Teardrop Pendant

Valentine's Day is just around the corner.

Step 1: Flatten A Nickel

Take a nickel and hammer it out. Make sure to hammer on a smooth surface with a smooth faced hammer. Other wise you'll end up with deep gouges that take alot of sanding to remove. The smoother the coin is in this stage the less you will have to sand in another.

Comments

[sboodaghians]

Where did you hammer out the nickel? Like, what kind of environment. I tried doing it in a basement with a penny, and I only managed to get it slightly flatter and slightly larger before I couldn't take the ringing in my ears and was afraid to chip a hole in the concrete floor.

[Mrballeng]

In order to flatten a coin you have to hammer it between two surfaces that are harder then the coin itself. The hammer is one surface. I use an old sledge hammer head for the other hard surface. Conrete will just absorb the impacts from the hammer blows. Don't forget to wear ear and eye protection.

[osk_rin]

thank you very much for the tutorial.
Here I show my earring drop, I hope you like it
Best regards from mexico. thanks

[JCoffey]

Thanks SO MUCH for this instructable! While mine didnt come out quite as perfect as yours did, for my forst attempt it turned out pretty good! Hopefully my friend will like it when she gets it!

[JCoffey]

My attempt

[JCoffey]

Here is a picture of my friend wearing it

[JCoffey]

Might help if I actually uploaded it

[Mrballeng]

Awesome! Thanks for posting a picture. And thanks for the heads up. You should check out what this guy is doing.


http://www.thecoinsmith.com/THECOINSMITH/HOME.html

[JCoffey]

WOW, that is amazing!

[phoenixflight]

how long would it take to make this

[Mrballeng]

About an hour.

[phoenixflight]

what year coin should i use

[phoenixflight]

dose any one know what year and kind of coin to use
thanks

[Pumpkin$]

When you have a hammer.. you make excellent jewelry with it (Your subconscious quote!)

[TheBoxInside]

Can you expand on step 5? How do you shape the loop using those tools? Thanks in advance

[Mrballeng]

When the trail end of the tear drop is clamped in, you can bend it around the drill bit to form that loop. When I did it I used a small hammer and tapped it around.

[WhittVT]

I want to Engrave a treble clef into the front, does any body have a suggestion on how to go about it? I have a Dremal and a bench grinder. I 'm looking for techniques here

[Mrballeng]

This takes practice but it's do-able. Print out the right size treble clef onto computer paper. Cut it out and super glue the image onto the pendant. Use a diamond burr bit to gently remove the treble clef image until you've engraved it. Remove the glued on paper with light sand paper and continue to clean up the image with the burr. Good luck! Don't forget to post a picture.

[hechao]

Check the piece I made, I feel difficult to polish it.... 

[Mrballeng]

Looking good. Were you able to find the fine sand paper?

[hechao]

I have 1500 grit sand paper, but using it to polish by hand is very low efficiency, I did half an hour.

[Mrballeng]

It's important you move up in progreesion with the grits of sand paper. If the 1500 is taking too long then go back down to 1000 grit or even 400.

[howl225]

How flat should the nickel be??

[Mrballeng]

Hammer the coin until it's about 1" in diameter. I guess about 5 pieces of paper thick.

[zen of zappa]

not even close. what kind of hammer did you use? rawhide? jeweler's? it is taking longer than expected to flatten it...

[Mrballeng]

Check this out. http://www.instructables.com/id/Vintage-Locket/. It show my hammers a little better.

It's just a couple of ball peen hammers. One is homemade but there's nothing special about it.  Good luck.

[zen of zappa]

what do you mean homemade?

[Mrballeng]

http://www.instructables.com/id/Diesel-Ball-Peen-Hammer/

[mdog93]

I had a go at this myself- not 100% happy but still good for my first go I think. And i didn't stick to the lines I drew perfectly so it's not symetrical. I Drew the design freehand anyway so it would never have been great cause i didn't draw it symetrically in the first place. Take a look if you like :p

Bass Teardrop Pendant

[T Everette B]

What kind of wood would you use? I've got some redwood lying around, but it doesn't seem to want give for any moderate blow that i give it.

[Mrballeng]

I used a piece of pine. But any soft wood should do. You may want to try hammering the carriage bolt on the wood first to make the indentation and then place the piece of metal over that for hammering.

[wcgems]

I have been making RINGS from coins for a while. Never thought about this or some of the other ideas such as the locket. Gonna definitely give those a try.

[Nesbitt11]

Wow! that's amazing. although, just so you know, it's illegal to destroy money... coins, notes whatever. :)

[wcgems]

No.... It is NOT illegal to deface coins BUT they can no longer be used anywhere for currency or you would be breaking the law. It is perfectly legal to drill a small hole in a nickel, paint a quarter, or bend a penny if you want. But you cannot use it to help buy that new video game or drop it in a Coinstar machine! Coins that have been defaced are only good for keepsakes or can only be sold as novelty items.
So you got a two-headed quarter from the gas station, every person that keeps using that quarter as currency would be breaking the law since it was not minted like that and somebody defaced it to be a novelty item.


According to U.S. code Title 18, Chapter 17, Section 331:

[Charlie13]

done everything except I can't seem to get the beautiful polish you have in these pictures. any tips on sanding?

[Mrballeng]

If I still see scratches after using polishing compound I go back to 2000 grit sand paper. All the stuff I use is in the auto section at walmart.

[Charlie13]

Thanks very much

[T Everette B]

So if i don't have a convenient sledge around, what would you suggest using for an anvil? I'm trying the cement floor of my garage, but if you have a better suggestion it would be great. Thanks!

[S.Leung]

Here is one that I made yesterday. After cutting out the shape and filing it, I didn't really have enough material left over on the top to fold over so I just superglued a bent bit of paperclip to pass the string through. If it falls off later I'll have to solder it, but I don't use lead-free for electronics and didn't really want to buy any at the time. Thanks for the great instructable!

[Mrballeng]

Looks great!! Thanks for posting your pictures and also for the comment.