You bet! I enjoy every bit of the process. If you have questions let me know and I will try to steer you in the right direction.

Thanks so much!

Im curious too. It almost looks like the rubber foot for a stool or chair with a shank bolted to it. Which is a pretty good idea, i need something similar

Thanks! I'm using my skew chisel on its side as a scraping tool. The first 1/3 of my skew blade is ground flat so its parallel to the rings face, and the other 2/3 of the blade is ground to have a radius. I want to just scrape the face of the ring to flatten it and make it a consistent thickness (i think this is called a "plane cut"). I don't actually want to "cut" the wood away. This skew grind is a very versatile grind to have. If you watch my shave brush videos on my channel, you will see the same thing but I do use it right side up to when I need to cut into the piece.

Thank you! I use a Nova lathe and my expanders are from ring maker, Patrick Adairs website

Thanks so much! The tool I use to expand the copper is called a Rathburn Ring Stretcher. Search for that on Amazon and you will find them

Thanks so much! You're very welcome. I use 1/2", 5/8", 3/4" & 7/8" to cover all sizes. This was a 3/4" in the video. I generally choose the pipe that is at or just larger than I need so that I can make the copper a full size larger than I need which gives me room to sand and polish and allows room for the resin coating. It all comes with practice. The copper pipes also come in Type "L" and Type "M" which are different wall thicknesses. I believe type M is thinner than type L. I use both which gives me options depending on the size I want to achieve. Hope that's helpful!

Thanks so much for the information. I have decided after several ca finish problems to use alumiUV for finishes..i hope someday to attain your skill full use of materials in ring making...

Thats great to hear! I hated CA finish from the very beginning. I was glad to find AlumiUV so early on. It has its struggles too, but its worth the extra effort. Allow yourself to screw it up a bunch in the beginning until you learn how the resin works and you get your tequnique down. Good luck and if you have any questions at all, you can find me on instagram where I tend to be more than anywhere @knotsandfibersringco

A ring stretcher

Thanks so much! The holders you are referencing are made by a good friend of mine and he sells them on his site bentwoodringsupplies.com (he's also on Etsy under ThornhillWoodworx) he calls them "finger savers" and they are worth every penny. They come in a pack of 3 to fit most standard ring sizes. Tell Thomas I sent you!

@@knotsandfibersringco4122 Looks like he’s sold out, but I’ll keep an eye out. Thanks for taking the time to help!

@@WalterAho after looking at it they are just cane caps with a bolt going through it if you want to make your own

@@cadenbean7682 thanks! I found some furniture let caps that are working great. They come in a handful of different sizes too.

Bentwoodringsupplies.com Thomas over there makes these to order currently and calls them "ring maker finger savers", so go there and send him a message. He's also on instagram @bentwoodringsupplies Tell him I sent you

@@knotsandfibersringco4122 thank you!

@@knotsandfibersringco4122 I was able to order on his website.. thank you so much!!

Oh great! You're the second person to ask this week so he must have made some up. Good deal!

Sorry you're having a bad go of it! I've not had any of these issues so maybe it is the copper after all... perhaps during the heating and stretching phase there is a step that needs some attention. I heat the copper til its a dull red, then immediately dip in water to cool. I put it on the stretcher and hammer down a handful of times, then flip it over and hammer an equal amount of times. Then I return it to the heat and dip it in water then repeat the previous steps, making sure not to be too heavy handed. Ive snapped a copper band in the early stages when I wasn't reheating the copper often enough. Maybe there is something there. Either way, I hope you stick with it. It really is a fun ring to make. If you give up at some point, and still want a ring, let me know. I do sell them on Etsy 😁

It will work for sure. With AlumiUV Resin in particular, the cure times vary by light source and they state 20 watt 365 nm light source will take 5-10 minutes and a 300 watt 365 nm light source will take 2-3 seconds. A uv flashlight will work too, just depends how long you want to wait.

The bulbs in my uv bath are 9W-365nm and there are 8 bulbs so approximately 72 watts and I fully cure in 20 to 30 minutes

@@knotsandfibersringco4122 Awesome! Thanks for the quick reply. I started making a few rings just using can glue, I might step it up a bit if I decide to make them more often.

The ring was simply suspended in the UV bath at 14 minutes In the video. The ring was attached to a wire which was then suspended in the UV bath.

Hi Phil, sounds like you're having a frustrating time with your copper! Are you using old copper pipe to start with? I have been using a old copper pipe I salvaged from my water heater years ago with no issues. Are there deep scratches in the pipe to start with, or is it smooth to start with? I will usually start with 120 grit paper to sand down past any initial scratches or rough/sharp or marred edges and oxydization. Once I am left with just the scratches from the 120 grit paper, I move on to 180 grit and sand away the 120 grit scratches completely and then on to 220, 320, 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1500, 2000. To finish, I will use 0000 steel wool which gives a beautiful finish, but this only works well if done at higher speeds like on a lathe. I suppose a dremel could work if you can figure out how to hold the steel wool securely on the dremel... if I do it by hand I get small fine scratches. If I want to take it a step further I will use a metal polish for a brilliant shine. Use whatever grits you have available but this is what i have found to be the best approach.The most important take away here is not to move on to the next grit until the previous scratches are completely gone. The next option would be to get yourself a new length of copper pipe with a smooth interior to start with, if the pipe you have is scratched up. If you manage to get to the shiny finished surface and then wrap your veneer and do the glue up, be very careful to not let the glue run up onto the copper liner. You will have to go back and do a lot of re-sanding to clean that up. I learned that the hard way. Once you've sanded too much copper away, you are left with a thin and fairly flexible band that will collapse over time and cause the finish to crack, plus you can only sand so much away before the sizing is wrong. It takes a lot of practice to get it right so allow yourself to make a bunch of mistakes while working to get it right. I use a lathe for all these steps but it can all be accomplished with a handheld rotary tool; It may just take a little extra patience working through the sanding grits.

Thanks for the advice...The copper pipe is new, i bought the sizes you recommended..i just had a though, maybe after annealing and i go on to sizing the ring, the ring stretcher is the type you hammer on the tapered pin turning the ring as it only fits on half of the chosen size.....just wondering if that’s where i’m picking up the deep inner scratches. So my next step is cut a new copper ring and check the inside before anything else, if that’s good, check the sizing mandrel which is a Rathburn model..may have put a burr on the mandrel.....Thanks again for your valuable advice...

I use the same style stretcher as well. I have had some issues with that marring the inside or leaving indents. One thing you can try is just hammering a few times, then flip the ring over and hammer it a few more times. This also keeps the band from bulging a it can do sometimes. I reheat after every couple of hammering to keep the copper workable. Let me know how it goes!

To hold the copper from the inside I'm using an expanding ring mandrel and to hold the copper from the outside I'm using what's called a finger saver which is made and sold by bentwoodringsupplies.com

Thanks for the reply. Great video

Can't find it on there site. Will find something similar somewhere

I spoke with the owner, a friend of mine and he says to message him about them. He says he runs out as fast as he can make them so send a message and he may be able to hook you up. His name is Thomas. Message him through his contact link on his site or find him on instagram @bentwoodringsupplies

Yes otherwise the copper would turn your finger green from oxidization

Copper can get dark and ugly if it's left exposed to air. Because I cover this in resin, the copper doesn't oxidize and change color and will keep its polish as long as it's covered.