1. This pierced back two tone ring has a head that broke off deep inside the mounting. The head can be lasered through the pierced section but the bridge the head rests in has to be prepped first for the head to be secure.
2. Here we see the 8/0 saw blade cutting through the pierced back so it can be peeled back to access the bridge for the head.
3. Three sides of the back are cut away and the ring back is peeled back.
4. The bridge is ball burred out until the entire bottom of the head that would be contacted by solder, if it was soldered in, are in plain view.
5. The head is placed into the hole and it needs a little more trimming. It’s not quite big enough.
6. Now the hole is large enough. We can see all of the bottoms of the six prongs. Once the hole is welded closed, the bottom of the head will have the same or more contact than if it was soldered in place. This is not a particularly fast method but sometimes it’s the only way if there is danger the cross brace will come unsoldered if the head is resoldered or if the cross brace isn’t able to be reached.
7. The head is fully welded in here. Because we ground away almost the entire cross brace the weld was made thicker than the original brace to make sure it was strong enough. Then the beam was widened up and the weld was polished. Then polish the brace with a stiff end bristle brush.
8. The back is ready to be bent back into place here. It will be pushed lower than necessary to compensate for spring back since the metal is springy nickel white gold.
9. Here we are positioned ready to weld. We will be using 14K palladium white gold to fill the welds.
10. The welds are completed now. The joints need to be smoothed with the laser and rotary burnished. This will remove any pits in advance.
11. The joint is cleaned up with an abrasive wheel and now is being polished with a hard felt flex shaft wheel. The micro motor spins at 35,000 rpm almost 10 times as fast as a full size buffing machine. The ring is done in no time.
12. Close up of the finished ring all ready to deliver.
13. Another view of the finished ring all ready to deliver.
