The thickness tool your father bought for you is symbolic of a father's love to his genius baby girl. You could use a vernier caliper, but it shows how proud he is of you. Don't say it is a waste of money; that hurts him deep down inside.

The channel is very good. But the best part is the voice of the little one, that ends the video in golden frame!! ❤❤❤

Hi I'm from Singapore. I just found your videos by accident while looking at other engraving videos. Yes please, a commentary as you make anything will greatly help especially beginners like me to learn quicker. Thank you for being so honest and real, sharing not only your successes but also your bad days, I appreciate that while you're sharing your experiences. It truly takes 10,000 hours to get to be good at something.

Thank you so much for sharing such helpful information. Your video’s are perfectly presented and filmed, and a pleasure to watch !😊

The ring tweezers are made to hold the crown setting to solder. Don’t put to much pressure on it.

Optivisors (headband magnifiers) and the handheld pin vise are not a complete waste of money. They are just not really suitable for engraving and stone setting. I use my optivisors all the time for any work with a piercing saw, filing, drilling, stamping etc - anything but engraving or setting very small stones. Especially when stamping, a microscope is pretty much in the way of your hammer (and you don't want to hit the microscope optics). The handheld pin vise is brilliant for holding some smaller items that need drilling or filing and where the normal clamps just don't work. Anything else I totally agree with you - especially since you're focussing on engraving and stone setting. NB: The carbide setting tool you mentioned first... Maybe you could re-purpose it as a scriber ?

"Do one thing every day that scares you." *Motivation

Thank you! I have held off major tool purchases to learn how to use what I have and most importantly, learn what works best for me. Most of the tools I see in KZfaq videos just don’t make sense to me and I am always looking at how to do things easier and better. If I made a video on stupid tools, it would be very similar to this one. Instant subscriber (months ago), and thanks again!!! Keep doing what you are doing, and helping empower others.

Overall good info. I do love your channel and your presentation. Slightly disagree as a bench jeweler, not just stone setter, on the Optivisors. If all you do is stone setting, I would 100% agree. I have a Lica microscope, it is fantastic. But, the Optivisors have very good optics for the price, are very affordable especially for a beginner. (I bought a cheaper knockoff from Amazon which is a nightmare, can't tighten the lenses enough, so they slowly slide down.) I use 5 different sets hanging within reach of my bench. Quick and easy to switch out. My microscope has to swing over my bench, sometimes stuff is in the way, and also I have to change my bench set up. When I only have to set a few small stones, it is much faster to use an Optivisor. For sawing and filing I use a # 7 or #10, then I doubled up lenses to get more variety, even use 2 x # 10 for close up stone setting and examining stones and my work. (That 2 x #10 setup gets very close, with very short focal distance, of course) Never had any issues with headaches, even with them doubled up. But I can imagine that someone could get headaches. So as a beginner just buy one set and see how you do. In addition, my Optivisors have left the workshop on a regular bases. Used them to wire stuff in the house, at my vinyl and laser cutter, etc. Can't do that with my microscope. The Dremel engraver is a great cheap hammer tool, especially for a beginner. I think it is mislabeled, there is no way you could use it for hand engraving anything unless you want it to look like a two-year old wrote it. So 100% agree on that with you. And it is super laud, yes, wear earplugs. But, you can make yourself a sleeve out of brass tubing to be able to recycle and use old ball burs/setting tools. With a snug fitting sleeve you have an abundant supply of great texturing or hammering tools. Cut them down to about 20mm, grind yourself what ever tip you need, and use it to hammer bezel settings, tighten loose stones when burnish setting, etc. I like using it a lot on very small bezels, more than my expensive hammer hand pieces. Also the soldering tweezers can be very helpful when soldering settings onto a ring shank. You can clamp it, then easily look at it from all angles, assuring things are level. Can't do that when everything is stationary. Unless you use super soft silver and press super hard, I don't see how you would ever put enough pressure on this to bend a ring oval? Has not happened to me in 40 years.

Thank you for this information, I am just starting out in the craft of jewelry making. this information is Oh so useful to guy's like me. Again thank you.

Thank you for sharing your experience. you're smart, calm and very polite. I wish you good luck and success in your craft:😃 Looking forward to see you in the coming videos

Dremel engraver was meant to be used for marking ID information on a tool. We in my printing class used one to put our names on the basic tool kit we brought to class every day.

The thickness measuring too is for a different use, not the one you have showed in the video. For example the thickness left when you drill a hole in a metal sheet.

I have a handheld pin vice that sits in a bearing holder I made to save me spending huge amounts. The bearing holder is lockable and can be modified to hold a whole host of equipment. I’m an engineer learning to be a jeweler so I make what it’s required from cheap and available parts. Thank you for your video if you know an engineering shop close by you can ask if they can make what you need.

I’d have to disagree with you on the optivisor/ magnifying headband. I use these all the time along with the microscope. You can order different magnications for the optivisor which changes the working distance. I also use the head and shank tweezers quite often but my torch setup is quite a bit hotter and more precise than what I’ve seen you use. Sometimes it all depends on what you’re doing.

Thank U 🤩

I agree on the carbide pick and engraver.. The optivisor is good for general purpose fabrication work in my opinion. The thickness gauge is amazing for measuring the metal thickness in places where the calipers can't reach. Think of hollowed out bombe rings or curved surfaces on chasing and repousse work for example. They aren't really meant to be used for measuring wire and sheet metal as far as I know

Thank you for this valuable information. I took the handle off that handheld thing and placed it in my bench vice.

I am a literal complete amateur, but who the hell would make a tool miss for touching stones out of carbide? As you needed to cut them or scribe them, I could see that. But using in just to move around? That’s like using a file for a screwdriver in Watch baking. Just completely unnecessary.

hola muy buenos videos, podrías decirme que microscopio recomendarías please ..gracias

Ask your father, if he is still alive, for unworldly ideas and you'll see how deep the rabbit hole goes!

7:59 haha, same here, stupid micromotors, they dance on the metal.