Enlarging a plain wedding ring

[nigelpearson]

So, I had to get an x-ray of my hand, and had to remove my wedding ring. Took a few minutes of pulling over my swollen knuckle, turning, pushing the skin under the flat inside surface, et c.
IMG_3665.jpg

All you guys – safety conscious metalworkers – probably take it off every day???,
but I don't, and over the years the calluss has gotten thicker, the fingers have gotten thicker, and removal just got too hard, so I leave it on there.

Need to resize this thing.


Jeweller? No way. It is just metal. I can work metal, right???


Plumbing pipe expander is a little too big:
IMG_3666.jpg




but my finger/ring is about the size of an MT2 taper:
IMG_3667.jpg


I don't want to scratch too much GOld off, so I use the newest/cleanest taper I have.
Tap the ring down to the big end with that steel spacer, and we should be happy?
IMG_3668.jpg


It wasn't big enough on my finger. So, I try to gently peen the ring all the way around, hoping it will get a little bigger with each tap:
IMG_3669.jpg
(photo just for graphical communication - I actually tapped on a block of timber)


Sadly, they didn't make much difference - ring still too tight - so I found a longer taper and forced the ring further along:
IMG_3670.jpg


That did the trick. Ring clears the knuckle now!

[BaronJ]

Hi Nigel, That is exactly how a jeweller would have done it.

[China]

Jeweller would have done very similar depending on how much larger it needed to be, and of course have ring stretchers to do the job, you need to be careful as you can break the ring especially if it has been soldered.
good to see it all worked out.

[roxi]

Hi
Wowww! I didn't know this kind of process was possible! Thanks for sharing!

[nigelpearson]

I didn't know this kind of process was possible!

We can do many things with a hammer.


Real jewellers might even join (weld) a new link of metal in if the size difference was large.



Welcome to the forum, Roxi !

[BaronJ]

Hi Nigel,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g72LxZVu_eg

I meant to post this at the time but forgot ! Sorry.