Ramblin' Dan's Workshop

I decided to make something for myself. I also wanted to make another ring. What I decided on after a few sketches was this MONSTER amateur Radio call sign ring. Amateur radio operators as most of you are probably aware are assigned a unique set of letters and numbers to identify their transmissions over the air waves. They usually become a part of the personal identity of the operator in a vain sort of way. In fact, station owners can request "vanity" call signs, much like automobile license plates. My call sign W5EHS IS my license plate number.

So for vanity sake, I wanted to make a big ring. Options are of course unlimited but this is my initial design as I imagined it.. It is totally hand carved from purple wax without using my CNC equipment. I could make a much more precise carving if I had done this in CNC but I also like to know and brag that the ring is totally hand made.

I started off with a block of wax rather than I tube. Just because that was what I have. A wax tube saves some cutting out work.

Here I am fairly far along in carving. I use this vice to hold the wax steady.	here is the ring blank just before fire polishing. The carving is complete.
here is how I set up the sprue so I wouldn't have to file off the silver on the finished design.	I made little extensions on the inside so the silver would have lots of room to change direction in the cast process.
The flask is a brand new short 2.5"x2.5" flask. I don't need a big flask for a single ring.	After casting and just out of the pickle. Note I was almost too short on my metal calculation. Setting up here to cut off the sprue.
All finished and polished	Two pictures so you can read the call sign.
The back side represents radio waves propagating two ways.	Here is how it looks on hand. Question is which way do the letters go?
The back side also looks good.

The ring is 13 mm wide which is the widest I can wear on my hand. I have fat fingers so the ring is very large. Lots of Sterling silver too. It weighs 33.2 grams as shown finished. I melted 40 grams to cast it and was almost short. No button was formed and I was surprised as I made the pour. But all is well. It came out as I imagined.