A Ring Fit for a King ( ...it's Made of His Throne)

I recently tore the toilet out of the half bath in my condo so I could replace the rotted subfloor below it. After rebuilding the subfloor, I felt like I needed to replace all of the hardware in the toilet before I reset the toilet so that I could be sure to never have to do it again. Trust me, working in a 30 inch by 5 foot room is not fun!

After all was said and done, I had these two seriously oxidized 3 inch solid copper screws. How could I let them go to waste. I decided to take a screw from the toilet and put it on my finger.

Tools:

- vice

- rotary tool and bits

- hack saw

- screw driver

- needle nose pliers

- soldering iron or torch

Materials:

- toilet bowl screw

- metal polish

- rag

- lead free solder

- clear lacquer to coat the inside of the ring

I set the screw in a vice and use a rotary tool with a cut off disc to start the cut. Then I used a hack saw to finish the cut.

Very gently, use a screwdriver to start dividing the two halves. Slowly bend each side down flat.

You will want to solder the split halves to the head of the screw at this point because, odds are, they will be a bit fragile and close to breaking off.

To solder, a torch would be the best way because, for the solder to adhere to the copper, the copper needs to be heated up.

Or, if you're like me and inexperienced with a torch, use a soldering iron to put solder where it needs to be and then heat the whole ring in the oven at about 450 degrees for a few minutes. This will fuse the solder to the copper.

Very carefully, bend the two halves around into ring shape with two sets of needle nose pliers. Use one hand to hold and one to bend.

Once you have a ring like shape, put the ring on the finger you will be decorating and mark where it needs to be cut. I used a cut off disc. Refit to your finger to check the size. Cut more as needed, or stretch to fit; you can fill the gap with solder.

I used my rotory tool with a wood shaping bit to grind down and shape the solder to my liking.

It's difficult to see the difference in these two pictures, but I used a metal polish from my Dremel kit to remove all of the tiny surface scratches and bring it to a silky smooth, mirror-like finish. Just a rag, the polish and a lot of rubbing, easy!

Now just spray the ring with clear lacquer so it won't turn your finger green. :)