Product review: Ring Genie by Chris DeCamillis

Sam

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RING GENIE by SDL Precision

Review by Sam Alfano

A large portion of my engraving work is done on wedding bands and engagement rings. If you're an engraver or stone setter you know that working on the tight radius of a ring means frequent stops and repositioning. While I'm fairly fast at this, a bit of time is lost each time the ring is repositioned in my engraving vise.

Engraver and goldsmith Chris DeCamillis has developed a ring fixture that has turbo-charged my ring engraving. His American made Ring Genie is machined from aircraft aluminum and stainless steel and is loaded with options. It gives an engraver or setter the ability to rotate a ring while engraving, 10 degree and 45 degree indexing options for precisely dividing and marking rings for repeating engraved patterns or rows of stones, and a top mounted layout and drilling guide that can work in concert with the indexing features. The set comes fitted in a nice cabinet grade plywood box with 24 expanding collets, 8 of which are full size black nylon. The other 16 are aircraft aluminum and designed to minimize vibration, and come in full and half sizes. An optional vertical ring holder which accommodates Ring Genie's collets makes it easy to work on the sides of rings.

To use Ring Genie, slide the ring onto an appropriate sized collet and mount on the tapered mandrel. The knurled knobs give plenty of tightening power or two brass rods fitted into the holes in the knobs can tighten more if needed. The mandrel will rotate freely or tension can be applied with the adjustable drag screw. With a bit of tension the mandrel can be rotated with precise control. Its design provides adequate clearance for my handpieces, and because I can rotate the ring into my graver as I'm cutting, I don't have to engrave with my graver going uphill and downhill with frequent stops and repositioning. While I do my engraving with the body of the fixture mounted low in my vise jaws, clamping Ring Genie just below the raised semi-circles on the sides of its frame allows you to tilt the fixture while keeping the ring in focus under a microscope.

For years I've been wanting a fast and easy method of making equal divisions on rings for layout of repeating patterns. Ring Genie to the rescue! Below each knurled knob is an adjustable click detent that stops the rotation of the mandrel at every 10 degrees or 45 degrees. A sliding pointer can be used to mark the ring at each stop. This pointer is suited for marking the edges of a ring, but can also be used as a guide for pencil or scriber markings on a ring's top surface. After marking all the way around, the ring can be repositioned between the marks and marked again for even closer spacing. The detent can be easily disengaged allowing the mandrel to rotate freely.

Jewelers will especially like the top mounted layout and drilling guide which provides precise layout and marking capability. It features an adjustable pointer which can be replaced with its 1/8" or 3/32" hardened steel drill guides for drilling rows of holes for stone seats or using a bur to mill a channel. The pointer can also be replaced with a user-made graver that can cut V-shaped borders on each side of the ring by rotating the mandrel into the cutter in a lathe-like fashion, quickly and accurately.

My engraving setup consists of a stereo microscope, GraverMach AT with palm handpieces, and a GRS Low Profile Vise mounted on a turntable base. This has proven to be the fastest and most flexible setup for my work, and using Ring Genie with this setup has nearly doubled the speed of my ring engraving. If you're doing ring engraving or stone setting, Ring Genie can pay for itself in short order. This fixture is now a permanent part of my ring engraving toolkit.

Ring Genie is available as a Basic set with the 8 plastic collets, Basic Plus which includes the box, 8 plastic collets, and the layout and drilling guide, and the Deluxe set which includes box, layout jig, and all 24 plastic and aluminum collets. It's available now at the Hand Engraving Gallery. Questions can be directed to Chris DeCamillis at chrisdecamillis@hotmail.com.

~Sam
 

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Willem Parel

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Well, that is quite an instrument, very useful and designed by very expierienced engravers, so that has to be good.
Willem
 

Lee

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I have seen and am familiar with Chris' ring fixture and heartily endorse it. If you engrave rings or anything similar that can be chucked up (that doesn't sound very good) it's a no-brainer. This fixture really works. Bravo Chris.
 

rod

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I too have seen this fixture, and Chris and his associates have done a very fine engineering job, congratulations! By the way the video is very clear and well edited.

The device is a precision dividing head/ hand turned lathe/ engraving fixture and more.

As a toolmaker, I enjoy other people's inventions, and this one scores high in my book, well done!

Rod
 

rod

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Regarding shipping to Europe ....

You could consider some US friend buy it and ship it to you as a gift, or maybe you know some one coming over from Europe to the Reno show?

Remember, the idea of import duties, etc., is to stop massive importations that would threaten the Finnish economy, this small unusual item is unlikely to cause an economic upheaval in Finland.

Regarding whether it fits on the benchmate, I just looked at my benchmate jaw opening, the max is about 12 mm, at that opening the vise jaws are not parallel. However, if you thinned down, with a milling machine, the lower section of the device to less than 12mm thickness, put some warm Thermoset on the jaws and clamped the device, it would cool off to give you a nice parallel grip and work pretty nice?

Rod
 
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Gemsetterchris

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Maybe a benchmate friendly version would be an idea?
It`s not a drama to send a tool to Europe, for some reason alot of people in the US think it is..

I`ve got a palm contol and some other bits on the way within days without fuss, however trying to order chris`s bulino dvd direct from Grs was an unbelievable chaotic mess which i gave up on also.
 
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Roger B

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I don't wish to hijack such a positive thread but did want to support Chris up on a couple of his points. Perhaps this could be the start of another thread called "Venting Your Spleen".

Gemsetter,

I'll back you up on your thoughts about getting tools from the US. Most of my items have had to be directly imported from one supplier or another and I haven't had a second thought about doing so until I tried to get Chris's DVD.

Even though I have tried to source it through other suppliers who sell GRS products, both local (their official agent) and in the US (Rio), it seems that it is only available through GRS. This is where the fun starts. My main concerns were the freight costs for a couple of books and DVDs and payment methods. I have since asked what is meant by payment by "wire" and why there is a surcharge for this whereas others will give a discount, but have not yet had a response from any of the suppliers I have contacted. Paying by "wire" is not a term we usually use here. Things are so much easier with electronic payment services like "Paypal" but that is a decision to be made by the company.

So far I am still to purchase the DVD but hope one day to find someone who is willing to accept my money without having to go through too many hassles.

Thanks,
Roger
 

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