Thread: My large " domed" collars

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t010jQ8veCM

1/4" nickel silver rod.
Two profiled tools are used to make the large domed nickel silver collars. Smaller profiled toos have a radius of 0.4mm ( that is 1/4 of 1'16")
For small domed collars, only one small " step" is made, instead of two.
And this is the first fixture I made, the " grandfather" of all other:

Very cool to see how you make them. I really like your Solingen collars and I plan to order some of the big and small domes for an upcoming project.

How do you get solid collars to lay flat without a gap around the edges on scales that are contoured?

Originally Posted by karlej

How do you get solid collars to lay flat without a gap around the edges on scales that are contoured?

There is no 'bend' to them, FME. I reserve them for the flat-topped ones.
I wish the hole were a bit bigger. The pins tend to bind in the collars as-peening as they are solid.
Quite difficult to oversize the holes to 5/64. They look great as-done, however

As you know, thinner ones with under-washers can be tapped down to follow contours on the others.

Originally Posted by sharptonn

...
Quite difficult to oversize the holes to 5/64. ...

As you know, thinner ones with under-washers can be tapped down to follow contours on the others.

Well, I didn't know that sometimes a larger hole is needed... 5/64" is 1,98mm, ( 2mm) , can be done, in fact I have every drill from 1 to 3 mm, in steps of 0.1mm( 20 sizes , in equal increments) , so no hole is hard to do.
I have a Helje rescaled by a friend , bufallo horn with 5 mm collars. He DID bent the collars, with leather protection. But that is the only example I know. I don't know how he made it, my mind tells me " it's impossible to bend 5 mm collars by hammering just one side of collar at a time" . Maybe he have placed the collar on a V shaped groove in wood, covered with leather, and hamerring was done on opposite collar/pin, after pinning, obviously.
There is another way to use bent collars, teorethicaly. The collar is bent before pinning, and the hole is enlarged to size with a watchmaker reamer. This tiny tool is in fact a thin steel rod, hardened and ground square or triangular in section and tapered in lenght.

Well, Nice collars, to be certain!

I usually prebend flat collars on by putting them on top of 1 inch round bar and using a v block to round them over (with leather separating all of the metal of course). It's just a matter of having the right tool for the job.