An Engagement Ring From Year's of Car Factory Paint

From Year's of Car Factory Paint Overspray to an Amazing 19 Segment (>200 Layers) Engagement Ring

My daughter is getting married so I decided to make her a ring. She wanted one for her fiancé too. He's into cars and surprisingly while searching for the perfect material to make the ring out of, I found out there is a material called Fordite. Fordite or "Detroit Agate" was the name given to the buildup of layers of enamel paint slag on tracks on which cars were hand spray-painted and have been baked numerous times.^[1] Someone had the great idea to chip that old paint off and recycle this "waste" into jewelry.^[2] So that's what I did and it turned out amazing - at least everyone that I show says so... and I've been showing everybody.

PS They are getting married July 9th so I'll be glad to pass on any well wishes you send on.

Fordite Blank 1.5 x 1.5 x .75 (I got my Turners Warehouse)

Ring Cores ( I got Tungsten and Ceramic from Turners)

Hacksaw, Jeweler's Saw, or Band Saw

Calipers

Razor Blade

Files

Sand Paper

CA Glue

Tooth Pick for applying CA Glue to ring core

Dust Mask

Lathe (Optional)

Typically people cut a hole in the Fordite Blank to create a ring segment then break that into two parts then glue and put around the ring core. Boring... plus that wastes a ton of material. I do segmented woodwork so I thought, why not make a segmented Fordite ring. This lets me make around 10+ rings with the material vs 1. It does take a lot of time and patience but it's for my daughter to give to her fiancé so that only happens once (we hope).

I used a hacksaw to cut thick slices around 2-3mm of the Fordite blank.

Here, I pick interesting strips from the Fordite slices and sand them down to 4mm wide and 2mm thickness. Length will be handled in the next step. Note: Wear a dust mask for sure. Sanding creates fine paint dust.

I decided to make a hatch patterns so I cut the strips into 4mm x 4mm segments. I could have used a jeweler saw but a razor blade was simple and less dust.

This is the time consuming and very messy part. You have to bevel each segment with a ~10% angle so you have tight joints between segments. This tool is useful to determine the bevel angle for various segment lengths. (Again tons of fine dust - so wear a mask.)

Now the fun part. Apply a little dab of CA glue using a toothpick on to the ring core channel then insert a Fordite bevel segment you made. One at a time. Press down to make sure the segment reaches the bottom and is tight. This just takes a few seconds. Add another dab of glue and the next Fordite segment and repeat. You might have to make an adjustment for the last segment to make things tight. I rotated my segments to create a hash pattern but you can make any style you want. It's ok if the segments sticks out from the core too, since you will sand that down in the next steps.

Also most done and this step is fast. I sand the Fordite segments to just about the edge of the ring core. Since I have a lathe, I next put the ring on a mandrel and finish scraping and sanding to get the Fordite flush with the ring core. Finally I applied 5-6 layers of CA clue to create a lustrous finish and sand thru grits up to 9,000.

And here is the final project! I made an extra one for me too. I'll make more since I have ideas to speed up the process.

Hope my daughter and her fiancé like it.

(First attempt took me 40 hrs - 2nd took 15)