Turning cufflinks

[Greg Davidson]

A while back, my wife bought me an empty set of cufflinks (something along the lines of this) and a couple of coins that fit into them, and she wants me to wear them for our upcoming second wedding (this one's for her family). The coins fit in the cufflinks but not snugly and the coins are thinner than the recess. This is clearly an epoxy job.

The most direct way to get the cufflinks fixed up would be to epoxy the coins directly in the them and work them on the lather. However, I can't think of a way to safely mount the cufflinks themselves, especially without damaging them.

My next thought was to use a ring blank mold to encase the coins in epoxy, turn it to the diameter of the cufflinks, and then epoxy that into the cufflinks.

Does anybody have any ideas of a better way to do this? Anybody see any pitfalls?

 

[Lou Jacobs]

How about turning a small thin disc of wood as a spacer to epoxy behind the coin at the appropriate thickness? Thick enough so the coin stands proud of the edge of the recess. Center it well and you probably won’t notice that it is slightly smaller diameter than the recess.

 

[Ron Solfest]

Better yet, find a piece of burl or highly figured wood and turn wooden coins

 

[Richard Coers]

I prefer E6000 for gluing up jewelry. It's thick enough to take a grip with a gap.

 

[hockenbery]

Two ways to consider for holding the cuff link on the lathe if you need to.

1. you could grip then with #1 jaws. two opposite jaws should grip the sides of the post with the toggle clasp strait.
Might use a pad on the jaws. Maybe remove the 2 jaws not being used
I have the ONEWAY collet jaws - those would work well but few people have them.
You can make a wood collect turn a tenon on a disc on wood. Drill a hole. Make a saw cut to the hole.
Line the saw cut up between two jaws so that the jaws can clamp the kerf closed.


2. Make fixture from wood in a chuck and hold it with double sided tape or some other adhesive.
Turn the wood and face off the end drill a hole that fits the post tightly enough to center the cuff link
( - a tight press fit might be all you need)
Add two strips of double sided tape and press it to hold.

 

[Hugh]

How about just a block of wood held in a chuck. The wood being thick enough to cut a space for the cuff link to fit into. Just cut a shallow recess in the top that fits and holds the cuff link. And a space (maybe drilled out) below that to make room for the post part of the cuff link. If you make the top recess a reasonable tight fit.....you would not need anything to hold it other than friction.
Once mounted in the block of wood on the chuck.....you could even turn down the lip that you think is too high. But, someone mentioned a small disk under the coin. Maybe a coin that is smaller diameter would work.....or a washer?

 

[Greg Davidson]

I was thinking about doing a slot in a piece of wood that the cufflinks would would snuggly fit into might be a way to do it, especially if you drill it out behind so they slide in the side of the block before putting in the chuck. I was little worried about damaging them that way, though.

In the end, I took another look at the cufflinks, and there's some corrosion, so I'm not going to put a lot of effort into this. I think I'm just going to CA the coins in place and maybe put some black CA around the edges to fill the gap. The coin will just be recessed. Thanks for the help thinking about this, yall.

 

[Steiph Zargon]

Well, with the corrosion issue, I’m in agreement… should not spend too much time or money fixing up junk jewelry. On the other hand… if you had a lot of extra $$$ you could commision a jeweler to make a similar set of cufflinks in Sterling or Gold or Gold filled metal and have them made to fit the coins exactly. Then you would have something you could pass on to the next generation. You think that these new gen’s will ever wear anything like that? probably not.
Yes, the CA glue seems the most prudent option. But, if the coins have any value… maybe just put some “hot-glue” to hold them in place till the cuffs rust out and then save the coins for your penny loafers.
Good luck and make lots of chips and sawdust.