Turning Stainless Steel Hex Nut and Bolt Into 5 Carat Emerald Ring

Hello guys, this instructable is all about starting a new journey onto my youtube channel regarding jewellery work. I love jewellery and love watching the people who do this kind of work. These things always force me to get into this field. If you visit my youtube channel than jewellery topic is missing in that list and that gives me the opportunity to start a new category onto channel which is jewellery. So this project completely inspired by Pablo Cimadevila an awesome jewellery maker and onto his channel he made a ring with brass nuts, but I don't have brass nuts, I have stainless steel nuts which I don't know from where they came from but I give them a shot and start the work of turning them into the ring. If you are an expert jeweller artist then you might not like the look, but please consider that I never made jewellery in my life, but what I do to start any unknown work is that I watch the videos again and again and searching for different techniques which can ease the work and only then I start the work onto that build. Being a maker from almost 4 years I thought that it's always good to give some time to learns about new things before jumping to the building process and that info helps a lot. I always tried to collect as much info I can get and only after that start the work. So if you like this build than show some support and if you have any useful tips then don't forget to leave them down below.

Supplies

Material used:-

1. M20 Stainless Steel Hex Nut
2. M8 Stainless Steel Dom Nut
3. M4 Stainless Steel Allen Bolt
4. 5 Carat Indian Green Emerald.

Tools Used:-

I really don't have those tools which you really need to build good looking jewellery but I always think that having the right approach towards any projects always helped to solve problem of lack of tools. But I can't deny a thing that better the tools or the right tools for a particular job would definitely affect the end result. The tools I am listing here are those which I used during this build.

1. Drill Machine
2. Rotary tool ( I use FOREDOM)
3. Angle Grinder ( some grinders have speed regulator built-in)
4. Speed Regulator
5. Diamond plates
6. Pliers
7. Needle File set
8. Carbide Burrs
9. Various types of Drum Sander. ( I found that on Aliexpress you get a combination of different grit sizes of sanders set)
10. Drill bit
11. Thread tap
12. Propane or Butane torch
13. Buffing Compound
14. Jeweller Hand Vice

Step 1: ​Annealing the Nuts and Rounding the Right Size From Inside.

So before starting the work onto the pieces, I decided to aneal them so that it would be easy to work with these metals. I am also not aware of the type of stainless used in this nuts so I thought this approach would be good and after that I found the metal surface to be easily scratched with the files. So I think that approach works a lot. So bring the nut to my size I start with the carbide burr. I found that burr worked a lot much faster than the files so I lead with that. During the stock removal process, I constantly checking the size by putting the ring in my finger. Once I reached a bit closer to the actual size I switch a bit. I use needle file and burr to make it smooth and remove all the cut marks occurred from that carbide burr. This process smoothens the inside surface and makes it much more pleasant to the eyes.

Step 2: Shaping the Outside Periphery.

Once the inside size reaches to the final dimensions I started the work on the outside periphery. For this, I used two different types of tools to ease the work first I start the filling work with the help of hand files. I start from the tipped side of the nut and start the filing work and then make the bottom of the ring round in shape. After that, I start the work onto the upper portion onto which I have to install the crown which is going to hold the stone. Once the bottom round shape is achieved I switch to the angle grinder. At this point to many of you guys it seems to be dangerous of using an angle grinder and bringing the finger too close to the blades but I wanted to point one thing is that I am using a speed regulator to decrease the speed to extremely low rpm that you can stop it easily and it didn't hurt. These types of glue on diamond blades are not meant to be used on high rmp. If you want better results, try using them on low speed. During this build whatever work I did with the angle grinder that speed regulator connected to the grinder constantly and doing its work. But I highly recommend you to use gloves because your speed regulator might not go that much slow rpm, so it's always better to use gloves. So with the diamond abrasives, I made a crown onto the upper portion of the ring. After that, I colour the surface and prepare it for marking. Since I have to place a stone onto the top so I measured the size of the stone and transfer that size onto the top part with the help of divider. Along with that I also marked the thickness of the periphery, since I want a tapered side of the ring so the bottom marking tells where I have to stop. Then with a constant grinding with Grainger and files I able to create a holder for the crown and tapered sides and these two things increases the beauty of this ring.

Step 3: ​Vine Pattern

That is the thing which I never find anywhere else. Since I am a knife maker too and made a couple of knives in the past and onto a few of them I do a file work, so that idea I want to incorporate with this ring. I coloured the ring with the marker and draw the outline. Basically I divide the ring thickness in half. I also marked the distance up to which I have to make those vines. With the help of divider, I made marks at an equal distance so that I can start the work. For my design what I did is that I started from outside and made a mark after leaving the next mark. Then I start the work from inside onto those marks which I left during the first marking process. This process creates an alternate pattern which looks very beautiful. all of this work has been carried away by two different kinds of burrs. The smaller one I used for the initial startup for the bigger burr and completed this task.

Step 4: ​Creating V Grove

So this process I think I have to do earlier. So for this, I repeat the marking process as I did on the previous step with the help of divider. It's a bit difficult because I already did the vine pattern and during the marking, it creates a slight undulation on the marking. But the area is very tiny so it wasn't a big problem for me to follow a straight line. Then with the help of graver, I start the cutting process and creating the grooves. I didn't have a proper setup to do the engraving work and frankly said I struggle a lot during this. I did engraving once a time on brass and it was ok but on stainless steel, it's extremely tough to work on. But I was able to scour a line on the periphery of the ring. Then with the help of the triangular file, I start the filing process of the groves. Onto sharp corners, I use a diamond burrs to even the scratches.

Step 5: ​Making the Crown

The crown piece is the part which is going to hold the stone in itself. For this, I use M8 dom nut which also made up from stainless-steel. Like the ring nut, I make it soft to start the work. The workpiece is small and in my design, I decided to hold it to its place with the bottom ring with the help of M4 Allen bolt. So for that part, I first drill the hole with the help of carbide burrs. These burrs are quite costly by considering their size but it works flawlessly. The hole was little imperfect so I use a 3.2 mm drill bit to make it clean. First thing I have to do is clear the inside portion and for that, I use cylindrical carbide burr to Hogg of the most of the material. Since the job is tiny so I hold it in a hand vice. Vice like this is extremely useful in this case. Before making threads into the nut I aneal it one more time because I am not good in tapping holes with small diameter and often break them a lot, but I slowly make the job done and able to tap 4mm threads in the nut so that I can attach it to the bottom ring. Then I start the work onto the prongs and for that, I screw the nut with the help of bolt into a holder and make it secure. Then with the help of cylindrical burr start removing the material. The approach I use is that in the end, I need only four prongs to make the crown. For this, you can start removing the material from any of the sides. In my case, I choose the sharp corners and start removing the material. To refine the edges I also use files and diamond burrs. You can have as many prongs you want but the stone I was using is not round in shape so that's why I go with four prongs. In round shape its easy to work with 6 prongs. One more thing I wanted to say is that how many prongs you can also depend upon how wide your burr is. The more will be the diameter, the more the area it will be going to remove and leaving thin prongs, so it's good to use them wisely and switch the bits accordingly.

Step 6: ​Polishing

Now, most of the work is finished and it's time to clean up the work to make it alive. So the diamond burr I am using is around 120 grit, so from thereafter I start the sanding process with the help of 180 grit, 320 and 600 grit drum Sanders respectively. By increasing gradually confirms that no scratch marks will be left behind. For the v give of the ring I use end portion of the sander to reach out in the tiny places, although there are a wide variety of sanding bits came, which you can use, I don't have those to I manage with this technique and the result surprises me. Later on, I start the buffing process of the pieces and for that, I use three different types of buffing compound. They all belong to various grit size but I didn't remember their grit size because they often come in colour grading. The brown is considered as coarse, green for medium and pink for the fine compound. For the tiny crown piece, I also use a cotton bit in my rotary tool to polish the hard to reach areas.

Step 7: ​Final Assembly

So this part makes the whole thing alive and during the build when I just simply places the pieces together I was completely thrilled at that time. That what kind of work I did because I never did this. Then the first thing I did is to make a centre mark and then carved a little indentation onto the surface with a burr so that drill bit did not slip at all. Then I drill the hole and tap with M4 thread tap and chamfer the hole a little bit. I fasten the pieces together and measure what length I needed for the bolt to cut. Then I cut the bolt and reconnect the crown and the bottom ring together. Then I place the stone over the crown and closes them with pliers. I have the small plier but it wasn't strong enough to close the prongs around the stone so I uses the bigger plier but I wrapped the tape around it so that it will not create any scratches onto the finished surface and assemble all pieces together.

Step 8: Final Shootout

So that's pretty much all about this build starting a new journey as a jeweller and the final outcome is in front of you. Definitely many things to improve and I think few of them can be easily accomplished by having proper tools in your workshop but more than that you need dedication and determination to complete any task. If you have any suggestion and any kind of question you want to ask definitely feel free to ask.