Tool Tip - Digital Pocket Scale

by Judy Larson

There are many benefits to owning a digital scale for jewelry making. Most will calculate in different weights, and the "pocket" sizes are small enough that they will not take up much room on the workbench.

Instructions

This pocket digital scale was ordered to use mainly with metal clay, which should not touch aluminum, so the protective film on the weighing pad has not been removed. I don't have a clue what metal the weighing pad is made of, but won't take the chance. What surprised me more than anything about owning the scale is how often I use it in regular metal work. If I were to buy a scale again, I would order a slightly larger one to make weighing larger jewelry pieces easier.

Judy Larson's Tool Tip - Digital Pocket Scale - , Tools For Wire Jewelry, Tools, tool tip digital pocket scale

After weighing 25 foot coils of silver wire in most gauges, it is easy to calculate the cost of a specific amount of wire used in any project. All my sheet metal was weighed for the same reason. Now all I have to do is look at my chart to calculate cost of metal used.

Of course, the spot price of silver could be used to calculate cost of the weight of the end product, but that price does not take into account the mark-up for making wire and sheet from that silver. Weighing a piece of jewelry with stones is also problematic. Because of this, it has become habit to jot down sizes, lengths, etc., of all the metal AND findings used in making a piece of jewelry so the end cost can be calculated.

I really do not need to know how much something costs to make as I give away most of what I create, but family members usually ask so I usually calculate costs for most pieces. Sometimes it is quite a surprise, especially with scrap pieces, when some pieces cost a lot more to make than I thought, and others way less.

o answer the scrap pieces question: How do I know how much scrap sheet or how much scrap wire I used in a piece? Note taking, puzzle piecing sheet scrap, and adding up the inches of wire give me a general idea of what was used. However, here is where using the spot price of silver comes in. Since everything used was scrap, it could be turned in for refining with a small fee sent back, which is nowhere near the value of the silver. That means that the cost of making small scrap pieces of jewelry is negligible. Why not turn that scrap into bits and pieces you can use to create one-of-a-kind pieces? This pendant was made TOTALLY from scrap. If you do this, weigh the finished piece and use the spot price of silver as a starting point for determining cost.

The scale is very useful to weigh scrap to melt down to form into similar size multiples of other things, such as earrings.

Scrap wire was cut into short pieces and weighed to melt into a ball. The same weight can be used over and over and the same size ball will be achieved. The next ball could be made with bits of sheet metal, but will end up the same size ball.

The solder brick residue on the backs of the balls is brushed off and the backs smoothed on 320 grit sandpaper on a bench block. Wear protective glasses and a face mask if using a rotary wire brush to clean off the residue. Those bristles go flying all over and can easily get stuck in your eye or breathed in if your mouth is open.

If a ball stud earring is not desired, the balls can be flattened, annealed, flattened, annealed, etc., until the size desired is achieved. Texture the flattened ball or leave plain.

It may have been problematic to solder just an earring post in place because the backs of the balls and flattened balls were slightly irregular, a result of melting the scrap on a magnesia soldering block. They were soldered to flat pin pad findings, which provided a lot of area to connect the finding and the focal.

Materials

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Tools

Digital Tabletop Balance and Counting Scale, 1000G

SCL-292.50

SCL-292.50
Lesson Quantity: 1.00 pieces
Purchase Quantity: 1.00 each
Price: $80.00
Gold Club Price: $60.00

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Judy Larson

My philosophy has always been "I will never live long enough to learn everything I want to learn, go everywhere I want to go and see everything I want to see!" So, what I make and how I create it is always changing and evolving. I was born shortly after WWII to parents who grew up during the Depression. They always had a "we can do it, we can make it" attitude which rubbed off on my two younger brothers and me. My brothers are amazing and can make and do ANYTHING! When I was a little girl, my mother gave me an old carved cigar box, which I cherish, filled with pop beads, wooden beads and yarn for stringing. That was the beginning of my jewelry making journey.

On a visit to the Grand Canyon when I was a young woman, I was fortunate enough to help a Native American silversmith sand cast my first silver bracelet and bezel set a large turquoise nugget on top. I was in love, hook, line and sinker! While working full time and having a family here in northern Minnesota, my artistic endeavors slowed down but never stopped. I am an artist, scrapbooker, seamstress, woodworker and jewelry artisan. Now that I am retired, I am able to indulge in all my hobbies. However, there just never seems to be enough time in the day to do it all, but I try!

I have been teaching community education beginner and intermediate jewelry making classes since my retirement. Many of my students have been bitten so hard by the jewelry making bug that they say I have turned them into monsters-they just can't get enough. Making jewelry, seeing something take shape from small bits and pieces, is so rewarding that I hope it brings out the "monster" in you, too!

Tool Tip - Digital Pocket Scale

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