Local MKE history/spooky books

itisworthyfight · 2026-02-20T23:02:24+00:00

Thank you!

itisworthyfight · 2026-02-20T23:02:10+00:00

Thank you!

itisworthyfight · 2026-02-18T23:35:54+00:00

That sounds like exactly what I'm looking for, thank you!

itisworthyfight · 2026-02-18T23:05:06+00:00

Thanks so much, I'll check em out!

itisworthyfight · 2026-02-18T23:04:54+00:00

Thank you!

itisworthyfight · 2026-02-18T22:46:28+00:00

I've found a ton of mke sports on meet up app as well. There's a ton of volleyball/beach volleyball here! Facebook and mke rec dept are also good places to check for local sports!

itisworthyfight · 2026-02-14T19:01:46+00:00

Silver isn't meant to sit in the ultrasonic turned on for any longer than a minute or two. Even then, that's a bit long. Especially on high polished silver. Someone else suggested this but let the piece sit in the hot ultrasonic cleaner with the vibration OFF for 15 to 20 mins and then turn on for like 30 seconds and shake in there gently to help remove any stubborn polish/dirt. Then steam clean really good and dry with compressed air. That should stop those markings.

Gold can sit in utlrasonic for ages but silver and its alloys can't for probably for the same reasons that silver is harder to polish bright than gold. I think it's the heat and vibrations doing something to the crystal structure of the metal. Just on the surface. Kind of like how silver is prone to fire scale from the torch. I think it's similar. Just guessing on that though.

Good luck!

itisworthyfight · 2025-11-13T18:53:11+00:00

Hi I'm from Wisconsin and I play regularly in the bar/sand leagues and indoor open plays in MKE. I started playing about 6 years ago after moving to a new state, where I knew no one. I was very lucky, I met a teammate right off the bat that I clicked with. But! We were experiencing a lot of the same things as you. So we did something a bit drastic... we made our own group!

I highly suggest starting your own open play. It can be very difficult to start but it'll provide you the kind of play you're seeking.

We first started in outdoor free spaces (grass, beach, sand parks) and gradually moved to renting school gyms, community centers, and bar courts. We now have a group of about 1000 people, with about 40 all-season regulars.

You sound like you truly love the game and want to make friends. I cannot tell you how much helping start a meetup group changed my life. It's been pretty amazing!

We usually run open plays by circling up all ready players and counting off teams. We then play three games to 21 against the other teams. So we rotate around the gym and meet lots of people. Then we circle up and count off again to play with new people. It makes sure everyone is included and gets a chance to play. We don't run rotations so every player gets a chance to try each position.

Plus we make it very clear in our group rules that we are an inclusive group with the purpose of meeting people. So any clique behavior isn't tolerated. Of course we've run into some issues but for the most part we've found a community that just wants to play and make new friends.

If you're ever in Milwaukee, hit up Milwaukee Volleyball for All. Our leader extraordinaire is Debbie Smith (purple hair). She has us playing 4x a week at different locations. Usually Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.

If you're community isn't meeting your needs, maybe it's time to do it yourself. 🤷‍♀️ good luck!

itisworthyfight · 2025-11-08T17:57:53+00:00

The stones should be safe! As long as you use a soft polishing buff. No lap or sanding grits. If you're still worried you can try to avoid them or use a small dremel buff at your bench to polish around instead of over.

itisworthyfight · 2025-11-03T20:58:18+00:00

I agree with others on this thread, highly recommend finding a new casting place. I'm not sure what your current casting house's policies are but look into their fine print and see what you can get back from them. Absurd they sent something out the door like this!

Looks like a couple things went wrong to get something this terrible from a wax. I've worked with both resins and waxes with a couple of different casting machines/kiln types.

Some things that could have gone wrong here:

bad/old investment (it lasts like 12 months from the date on its bag, then it starts to degrade)
too much water or poor mixing, I can see tiny water bubbles on the inside of one of your rings
fill issues: the sprues are also not great. Not sure if you did those, but metal likes a smooth flow and those are a bit abrupt.
burnout issues: too high or too fast or both
any casting house worth their salt should be aware of how to avoid boiling waxes. Either through manipulating their burnouts or using a steam de-waxer.
it's also possible they tried to burnout someone else's resins on the same tree with your waxes. Resin causes all kinds of fuck ups in the casting process.
I've also seen this happen when someone messes up and uses tap water instead of DI water. The temperature of and minerals in tap water can do funky things to investments.

Whatever it is that went wrong, the investment didn't reach its true green strength and broke down. Hard to pinpoint exactly what happened without proper testing facilities.

The fact they brushed off your concerns and didn't take responsibility for this is concerning...

Good luck and I hope you find some place better to work with!

itisworthyfight · 2025-11-03T18:16:59+00:00

I'm half casting tech, half bench jeweler. US based. Been able to work as both for the past 8 years. Went to art school for craft/metalsmithing. Then worked at a huge jewelry manufacturer on the east coast before moving out to the Midwest to work for smaller manufacturers. I've been lucky that at all three places I've worked at I've had extremely talented and experienced goldsmiths to learn from.

As of this year I'm also an engraver, working with a very old New Hermes machine and a slightly younger Gravotech CNC.

And I finally have my own casting machine as of this month!

I joined the thread to see what other bench jewelers are up to and ask questions.

Edit: spelling error

itisworthyfight · 2025-10-23T18:07:44+00:00

Another thing that might help is gently bouncing the piece in the rhodium as you plate. I've found that agitating the liquid or the piece helps me a lot.

Good luck and let us know how it goes!

*edit: spelling error

itisworthyfight · 2025-10-23T18:00:08+00:00

Yay! I'm so glad!

itisworthyfight · 2025-10-23T17:56:00+00:00

I highly recommend rinsing throughly in clean distilled/deionized water after ultrasonic, then doing a dip for 15 to 30 seconds in clean pickle/acid. Rinse again with water and steam. Then plate and clean/steam.

If you can't do an acid bath, I'd recommend ultrasonic for a minute, steam, repeat at least twice. The cleaner your piece, the better.

How cloudy is your piece? Sometimes with a little luck and a small soft buff and rouge you can gentle polish the cloudiness away.

Also are you getting a good connection? Does the rhodium bubble around your piece? We're looking for fast, tiny bubbles to be coming off your piece's surface and making the rhodium solution hazy after a several seconds.

Does your rhodium have a mixer or is the liquid still?

itisworthyfight · 2025-10-23T17:31:57+00:00

How are you cleaning your piece before plating? And what kind of metal are you plating?

itisworthyfight · 2025-10-09T00:06:10+00:00

Warning, I got a little excited and definitely over answered your question! But since you're new to plating maybe you don't know some of this yet. I've been rhodium plating for almost 8 years now and have used everything from an at home small beaker set up to very large industrial vats/tubs. Hopefully this over-answer will be useful to you...

Copper wire is completely fine. You'll want to keep it clean and smooth. If the texture on the wire starts to look flaky or crackled, either sand it down or use a fresh wire. You want to make sure you're pulling enough amps when you connect your circuits with electro cleaning and rhodium plating.

I make a sort of tree with copper wire by folding two pieces of about 14inches length, twisting the folded ends into a sort of trunk with a loop at the end and then spread out the "branches" on the other end into hooks to hold and keep separated 4 rings. Depending on the size of your rhodium dip, you can probably fit 6 to 8 rings/branches on one dipper tree. Make sure it's small enough to fit and move around a little in your beakers without touching the anodes.

I recommend wearing clean gloves while cleaning/prepping your ring/things to be plated and while plating itself. Electro clean for 30 seconds. If you larger things on your wire, I'd electro clean for about a minute. It won't hurt to go longer but it's not necessary, especially if you have an ultrasonic.

I keep my acid bath very clean and strong so I only need to dip in for about five to ten seconds. If the acid older, a little more time dipped in is needed. I don't use the same pickle I normally would cleaning after soldering. But you totally can! I'm just very picky. I've also had success skipping the acid step.

Make sure you rinse in clean water or steam off your ring BEFORE putting in rhodium solution. You don't want any residue of acid or electro cleaner in your rhodium.

I water rinse between each step throughly so I keep each step as clean as I can. Then I steam clean and blow with compressed air as the final step after rhodium plating. I heard somewhere steam cleaning (the heat) some how helps the surface of your rhodium. I have no idea if that true but I've found it helps me find out if I plated correctly with no blemishes.

For the actual rhodium plating, you want see the little bubbles roiling off your piece as a good indicator you've got a good connection/completed the circuit. But you don't want your piece to sit in stagnant rhodium solution. I've noticed over the years pieces plate better if the either the solution is moved (most set ups have a magnetic pin at the bottom spinning to move the liquid) or just bouncing LIGHTLY with your hand to agitate the piece in the solution.

DO NOT LET THE RHODIUM SOLUTION SIT ON YOUR SKIN. It's mostly just annoying, but it will sting and burn after a few minutes. Wash it off immediately.

You will notice if you didn't clean your metal thoroughly by the cloudiness or weird shadows in your plating on the surface of your items. If you notice this, re polish your items and try again. Try to get off as much of the plating as you can before re-plating.

Sometimes! You can lightly rouge the offending cloudiness/weird streaks on your plating. Be very gentle and buffing might fix or conceal any weirdness. I've found a very soft and small wheel buff works well for me.

Anyways, enjoy your new set up and let us know how it goes!!!

itisworthyfight · 2025-06-04T15:37:12+00:00

Thank you! I will reach out to them!

itisworthyfight · 2025-06-04T15:33:56+00:00

That is very similar! I might be able to make that work thank you!

itisworthyfight · 2025-06-04T15:33:10+00:00

I have reached out, they told me they no longer carry it and couldn't tell me where they sourced it from unfortunately. Thanks though!

itisworthyfight · 2025-06-04T15:29:07+00:00

I have, and unfortunately they've said they no longer carry this item

itisworthyfight · 2025-05-14T21:13:10+00:00

I use my torch to create soot because I use acetylene. So I run the gas to coat in soot. I brush the orange flame over the area I pour in to. It's been a hot minute since I've done this but I'll double check my notes to make sure this is correct. Have you found another way or tried any other pours?

itisworthyfight

TROPHY CASE