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Meet the Couple Photos: Elements of Our Wedding: Outline Logistics: Registry |
Final PolishingAfter filing the sides smooth and stretching, I hand filed the inside of the rings. First I made them smooth, then using a curved needle file I added a bevel to the inside edges, often known as a "comfort fit." This makes the rings easier to get on and off. Here is a diagram of what I was tring to achieve:  Hopefully you can see how it would be easier to put a comfort fit ring on. With the comfort fit filed, I then worked on shaping the outside edges. I started by filing a 30 degree bevel on the outside edges to about 1/3 of the way through the ring, and then slowly filed shallower angles more towards the center until I had the shape I wanted. This is best done one at a time by eye. Go SLOW - you can always take more off, but you can't put material back! After all the shaping, I then used finer and finer grits of SiC (silicon carbide) and then diamond paper to polish and buff the ring. The inside was done by hand. To do the outside, I slid the ring on the mandrel, mounted the mandrel in a lathe, spun the lathe and just held the paper around the ring. That worked splendidly! After a final polish with a colloidal suspension of 50 nanometer particles of alumina, the rings had their final mirror finish. I cleaned them in an ultrasonic bath of ethanol, and they were finished. The next couple pages show pictures of the finished rings.
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