Wife's anniversary gift

My wife and I both made the 2012 Olympic team. We actually had our anniversary over in London while we were there. For this year's anniversary I wanted to do something special. Here's what I was able to cobble together on my TL-1 and VF-2 with rotary. It was a fun project. I came up with the idea a few months ago, as the "issue" Olympic rings are like high-school class rings. My wife wouldn't get caught out in public with hers on. I was looking to make something a bit more subtle.

I was originally going to do the machine work and take it to a jeweler to do the gold inlay. The jeweler estimated $200 labor plus $80 for the cost of the gold...with me doing all the machine work. That seemed like highway robbery to me so I decided to do it all myself. All I know about gold inlay I learned on the internet. All together, including a 12" bar of Ti, 4x .015" endmills (used 2), expanding arbor, a fancy "chasing" hammer and the gold I was into it for about half the jeweler's estimate for just setting the gold. Ring is Ti 6AL4V, rings are 24 carat 26ga gold wire.

Thanks for looking,
Eric U

Nice job, Eric!

That is a nice job! However, were I going to make the same ring, I would have made the wall thickness 1/2 what you did, and I would have filleted the edges of the tube a little instead of leaving them basically sharp. For those two reasons, I'm thinking this ring as built won't be comfortable to wear for long periods of time. However, it's equally possible that the picture is fooling me. What is the wall thickness of the tube?

Still and all, a really nice job, and probably a lot more comfortable to wear than the "high-school" type issue rings.

Cheers,
--Hawk

The thickness of the ring band is ~.045". It is for her pinkie on her very small hand so it does look a little out of proportion. I did go back and put more of a radius (.025") on the inside corner after my wife had it a day. I originally had it at .010" radius (as seen in the picture) but my wife didn't like that so much. Now it is much better, but still no "comfort fit" ring. It was my first try at making a ring so all I had to go on was my wedding ring for dimensions.

Thanks for the comments and "likes". It is fun doing the artsy-fartsy stuff every once in a while. Breaks up the monotony of production work.

Eric U

okay...I'll bite.

What team Olympic team did you make and how did you place?...and thank you for representing us in the Games.

Very cool indeed! Had a shot at making a team years ago, required too much dedication. So I decided to chase girls instead. Not too many regrets...


I like the ring, a great idea too. Not sure it would go over all that well with my wife...but you never know what will make them happy from one day to the next....or one minute to the next for that matter.

Very nice job indeed! Congrats on making the team for the both of you!

Rifle shooting, Men's Prone. Finished 16th. I used a rifle I designed and built.

Eric U

From the title I expected that you bought the wife a new machine accessory or something for your anniversary...

Although you are probably the in the highly envious position where you could buy the wife a new gun and she'd love it.

Awesome work though, Can we see more of the rifle you built?

Chris

Eric is one of the best prone shooters in the country and his wife is a pistol shooter! Nice work! I would like to hear more about your action too. Are you making and selling any? Is that your plan?