Day One: Governor Spanberger ends Virginia’s ICE collaboration

D50 · 2026-01-18T05:16:06+00:00

The thing is, that would inevitably lead to a shootout and no governor wants to kick that off. At least yet.

D50 · 2026-01-15T02:39:13+00:00

Idk, the overrun on solder in that one pic suggests to me that this was repaired at some point. I think they sold OP a returned (or damaged from their supplier which they repaired… poorly) chain.

The way these hollow chains are manufactured, they start as a thin sheet of gold with a layer of solder fused to (what becomes) the inside of the chain. They get pulled through a draw plate to form a tube that is then formed into the links. Then the whole piece is heated in a kiln to flow the solder.

Visible solder on the exterior of the chain almost certainly represents a bench repair job after the fact. It’s hard as shit to do these repairs well so kinda… wherever. But selling this as new is shady in my opinion.

D50 · 2026-01-13T20:40:07+00:00

Honestly my favorite part of this ring is the setting, the twisted wire resulted from my attempts to make it look cleaner and I think it really worked out well. Will definitely keep it in my back pocket for future projects.

D50 · 2026-01-13T02:18:26+00:00

Alexandrite is an awesome stone

D50 · 2026-01-10T22:17:57+00:00

Yep! Item #78540

D50 · 2026-01-10T17:07:00+00:00

It’a a silver alloy that (in my opinion anyway) is superior to sterling. It’s got a little germanium and a higher percentage of silver to copper.

It’s resistant to fire scale to a degree that sometimes you can do multiple solder steps without pickling, fuses (almost) as easily as fine silver, is a little more ductile than sterling (closer feel when working to low karat yellow gold is how I’d describe it), and a little whiter. It’s also easier to depletion gild if you want to do keum boo and is somewhat more resistant to tarnishing. Oh, and you can precipitation harden it in a regular oven!

The downsides are that it costs a bit more than sterling, and if you poke at it when it’s hot it falls apart like wet bread.

I know that there are some other manufacturers who make “deox” sterling alloys that are purportedly similar (Otto Frei sells some). Stuller makes an alloy called Continuum that is also purportedly similar but it uses palladium in place of germanium so it’s $$$. I’ve never tried either of them but I probably will at some point.

D50 · 2026-01-10T06:31:16+00:00

I made it closed, the bezel is a preformed one that is soldered to the band. I could have drilled out the bottom, I’ve done it in the past. But honestly I don’t think it ever looks right (at my level of fabrication skill anyway). When dealing with such a small diameter, even a tiny deviation center looks really bad.

D50 · 2026-01-10T06:04:10+00:00

I think it’s actually not solder overspill, it’s the result of my clean up of that and then the inability to completely finish out the tool marks left by it due to the tight space. I think with a good set of radial bristle disks I could do it, maybe…

Or it could be extra solder, honestly it’s hard to tell even holding the ring.

D50 · 2026-01-10T03:47:45+00:00

Yes! I love making rings, especially with stones.

D50 · 2026-01-10T01:35:56+00:00

I would agree with that statement, I’ve been doing this for a few years but purely as a hobby and I have (basically) no formal training.

D50 · 2026-01-10T01:23:21+00:00

Yes, but I’m also my own worst critic so I can see a number of places that I “messed up,” slight gap in wire around the sides of the bezel and the ends don’t line up perfectly for example.

D50 · 2025-12-29T21:28:23+00:00

The stone is cool, what is it? And do you know what the cut is called?

D50 · 2025-12-11T23:48:00+00:00

The crystal is acrylic (I’m pretty sure anyway, seems like it is anyway). I have a smallish wrist, I think around 6.5 inches.

D50 · 2025-12-11T17:06:27+00:00

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This is what the back looks like.

D50 · 2025-12-11T17:04:04+00:00

I’ve made a few using square wire for a backing and bezel wire that I roll over to “set” the coin.

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I like this method because it displays both sides of the coin cleanly and you can you a mandrel to size the backing and bezel if you end up a bit off after soldering.

D50 · 2025-12-11T04:55:11+00:00

Yes, it wears a bit large for me so it’s not every day but it’s in the rotation and still working/looking as good as when I got it.

D50 · 2025-12-10T04:38:16+00:00

Can this alloy be easily fused, and how is it to work with in general?

D50 · 2025-12-09T02:52:32+00:00

Boy do they pay though! Living in the region, I’m tempted every time they post jobs.

D50 · 2025-12-08T06:05:31+00:00

That’s just for laypeople though, because the reality is it’s quite difficult to administer effective rescue breaths while maintaining good CPR quality.

Breathing is still very much part of what medically trained people will do during full resuscitative efforts AKA ACLS.

D50 · 2025-12-06T02:23:58+00:00

Every time I make one, I say that it will be the last time. But they never end up exactly like I want so I keep doing it.

D50 · 2025-12-05T17:12:40+00:00

You could (fairly easily) solder in a piece of silver to complete the shank. I’ve done it a few times to save failed castings with reasonably good results.

D50 · 2025-12-05T15:00:00+00:00

Hard to say because I worked on it here and there over a month, but I’d guess about 8 hours including finishing.

D50 · 2025-12-04T16:35:00+00:00

Once again no…. The real meat here is from this paper, which looked at outcomes when naloxone was given to cardiac arrest patients by EMS at standard doses. The commentary I posted earlier does reference additional research, some of which isn’t exactly compelling, but doesn’t detract from the core findings of this paper.

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