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A Lesson Learned

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Categories: Experiences and daily life; Commerce and business

Word count/read time: 433 words; 2 minutes

The luxury of coming from a ~1000 sq/ft workshop with 16ft ceilings to a 4000+ sq/ft one with normal ceilings was appreciated. Counter or worktop space increased ten-fold. Feng shui might have mattered in cramped quarters but now it runs amok with wild possibilities. It certainly tempts the hoarder in me.

Setting up the work stations wasn't any easier than in cramped quarters. The shuffle this, lift that, reorganize those to access a piece of equipment was over. Now everything is out and ready to be used at any time, simultaneously if desired. The openness was refreshing.

Never did too much room or space seem like a problem. Until recently.

A set of gold earrings arrived with one broken earwire and the other about to fail. Soldering would be dicey at best with an existing solder joint and pearls. I repaired one but the second didn't work out so well. No biggie, remelt the whole shebang and start over.

Melting, casting, rolling, and drawing worked out well. The exact metal content was unknown but it measured around 16 karat on my electronic gold tester. After finishing the main part, it was time to make earwires. They needed to be custom so I ditched my jigs and went freestyle.

Earwires should be made from hardened wire. Gold gets pretty darn hard despite it being a "soft" metal. This earwire definitely was spring temper. The first one came out just as planned. The second one was coming out perfectly as well and it was time to cut the tail to working length.

It dropped onto the bench but when I grabbed it, the tail slipped. Normally, things fall straight down without traveling too much so it's easy to spot the freedom fighter. This was spring state metal under tension. It sounded like it hit something in the distance and then there was silence. Followed by an impressive list of the who's who of obscenities.

When an earwire launches at Mach 9 and ricochets into oblivion among countless shelves, tote boxes, and machinery it becomes worse than a scavenger hunt. That was $50 worth of gold that just played a cruel game of hide-and-no-seek. Losing the gold sucks but it was the last piece in that alloy and color! That meant remelting everything again to make a matching set.

Clean floors and organized workspaces don't help a bit when this happens. Corralling flying debris needs an enclosed area. Something as simple as a cheap vinyl shower curtain "wall" will catch those wayward metal sprites. The next lesson will undoubtedly be just as silly...hopefully injury- and loss-free!

Posted by M: June 22, 2019

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