Bronze Ring (only a few hours left)

Bone-A-Fach-ee · Post by **Bone-A-Fach-ee** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 9:59 am

Saw this, and thought some people on hear might be interested. I'm not in the market, but the price it's currently at seems reasonable to me! Good luck all!
http://www.ebay.com/itm/X-O-Manowar-bro ... 1e8ffecc5e

Ramses818 · Post by **Ramses818** » Sat Aug 16, 2014 1:37 pm

I missed that but thanks for posting.

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Sun Aug 17, 2014 7:15 pm

Wow, 40 plus shipping. Haven't followed the prices on these for a while, but I remember 15 or 20 being the norm on the bronze.

Ramses818 · Post by **Ramses818** » Mon Aug 18, 2014 12:36 am

I think 40 has been the norm for a while. The silver rings are the hot ticket. I am still looking for the silver x o and I figure it will go for around 200. When it shows up..lol

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Mon Aug 18, 2014 1:11 pm

Yeah, the silver ones have always commanded the big $$.

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon Aug 18, 2014 2:38 pm

If I had the cash, I'd have blood cast me a gold one like he has.

Ramses818 · Post by **Ramses818** » Mon Aug 18, 2014 8:09 pm

I know right? That thing is beyond cool!

hottbill · Post by **hottbill** » Mon Aug 18, 2014 10:19 pm

Ramses818 wrote:I know right? That thing is beyond cool!

I'm afraid I'm gonna need to see a picture of this ring. Someone summon blood

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon Aug 18, 2014 10:55 pm

I think he did a thread on it with pics and the mold and everything.
It is sweet and looks perfect.

Blood of Heroes · Post by **Blood of Heroes** » Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:54 pm

Elveen wrote:I think he did a thread on it with pics and the mold and everything.
It is sweet and looks perfect.

I never did a thread about it and don't have any pictures of the process, but here's a quick run down...

My uncle used to make jewelry as a hobby, specifically doing lost wax casting. A few years ago he had all his equipment out to make a wedding band for his son so I thought maybe I should try my hand at it. Then I thought "*SQUEE*! I should make a gold XO ring!" So I did. I already had a bronze and silver ring, so I used one of them as a model for the gold one.

Using a two-part RTV silicone putty, I made a mold of the "shield" part of the ring. Once you have the mold, you pour molten wax into it and when it hardens you have a little wax X shield thingy. The next step is to make the band out of a sheet of wax. Once you've done that, you solder the two parts together and you have a wax XO ring. After that, you use the lost wax process of casting and voila! You've got a gold XO ring! I'm too lazy to describe the whole casting process. You can look it up for yourself.

So that's the very brief version of what I did. The full story involves many, many mistakes, several weeks, long nights, lots of swearing, and one catastrophic failure. But in the end I had what I had set out to accomplish, and was pretty proud of myself. It's not perfect, but it was pretty good for a first try.

stand by for pictures.....

Blood of Heroes · Post by **Blood of Heroes** » Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:58 pm

This is one of the molds I made to cast the X.

Blood of Heroes · Post by **Blood of Heroes** » Mon Aug 18, 2014 11:59 pm

Sorry about the crappy picture and poor lighting...

bobby97801 · Post by **bobby97801** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:05 am

How much gold did you use in making it?

Blood of Heroes · Post by **Blood of Heroes** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:32 am

bobby97801 wrote:How much gold did you use in making it?

My memory is a little hazy, but I want to say around 1.5 ounces, maybe a little less. The ring is 14k, so there's an equal amount of of other metals in there too. . I went to a jewelry supply store and picked up some sort of alloy material to stretch the gold. Once everything melts in the crucible it mixes together.

I coulda used more gold and made it 18k, but it seemed like a waste.

bobby97801 · Post by **bobby97801** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 12:43 am

That is still $1200 in gold

I must make one

nycjadie · Post by **nycjadie** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 1:15 am

That's pretty awesome. I used to cast toy soldiers and had a "garage" company. I had a spincasting machine and can tell you that I spent many, many, many nights swearing and more than a few burns. You have my respect, sir!

Awesome ring.

Blood of Heroes · Post by **Blood of Heroes** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 8:50 am

bobby97801 wrote:That is still $1200 in gold

Right. That's why it's 14k and not 18k.

nycjadie wrote:That's pretty awesome. I used to cast toy soldiers and had a "garage" company. I had a spincasting machine and can tell you that I spent many, many, many nights swearing and more than a few burns. You have my respect, sir!

Awesome ring.

Thanks! It was a pretty cool thing to learn how to do. If I had more time I would try my hand at more projects. Do you still have any of the soldiers you made? Any pictures?

nycjadie · Post by **nycjadie** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:03 am

I sold Cavalcade Wargames last year.

Half of it is here: http://www.forlornhopegames.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The other half is here: http://antimatter-games.com/products-page/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It was fun until there was really no time between work and kids. I couldn't grow the business like it needed to grow.

Daniel Jackson · Post by **Daniel Jackson** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:04 am

Super cool ring.

Blood of Heroes · Post by **Blood of Heroes** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:52 am

nycjadie wrote:I sold Cavalcade Wargames last year.

Half of it is here: http://www.forlornhopegames.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The other half is here: http://antimatter-games.com/products-page/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It was fun until there was really no time between work and kids. I couldn't grow the business like it needed to grow.

Man, that's cool stuff! Did you paint them too or just do the casting?

Blood of Heroes · Post by **Blood of Heroes** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 10:55 am

Daniel Jackson wrote:Super cool ring.

The real kick in the pants is that six months after I made it is that *SQUEE* Robert Venditti decided his XO was too good to have a control ring. I'm pretty sure I'd be wearing the armor right now had this not happened.

I'd even settle for XO pajamas!

Billy Walker · Post by **Billy Walker** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:26 am

Blood of Heroes wrote:
Daniel Jackson wrote:Super cool ring.
The real kick in the pants is that six months after I made it is that *SQUEE* Robert Venditti decided his XO was too good to have a control ring.

How do we know that Armstrong doesn't have it in his satchel?

nycjadie · Post by **nycjadie** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 11:42 am

Blood of Heroes wrote:
nycjadie wrote:I sold Cavalcade Wargames last year.

Half of it is here: http://www.forlornhopegames.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The other half is here: http://antimatter-games.com/products-page/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It was fun until there was really no time between work and kids. I couldn't grow the business like it needed to grow.
Man, that's cool stuff! Did you paint them too or just do the casting?

I've been painting figs since I was 9,but just as a hobby. Not much time for that since the kids came. I do find it relaxing at the end of the day.

Blood of Heroes · Post by **Blood of Heroes** » Tue Aug 19, 2014 9:20 pm

nycjadie wrote:
Blood of Heroes wrote:
nycjadie wrote:I sold Cavalcade Wargames last year.

Half of it is here: http://www.forlornhopegames.co.uk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The other half is here: http://antimatter-games.com/products-page/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

It was fun until there was really no time between work and kids. I couldn't grow the business like it needed to grow.
Man, that's cool stuff! Did you paint them too or just do the casting?
I've been painting figs since I was 9,but just as a hobby. Not much time for that since the kids came. I do find it relaxing at the end of the day.

It always makes me sad that I have neither the skill nor the patience to do detailed work like that.
Heath's thread about his woodworking projects downright depresses me.

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