Cut mold with injected wax.

The mold has been opened and a wax removed. The pieces are in front of a wax injector which holds wax at an optimum flow temperature. A compressor supplies pressure, usually in the range of 7 to 10 lbs depending on the mold. To inject wax into a mold, the assembled mold is held in hand between two plates. The opening in the mold is pressed against the nozzle of the injector -- which is spring loaded, and wax flows into the mold. At the low pressure used, it will stop flowing when the mold is full.

I didn't take any shots of the investing or casting. I changed the sprue for casting, and cast centrifugally, and, thankfully, uneventfully.

Bracelet halves mostly finished.

The hinge pieces are joined and shaped, and the main parts of the clasp have been added. The small, flattened, piece in the top left corner of the photo will be the button for the clasp.

Hinge assembly.

The hinge is made with thick walled tube sections turned on a lathe in wax, then cast. They are initially made a few thousandths oversize, then re-drilled and turned to dimension after casting. The wall thickness allows the sections to be shaped to match the bracelet's cross section.

Since the pieces are in such close contact, attempting to solder them while they're all in position may well freeze the joint. 14 karat welds well, and the color would be perfect, so I approached it that way and tacked it all together with welds before separating the halves and finishing the joins with solder. I did the outside tacks first (1), planning to move the pieces apart before tacking the center section (2), but it seemed to be working well without having too much heat spread too far, so I went ahead with a small weld on the center. I got lucky. Two pieces fused very slightly, but slightly enough that they broke apart without trouble. Hopefully I re-learned something... again.

I've done this sort of hinge with just solder and have simply set it up from the start more like it's shown in the second illustration.

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