"Ring turning" question

[Donny Lawson]

Recently I have made my daughter a ring and burned some designs on it and it turned out well but now all her friends want one too and with all different sized fingers is there a trick to making different hole sizes without buying alot of bigger drill bits? A friend of mine gave me a ring sizer like the jewerly place has and now I need alot of different hole sizes. Do I need to invest in a big drill bit set or what?
Donny

[Tim Thiebaut]

How thick are the rings? Would this work for you?

http://www.amazon.com/Lenox-30884-VB4-Vari-Bit-16-Inch-2-Inch/dp/B00018A3JE/ref=sr_1_4?s=industrial&ie=UTF8&qid=1304770466&sr=1-4

[Scott Hackler]

Donny, I was in the same boat as you. I bought a set of ring gauges on ebay. Because of all the different ring sizes, I just cut the inside dimension with a parting tool. I use a inside caliper that has a lock down screw for the size. Basically .....I measure the inside of the correct ring gauge and cut the ring to perfectly fit the caliper. Hope this helps.

[Bernie Weishapl]

Same problem here also. Got a old ring gauge from a jeweler friend of mine in payment for a clock I repaired for him. I do the same as Scott does. Works well.

[Donny Lawson]

Scott, I've not thought of useing a parting tool. How are you mounting the piece in your lathe?

[Scott Hackler]

I usually just clamp down the chuck jaws on a 1"+ square stock (or antler) that is at least 2" long. Round it, cut out the inside to measurement, turn outside to desired thickness, sand all I can reach, part off the chuck side, chuck up a piece of walnut spindle stock, cut a tenon that fits the ring on tight, put the ring on the walnut tenon (snug fit) finish the back side of the ring, apply finish as desired. Takes me about 20 minutes start to finish per ring.

[Michael Ginsberg]

I have never done this before but, whatever method you use to get your approximate ring size, I would cut it on the conservative size and final fit the size by sanding the inside of the ring with a small drum sander in your rotary tool. If you keep it moving in a circular motion around the circumference of the interior of the ring, I think you will get a nice even shape. Good Luck.