In December of last year, I went to The Makery, in Bulverde, to use the electric hydraulic press for a few deep dies I had.
I pressed a Viking, and 3 different Deco women warriors.  Over New Years weekend I turned on of the women into a key fob for Elisa of Scotland. The pressing was in 18 gauge sterling silver with a 14 gauge square wire frame and loop. I was supervised by Boots. Enjoy the pictures

Now that the studio is clean and organized I am actually making things, to get my mojo back, since I have not done any sawing, soldering, stamping/pressing, or finishing for quite a while.

I am making sample impressions of all the dies I have for the hydraulic press as this gets me using the rolling mill for thinning metal or to use the pattern plates to texture on the metal. With the hydraulic press I am using the pancake dies to cut out the blanks for trays and to form the tray. I am also figuring out how to impress, in the metal, deep and shallow impressions to get all the detail.  Once that's done I do any sawing, filing or other cleanup at my bench with the flexshaft. If needed I use the belt sander to debur and clean up edges along with the JoolTool to figure out how to do the same and what wheels to use;  and then it's over to the JoolTool to do final polish. I am also using the belt sander and JoolTool to clean up and polish the impression dies that have uneven and marred surfaces

I, unintentionally, made a bit of scrap on some impression dies and trays. On a die, the metal was probably too thin, and I split the edge; on another tray I didn't get the impression back in the die and so I have a bit of a ghost image from the double pressing (gryphon) and then I positioned the tray crooked and it came out skewed;  on another tray it shifted in the silhouette die and the dish didn't have a rim on one side and on the flower tray the impression die was a bit domed and had machining marks which transferred to the tray so I ground the top surface flat and then polished it.  

BUT not all was lost. From the scrap tray I made myself a pair of earrings. I then made a good tray, several mini-dishes, another tray with a soldered-on impression, and several small wall vases; all of which are presents for friends when I attend my 50th High School reunion in a few weeks. I also cut out, from a thick impression that I was given, a bat and made a key ring for a friend. 

oh, and lastly I must say my soldering skills will take time to return; I have lots of clean up to do on the 3 wall vases.

This being Thanksgiving weekend and I could have 4 days in the studio, I planned on my biggest box to date and the next step in this journey - 4 corners. 

The box would be 3" wide by 3" long by about 3" tall. 

I set up my metal last weekend, a 12" by 6" of 20 gauge brass by drawing the scoring lines and clamping it to the table with my guide.   And then I went to the day job for three days....

Thursday, I woke up at 6:00 am with the shop cat (Boots) announcing her presence at the bedroom door (the shop elf was fast asleep) so I got up and went to have my cuppa coffee. I went in to the studio and turned on the lights and the heater as it was about 65 and a wee bit nippy.  Then it was to the kitchen to brew my cuppa and feet the cat. While having my cuppa, I read a sci-fi book I started on Monday was getting rather disappointed with how the author was ending it. By now it was 9:00 am and it was time to go to the studio which was a comfortable temp.

I took off my wedding ring and my good glasses and put on my safety glasses; sat down at the work table and started to work on the first of three scored joints. After a few minutes I realized I was not staying on the line and was making a real mess of it as the scoring tool for 90 degree had a very shot arm and my cutting point really wasn't 90 degrees. I tried to fix it and decided it was just easier to make a new one from another old rat tail file I had. That took over an hour and finally I was away and scoring and creating lots of nice brass curls. I did a check of my cutting and found I was a hair under 2" from the end so all my other scores would have to be moved to the left and a sliver of brass cut off one end.  I stopped scoring at 5pm, as I knew I would not get the third one done and I was very tired.  It was time to make dinner and relax for the evening.

Friday morning, a certain cat announced her presence not only at 7am but at 2 am.  I was able to roll over and go back to sleep for a bit but when a cat walks on you and purrs in your ear it it rather impossible to go back to sleep. Once again I went downstairs, fed the cat and coffee-d myself. I headed into the studio around 9 am and sat down to finish the scoring and beveling of the outer ends. 

I will mention that when scoring, which is done on the inside, you watch the outside for a line to appear. This is from the pressure the tool puts on the metal because it is so much thinner having been scored. When you see this line you go very slow as removing too much will result in the joint giving out resulting in one part separating from the rest. The scoring continues until you can just begin to bend it by hand.

Finally it was time to solder. I started with the center joint, then doing each of the other two. I then cleaned it and then using binding wire, closed up that last corner nice and tight. 

After soldering and cleaning it, I drew a line at the top as to where I would cut the lid from the bottom body. I also cut the top and bottom plates. After I soldered the bottom plate and the bottom was in the pickle, I took the top piece; annealed it and used the hydraulic press to form a design.  The design, having lots of little details required me to anneal the brass three times and to use lots of little pressure pieces to push it all out.    

Using a cut off wheel I cut the lid from the bottom and soldered the top, with the design, on.  It was now time to file and mate the two parts; fit the bezel and polish it. 

Of course, along the way I had a few unintentional learning experiences (documented below) which I am a bit disappointed with but now I can see that doing something this big is not easy... It may not be perfect but I did make a box with FOUR corners and lots of soldering, filing, sanding, measuring.  The next one will be sooo much better. 

For the next part of the box project, I will continue to make a box but this one will have a hinge which will require me to make many samples of hinges before I add one to a box. That starts next weekend!! 

Big Learning Experience Number 1: 
That is a machinist square so that is a true 90 degrees.
I have a side wall that is bowed inwards, this happened while soldering the base on and I didn't see it until I cut the lid off! And my walls were square when I was done soldering the joints because I did this with the square, hanging off the side to check. 

The silversmithing books warn of walls warping either when quenching or while soldering. The book makes mention of getting it up to temperature and clamping it and letting it air cool but since it was soldered I don't know what could have been done except to start over. 

Big Learning Experience Number 3:
Yes, the top seperated from the wall; this happened while soldering in the bezel. Originally, it was just at the corner and as I tried to fix it but it opened more which is what you see here. I stopped while I was a head. 

There are two parts to this installment of the box project

Part A was 2 weeks ago and B was finished today.

PART A
This box is a triangular box with corners; I figured doing 3 corners was easier than 4 which is why this box is triangular.
Before starting this phase, I pulled out my silversmithing books, again and read up on this subject.  Some of the books say to file a bevel on each edge of the corners where the angle depends on how many corers you will have; 45 degrees for 4 corners (45 times 2 equaling 90 degrees) and 30 degrees for 3 corners as the total of all the angles is 180 degrees, yes geometry comes into play here. Then using binding wire and supports, you solder all the corners together.  Other books say to scribe the angle into the metal such that the metal is still all connected, for n-1 corners and then you only have to bevel the 2 outside edges. The scribes/grooves are then bent to close up the box and it is easier to solder them all closed.  I asked my mentor what is best and she said to scribe but to do that, I had to make a tool to do the scribing cause no one makes them for you to purchase; welcome to silversmithing!!

Time to make TWO tools one with a 60 degree and another with 90 degrees.  One of my books gave information on how to make these tools out of old files or other tool steel and the shop elf sacrificed (handed over) two files he no longer used for the cause.  First you bend the handle down, as this will be scribe and the file become the handle. Then you file and grind in the angles and taper it so there is a very sharp edge right at the tip. I then hardened and tempered the tip.  After a few starts, trials and restarts I had my tools and sat down to scribe some lines.   

Let's just say it was a bit of a learning experience (not a failure!). I measured a 6" by 1" wide brass piece and drew lines for where the joints would be and then used a tungsten carbide tipped tool to do a shallow scribe using a machinists square. Using some C-clamps and a piece of wood I held the brass to my work table and started to scribe pulling towards me.  My tip was not sharp enough to actually pull off metal so I had to keep going back to the bench to refine the point. I also kept popping out of the groove and really scratched up the brass. Eventually I was able to bend the join and form the metal. Then I realized that my measurements were off and the sides were all different lengths and would not meet. 

Again, it's a learning experience and the next one would be, damn it, correct!  Here are pictures of my tools and my first trial at scribing 60 degree joints.  

PART B
Yesterday I started another piece of metal, this time copper, for a triangular box. I measured 3 or 4 times and this time I used a piece of steel as my clamp and guide which I could hold the scribing tool against to get a straight line. I also used a "three square" file to get a good 60 degree groove. I went slow and careful to get the two grooves and when that was done, I then used my belt sander to put 30 degree bevels on each edge and then it was time to bend; and YES! they met up and when I measure, only one side was 1/32" off.   

It was now time to solder. I fluxed the inside two joins and the inside and outside joint that was actually open. Then I heated and using hard solder just put a small ball at each open end and using heat, from the outside, I was able to pull the solder to the other open end  - isn't it wonderful when things go as they are supposed to. 

Now to put on a base. I found some scrap 20 g copper that was just the right side and so I soldered on the base and I took another piece to the hydraulic press to another impression for the lid.  After trimming up the base, I cut off the lid wall with a separating disk and soldered up the top for the lid.

Once the base and top were cleaned up, I tackled the mating edges and added a bezel and just a little bit of sanding to make sure the lid slid into the body; then did a quick polish and I was done! 

Next up, over the 4 day Thanksgiving weekend, a square box. 

This project is from 2 weeks ago, I thought I posted it but I guess not.

This is an oval box (1 seam) but I put a hydraulic pressed stamping on the lid.  I did the stamping twice just to practice getting a good impression. Actually this is the second oval box too; the first was out of 24g copper which is just too soft and this one was made with 20g which is still a bit too thin, for copper but these are all about practice.

I spent a good amount of time working on the bezel for the lid and I am getting better at fitting it and soldering as I am not doing as much clean up.  This box is about 1.25" tall and a 6" circumference resulting in about 1.25" wide on the short axis and 1.5" on the long axis.

​Next up scribing corners, I am starting with a triangular box.