pliers.

[caeric]

Really well done Instructable, and great end product! A couple of questions:

1. Would you mind talking about adjusting the band width? I see the pictures, but they don't really make sense to this blond ;)

2. Have you considered trying with bigger coins, ie quarters / half dollars, etc?

Keep up the great work!

[Mrballeng]

I'm in the process of making a "Five Cent Hoop Earings" instructable. I'll be sure to explain it better.

Every time you hit the ring, while it's on the mandrel, it stretches where you struck just a tiny portion of an inch. If you hammer all around the circumference you can keep stretching out the ring to your desired size. Eventually the ring will get too big and you'll need a larger surface to hammer the ring on. My solution is to use increasingly bigger socket bits.

I started out on quarters. You can get a nice looking bronze ring out of it.