Does anyone have a good way of polishing the edge of a piece of plate metal right up against another piece of plate when they are soldered together? I have a tumbler with stainless steel shot that burnishes pretty well, but it takes forever and I hate changing out the water every hour or so. I would appreciate any suggestions. 

How do you grade student work?

I have tried several ways. I have used rubrics, I have had them turn the jewelry into me, and I look at it and grade it, and I have had students bring their projects up to me and I discuss the grade I think they deserve, versus the grade they think they deserve. The problems I have had, is that rubrics take the creativity/effort out of the equation unless I get something so complex I hate to use it. I also have to give scripted assignments; the students can't do much in the way of personal creativity.

When it comes to having the students turn their stuff in, I have to grade it right away and give it back, or they have a conniption fit. But, there are always some who aren't there to get the projects back, so I end up having the things laying around, and it seems like I always lose something, generally to theft. It was annoying and to top it off, there was always someone who was not satisfied with their grade, but they couldn't produce the project, and I couldn't defend the ruling.

When I call the students up to grade with them it seems like at least a quarter of the class is not finished and so I waste a whole period then have to do it again, and again, and again, and again(get the picture).

Now I have a white box that I photograph their work in, then I grade it from the picture. I like this method pretty well, because I don't have to worry about losing their projects and I can do the actual grading when I feel like it. Another benefit is that I have the pictures to show students examples. I put them in slide shows as I introduce new projects, and we have the pictures for critiques. The down falls are that I have to crop and adjust every picture because I want them to look good and I don't have great lighting. Then the students take pictures of the good side of things so I don't always get an accurate view of things.

This ring shows a fairly accurate view for grading. It is soldered well, and the bezel is clean. It looks great, even if they could have filed the wire ends a little better.

This ring look pretty good from the picture, but I can't see what the band really looks like. Then I found out later that the bezel was not soldered on and the back of the band was broken.

So how do you grade?

Corian can be cut with any type of saw. I use a band saw for rough cuts and a scroll saw for more detailed cuts. A standard jewelry saw will work, but it takes a long time and then students usually hold the saw at an angle and really mess things up. Then you can use regular lathe tools and turn it on the lathe to shape the outside of the rings. I use spade bits to drill larger holes for fingers, then I use a drum sander on my flex shaft tool to to shape the finger hole to the exact size. I also use the lapidary grinders if there is any significant shaping that needs to be done. Then I also use high speed cutting burs to set stones, or carve details into it.

What my classroom looks like

This is my enameling station.

this is my wax station, where we sprue and fix broken rings, or add wax as necessary.

This is my back counter where I keep the roller mill and the anvils. The anvils are mostly old rail road track. I screwed them to the bench with a towel under each one to cut the vibration noise.

This is the back corner where I keep the drill press and disc sander.

This my drum sander. I have the sanders because I don't want the nonferrous metals to be used on the grinders. The ceramic pot has water in to cool the metals as you are sanding.

This is them miter saw I use cut wax tubes. It was $5 at a yard sale.

This is my table with ring lathes. I wired all the lathes to switches and then the switches to an extension cord so I can plug them all in at once.

This is on my back counter past the anvils, it is my bench vise where we use the draw plates and forming stakes. This is also where I have lathes and my scroll saw. The entire back counter is filled with drawers where I keep things like wax, nice hammers, lathe tools, extra wire and so on.

This is the end of my back counter where I have one more lathe, another belt/disc sander and under the counter I have the Pickle buckets.

This is my soldering station. There are 5 torches, patinas on the shelf, and nickle pickle plus regular pickle. I love the vent hood, I played the safety card to get it.

This is a station with a couple of flex shaft tools.

This is my stone setting, engraving, and wax carving station. There are 2 flex shafts and an apron to stop from dropping the stones.

This is my white box where I take photos of the students work.

This is the polishing station, I have a tripoli machine, Rouge machine, grinder, and lap felt buffer.

Right beside the buffers is the ultra-sonic cleaner, the sink and  the steam cleaner.

This is my lapidary station. There are three sets of grinding wheels and 2 stone saws.

This is the lampwork bead station. I have two torches. I just decided to charge the students $1 per hour, and then $.15 per gram for glass, I hope that will be enough to keep it up. If you have better pricing methods, would you let me know?

This is a large scotch bright buffer/grinder. Nest to it is a storage room.

This looking at my room from the door. I have 9 tables, 6 of which are set up for students to use.

This is a picture from the front of the room looking at the cabinets where I keep tools and student work.

These are my display cases.

This is how I organized my main tool cabinet.

This is the book case I made to hold the Text books(Complete Metal Smith by Tim McCreight)

This is inside my storage room that I keep locked up whenever I am not in it. I have my silver, nickle silver and solder on the wall. The plate metal is in the back corner. I have scrap metal in the drawers and chemicals in the cabinets.

This is the other side of the storage room where brass wire and nice tools are stored.

Again in the storage room, the Metal plating spot. I wish it were right by a sink, but I want it safe, so it is here instead.

The storage room, stones, drills, and so on.

My centrifuge casting station.

We invest in this spot, far from a sink to avoid having plumbing problems.

This is the vacuum casting spot, right across this room from the investment spot.

This is the burn out kiln.

I thought it might be nice to see how I set things up. I would like to see your shops if you could.

Welcome to the blog idea

Hi, this is the jewelry blog I said I would set up @ UAEA. I have never blogged before, so this might seem a little hokey at first but it should be good for improving all our programs. This is a ring that I put on here to see if I could.