Ebony Ring With a Titanium Recessed 2 Piece Band Diy...Updated With Plain Ebony Band

In this Instructable I will show you how I make a Gents/Ladies ring out of a piece of Ebony.

The Ebony block was sourced from a very well known online supplier of such goods and cost next to nothing, the Titanium 2 Piece recessed band was sourced from a UK supplier and again was very little money.

I am using a Mini metal lathe and will be using the necessary PPE which will include safety glasses, ear protection and dust mask.

The process I use is as follows.

Instructable updated 05.09.2021

As a contrast to the Ebony in Titanium Band, I made a Plain ebony band the ebony is turned to less than 2mm thickness, its as far as would want to go.

The process is the same as it was in the Initial Instructable, just without the Titanium, and then the band is stabilised with CA Glue and sanded and polished, all in all making for a very light band.

Once again, the grain of the ebony really pops when out in the sun, and in the shade the band is dark.

Ebony Blank

CA Glue

30mm Hole saw

Titanium Recessed 2 piece band

Micro sanding pads

120 grit 600 grit 1000 grit

Plastic polish

Mini Metal Lathe

The first process is to split the Ebony blank down the centre, I achieved this on the band saw, the best way to do this so I've been reliably informed is to do this by eye, thus not using the fence, it worked near enough for me on this occasion, now the band saw is cutting straight.

So we now have 2 pieces of ebony and we could make 4 rings, I'm just making the one today, the next process is to hole saw a 30mm hole through the ebony, I made 2 blanks just in case, release them from the hole saw.

We now move onto the mini lathe, it could be done with a drill press or drill and plenty of sanding but we are taking this ebony down to less than 2mm, it becomes very fragile at that thickness and I've snapped a couple.

Now that the blank is in the lathe and squared up, and after facing the side I use an 8mm drill to enlarge the hole, then a 12.1mm this then allows me to get the lathe boring tool in and take increments out to get down to a position where the larger half of the Titanium band can be pushed in, this needs be a pretty snug fit, but it gets glued in at a later stage so there is a bit of wiggle room if you do happen to push the boundaries:)

We can now clean the edges of the blank with medium sandpaper, and then using a cheap expanding ring mandrel(I think this mandrel is for expanding ring blanks if they are a bit too tight, but it works for what I want it to do) Place the ebony blank onto the mandrel, then using the live centre, just push the inner part of the mandrel in until it grips the blank.

Next part is turning the blank down:

With the blank on the mandrel, its time to remove some of the surplus ebony, I am using a lathe cutting tool to achieve this in conjunction with the power feed on the lathe, we are taking very small increments and gradually get down to a size where we can file or sand it, down to the final depth.

Before the blank gets to thin, I offer the titanium band up to the ebony, this is the wider part of the band, mark off with a pencil and the start cutting it back with a lathe parting tool, I keep offering the band up to the ebony just making sure I don't go too far.

At this stage, I can now fit the ring blank onto the band, and screw the narrower half up, just finger tight as we need to get it apart again later.

This now go's back on the mandrel and gets sanded so its level with the edge of the bezel on the band.

I just go very gingerly with 120 grit, and using the bottom of the ring as my guide I can see how much material needs to be removed.

I finish off with 600 grit then 1000.

Applying the finish:

The finish I am using for the ring is CA Glue and activator, I will use cotton ear buds to apply the glue as i'd like to keep the glue away from the bezels on the ring band as much as I can, I apply 3 or 4 coats using the activator sparingly after each coat, the ring is now stabilised and we can move on to sanding to a final finish.

I initially sand the ring with 600 grit, then 1000 grit, I then get some water and go through all the colours of the micro sanding pads, these range from 1500 grit to 3000 grit and are really good for these type of jobs, with a final wipe and clean, its time to give the ring a few coats of plastic polish, the CA glue makes the ebony pop, the plastic polish just protects and adds to the lustre.

With a final wipe and polish of the inside of the ring its finished.

Assumption:

I enjoyed making the ring, for around £23 or $17 that's including the whole block of ebony as well, we have ended up with a beautiful looking ring.

The grain of the ebony shows through the lustre and changes when the sun catches it and gets darker when its not, this in Conjunction with the polished Titanium Bezels is awesome, The photos are with my Iphone, they are not really doing it justice, but gives you some idea what can be achieved.

You could just use the ebony without the band, get the thickness you desire and just follow the same sanding and polishing procedure.

I hope you enjoyed this Instructable and thanks for looking.