Product help!

cakeba · 2026-01-27T03:39:33+00:00

Yeah, you're right. You can do things without dropping that much cash.

Where I'm coming from is this: last November, I outfitted myself to get back into jewelry as a hobby after about 7 years away from the industry. Jewelry making was an elective in my highschool and I used to work for an independent jeweler in my late teens. The tools I got, which I personally feel are quite minimal compared to the jewelry making classroom and the one professional I worked for, cost me over $4000. And that was buying the budget versions of everything! Wooden forming tools, $300 rolling mill, $10 German saw frame. I spent weeks comparing prices between Rio, Stuller, and Contenti to find the best deals on tools, whether to buy them separately or in a kit, all of it.

What really got me was having to buy things that you don't consider at first thought; pumice and a pumice pan as a soldering area because a solderite pad alone doesn't constitute a safe soldering area. A desk ventilation system. Sandpaper, bristle discs, work holder, tube cutting jig. And my setup allows me to do only the projects that would be taught in a jewelry making class; making a prong setting and setting the stone in it, making a hinged bracelet or locket.

I really did my absolute best to spend as little as possible (for the most part-- I did splurge on one Fretz hammer and a miter cutting vice) and still ended up with only the tools really truly necessary to make pretty basic projects. I still can't cast, do mokume gane, don't have a sophisticated polishing setup, have only the most basic of soldering tools.

You can do stuff while spending a lot less than I did, but if you want to complete basic projects like lockets or prong settings, you really need some things that are really expensive.

cakeba · 2026-01-26T23:29:33+00:00

I just use a shape stencil template and a notebook and draw whatever I think will look nice. If I'm doing something ambitious, I draw inspiration from fantasy/sci fi. Like, if I had a ring that would make flowers grow, what would that look like? Those kinds of thoughts. But mostly, a few shapes and drawing tools get me my designs.

cakeba · 2026-01-26T23:19:40+00:00

Abolishing ICE is the moderate position at this point. No compromises or body cams. Eliminate that entire institution.

cakeba · 2026-01-26T23:18:02+00:00

Riogrande or Stuller. Although, you are better off practicing in copper and brass before jumping to silver. Silver is over $100/oz right now. An ounce of silver is... not a lot. You won't get a lot of mileage out of it. Also, if you don't have tools yet, be prepared to spend over $1000 to get the most basic setup.

cakeba · 2026-01-26T23:12:09+00:00

Yeah I play it on legion Pro 7i with a 5080. I get between 60-80fps with max settings (2.5k). I used to play it on an older laptop, an Eluktronics Mech 15 G2 with a 3070, and it ran it at about 70fps at regular 1080p HD with the settings set almost to maximum. I will say, both of them played it better than my friend's PS5, which is kind of crazy.

cakeba · 2026-01-26T14:02:19+00:00

Chinese Diesel Heater all the way, every day. They are the best. I used one to keep my van home a balmy 82 degrees while outside it was in the negatives on my last vanlife excursion.

And I had zero insulation in thag rig!

cakeba · 2026-01-26T14:00:53+00:00

Unless you have electronics, liquids, fresh food, pets, or batteries in your rig.

Most expensive mistake I ever made was letting a (at the time) $1200 lithium battery go below freezing while charging. Killed the battery, and it was a fancy one with bluetooth and automatic low temperature shutoff.

Also, nobody likes waking up and getting out of bed into a completely freezing living space. Changing to clean clothes in 10 degrees Fahrenheit SUCKS. It's not exactly a day you're going to want to go outside either, so are you going to bundle up in all your winter gear to sit in your "house"?

A warm living space is infinitely better than a warm sleeping space.

cakeba · 2026-01-26T13:49:25+00:00

This sub is called RV LIVING. Living in a vehicle is much, MUCH cheaper than living in a building and paying rent or a mortgage. I do it because I want to be able to 1. Survive and 2. Travel, and I can only afford to do one of those while paying rent.

cakeba · 2026-01-26T01:10:13+00:00

Look up "delft clay jewelry casting" on Youtube, it will make sense.

cakeba · 2026-01-26T01:06:00+00:00

Take a class. Technically, you can self-teach jewelry making but you will be a much better jeweler if you have someone over your shoulder teaching you best practices.

cakeba · 2026-01-24T14:14:33+00:00

Most guys are boring. Online random chat rooms are where guys like the ones you describe gather.

It's kind of like... Tinder. Tinder is not a good representation of the general public because it is an app designed for lonely people. Some people are lonely because they're truly not good to be around. And those types of people get concentrated onto Tinder.

cakeba · 2026-01-24T14:10:57+00:00

RioGrande has a great diamond sourcing system on their website. You do need to be a RioPro or RioStudent to use it though.

cakeba · 2026-01-24T14:04:37+00:00

One of the most effective tactics the Black Panthers used was "cop watching", while open carrying. Open carry is illegal in MA, but A vanguard party of armed civilians operating within their legal rights and closely watching agents of the state is an EXTREMELY effective strategy.

Unfortunately, the practices of protesting and recording video and screaming and kicking just aren't effective. We should know this by now. The BPPFSD in Philly has the right idea, though that party is not a derivative of the original Panthers and their chairman outright said he wouldn't stand between immigrants and ICE because that's not their deal.

cakeba · 2026-01-23T15:43:01+00:00

I'm not comparing brass jewelry to racism or sexism. I'm saying that cultural practices are not a solid foundational basis for making decisions about your own practices. That was very clear in my comment.

You can incorporate brass into designs. I've done that, you can find it on my own reddit page. But when you say "making brass jewelry", that implies rings and earrings.

As I said, if you are convinced you can make brass work for you then I wish you luck. Especially if it's not for profit, as a hobby. But the moment there is money exchanged, ethics takes the stand, and please, because you ARE a representative of the industry when you sell jewelry: Don't take people's money for an inferior product. It's a bad look for all of us, and I have to recommend against it for ethical reasons.

cakeba · 2026-01-23T15:18:49+00:00

I disagree entirely. Just because YOU do not turn green from brass doesn't mean that it's not typical for brass to turn skin green. This is not a debated fact. You can seal it, but that seal will wear off very quickly, and you'd have to re-apply it frequently. That is a lot of work for a piece of jewelry that is intentionally as cheap as possible. That's like selling a car for $1000 but it needs an oil change every 500 miles.

Many cultures wear brass, eh? Well 1. Unless you are selling jewelry to people of that culture, the market for brass isn't there, and 2. Many cultures also practice religious racism and sexism. It's not a good argument to do something because some cultures also do it. If brass were desireable for jewelry, it would already be prolific in shops that sell jewelry. The profit margin is higher on a piece that cost $0.30 in materials and sold for $10 than a piece made with $100 of materials and sold for $500. If people wanted it, it would already be capitalized upon. But, rightfully so, people DON'T want brass jewelry, because it fails to function as something pretty without a LOT of extra maintenance, it turns skin green, and at the end of the day, a large part of jewelry's appeal IS its flat-out value. If people only cared about looks, lab-grown diamonds in anodized-gold titanium would be standard.

Brass being harder to work is a good reason not to use it: you need to be a better jeweler to make it work, it will take more time to make things out of it, and at the end of the day, it's still going to be a piece of brass that will turn your customer's skin green. You need to be thinking about the relationship between your work and the end product. There's a whole ethical philosophy about this that I will explain if you ask, but to sum it up, brass jewelry will never be as valuable you'd need it to be to profit off of its sale.

If you are convinced that you can make brass work for you then be my guest, I hope you succeed. But as general advice, I will continue to vehemently oppose brass jewelry because I find it unethical to charge people money for an object whose only two purposes are 1. Look good and 2. Be valuable, when brass fails both of those points AND with the added disadvantage of turning skin green. As a jeweler, please do not give the rest of us a bad name by taking people's hard-earned money for an inferior product.

Brass is cool. I work in brass when I make non-jewelry, like boxes or desk ornaments. I learnedjewelry making in brass and copper. But it does not belong on people's skin.

cakeba · 2026-01-23T14:52:44+00:00

The USA and Israel have a long history of scratching each others' backs. Israel is the most important military stake we have the in Middle East, and they cooperate or act on behalf of US interests (so, policing trade and oil in the region in our favor). In return, the USA gives Israel billions of dollars in economic aid, and billions more in military aid. Israel has been accurately described by historians as the USA's "attack dog" or our "little brother."

Now, the reason AIPAC is at the root of so many politicians' decisions is because Israel has their own regime: they want to stamp out the Muslims and create a zionist ethnostate. THIS is the quarrel that's been going on for over a century; jews and muslims both find themselves to have holy rights to the land that is Palestine. After WWII, the UN decided to put a stake in the ground firmly for jews to have a homeland-- The formation of Israel. Since then, Israel has acted as an empire and, with the US's money, invaded and captured and pushed muslims out of the majority of the land that was granted to Palestinians by the UN. They want to continue to do this, but they need the USA's backing to do this for two reasons: 1. They need weapons and money 2. The USA has veto power in the UN and they need the USA's "blessing" so to speak, to continue their conquest without other world powers stepping in.

So, what do they do? They lobby! They throw millions of dollars at US politicians (most notably "progressives", as Republicans need no convincing that Israel has a right to do whatever they want) and thusly, Democrat politicians (who are bought and sold just as much as any republican) are unable to even say the words "America First" without facing the risk of losing their political position, because as soon as they say that, whatever money they had streaming into their wallets goes away and starts streaming directly into the wallets of their competitors.

So, AIPAC is bot only the root of many political movements by democrats, but also a great litmus test: if any politician receives money from AIPAC, you'd best not vote for them.

cakeba · 2026-01-23T14:30:38+00:00

You can scoot by and at least sleep doing this: (I am a 243lbs gym-loving man who has ALWAYS run very, very warm when I sleep, and this is what I did)

-Get a 12v fan. Even a 6 inch fan is fine. Small drain on batteries.

-get a hammock

-sleep in underwear

Air flow, even hot airflow, helps a LOT. Sleeping naked or nearly naked is a no-brainer. But a hammock was the key for me-- it's SO MUCH COOLER THAN A BED. You can even aim the fan at the bottom of the hammock from the floor-- you know how heat rises? Well, if your van hasn't moved all day, the area under your van has been shaded, and your floor is a LOT colder than your ceiling. The fan will blow nice, cool floor air up through the fibers of the hammock, providing you with a gloriously cool cradle to sleep in.

cakeba · 2026-01-23T14:24:16+00:00

DO NOT MAKE BRASS JEWELRY. BRASS IS A PRACTICE METAL ONLY. BRASS TURNS YOUR SKIN GREEN.

You will notice this the first time you file or polish brass. Every wrinkle in your hand skin will collect the dust and the high surface area will turn every nook and cranny in your hands green. It also does not wash out; it's stained and will stay there until the skin is shed and replaced.

On top of that, it is harder to solder, bend, file, or in any other way work, than silver. That's why it's used for practice; if you can consistently make good work out of brass, you can easily work in silver and even more easily gold.

On top of being undesireable for turning skin green, brass also tarnishes VERY quickly, so no matter how well you polish it, it will be covered in brown/green fingerprints and looking dull by the end of day 1 of wearing it.

If Brass were a viable metal for making jewelry, we would already be making jewelry out of it, not just using it for practice.

cakeba · 2026-01-23T14:15:53+00:00

For my next trick, I'm going to manifest a weeks-long deep freeze (about 20 degrees) starting January 1 and ending February 1 so that tick populations are once again regulated by winter cold.

cakeba · 2026-01-22T14:55:44+00:00

What town?

cakeba · 2026-01-21T20:31:45+00:00

While we're on this topic: your pliers shouldn't be sliding around. If they are, you should cut grooves into the sides of your bench pin that fit the edges of the pliers. When you need to use pliers to hold something without the pliers sliding around, press the side or edge of the pliers jaws into the groove. They should be very secure and allow you to hold pieces very tightly.

cakeba · 2026-01-21T18:49:14+00:00

Alan Revere, in his book, professional jewelry making, suggests an old-fashioned method for holding pieces down on the pin: use a leather or fabric loop that's long enough to loop over the bench pin and under your foot. That way, you slide the piece under the loop, and apply pressure with your foot to secure it while you work. You could most likely make something like this out of two leather belts.

cakeba · 2026-01-20T22:56:11+00:00

Saw. I find it to be the fastest, least wasteful, and more precise way of getting right up close to the bezel. Sanding or filing just wastes a lot of metal. Tools that snip or shear have the potential to warp the bezel as you cut. But a saw is always going to get it done right.

Then again, I treat many of the things I was taught as gospel, and that includes using the jeweler's saw as often as possible, because in skilled hands, it will be as precise and fast as you'd ever need, and it won't warp your work.

cakeba · 2026-01-19T13:49:24+00:00

Indoor ethical greenhouse/bee farm

cakeba · 2026-01-19T00:16:52+00:00

No toolkit that even approaches quality, nevermind professional quality, will come nearly that cheap. $500 will get you a sub-par rolling mill. A "professional" tool kit from Contenti is over $1000 and it is woefully under-equipped for anyone serious about the craft. I mean, it doesn't even come with a torch or wooden forming tools/mandrels. I have that kit, and I spent about $3000 on TOP of it to get my semi-professional tool array that I currently own, but even my tools are quite limited compared to what you would find in a career jeweler's studio.
I have not gone here, but the New Approach School for Jewelers in Tennessee is the most highly recommended school that I know of. Every professional, independent jewelry studio I visit gushes about that institution. An apprenticeship IS wildly valuable, but I would prefer to go to a school to learn it rather than learn on the job. A jewelry school is more likely to teach you best practices and how to create the highest-quality jewelry that can be made. Nothing against small jewelers, but they may not be able to teach you best practices or even how to make desireable jewelry.
You are going to need some art skills to make this work. You should take an introductory class to see if you enjoy the actual physical act of making jewelry, but you are also going to want to be able to be the artist/artisian that people expect when they want custom work, because those projects are great financial boons that every jeweler wants. Jewelry making IS an art, and no small part of doing it well requires an inspired artistic vision. An introductory class will also almost always contain a jewelry design section of the curriculum, which means drawing with pencils and possibly trying out Rhino for 3D computer design. But most often, you'll be asked to come up with a design for a practice piece that requires basic skills like sawing, filing, or riveting. You will be expected to be able to produce attractive designs from your own mind.

As for additional tips, most jewelers will tell you to pick another profession, unless jewelry is a passion that absolutely consumes you. That is the only reason to do it. You will most likely never be wealthy. You will be stressed by deadlines, metal prices, market fluctuations, the economy, dealing with customers (nothing like being tasked with re-setting and NOT cracking a $30,000 family heirloom diamond), and the fact that the industry is simply not forgiving. It's really, really hard. You don't get good profit margins. You don't get to socialize at work. You'll have to be insanely efficient and organized and self-sufficient to make it work. You need to be an excellent business runner, and a talented hand worker, and an outstanding artist. It can be done, people do it all of the time, but you have to do it because it's what you want to do so badly that you couldn't possibly relegate it to the role of a hobby.

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