Sheet Metal Pendant

Students will create a sheet metal pendant or keychain using at least two negative space cut outs. Students will use the jewelry saw, sandpaper, hand files, drill press, buffer, and polisher to make the final project. Afterwards, students solder the jump ring as an introduction to the soldering torches and pickle pot.

This unit has six parts: research, drawing to scale, sawing practice, creating the final product (cutting, drilling, sanding, filing, buffing, polishing), jump ring (soldering), and documentation of the finished work.

Advanced students will use sweat soldering techniques to combine two or more sheet metal elements.

Overview Unit Goal

Picture

Composition Concepts

  • Negative Space Cut-outs
  • Silhouette

Advanced Students

  • Torch-fired Enameling on Copper
  • Copper Etching
  • Sweat Soldering

Technical Skills

  • Sawing
  • Drilling
  • Sanding
  • Filing
  • Buffing 
  • Polishing
  • Soldering

Tools & Supplies

  • Jewelry Saw
  • Drill Press
  • Sandpaper
  • Hand Files
  • Buffer
  • Polisher
  • Soldering Torch

Pendant Design Ideas: Use a Silhouette with 2+ Negative Space Cut-outs

Advanced Students

Composition Concepts

Technical Skills Videos

Tools & Supplies

Sawing Practice
  • Jewelry Saw with Saw Blade
  • Burr Life
  • Bench Hook
  • Sheet Metal, Rubber Cement, Practice Drawing
Keychain Project
  • Drill Press Station: drill press, chasing tool, rawhide mallet
  • Jewelry Bench: Jewelry Saw, with blade, burr life, bench hook, Sandpaper (3 levels), Micro Files
  • Buffing & Polishing Stations: finger guards, glasses, support block
  • Soldering Station: torch, fire brick, fire starter, quenching bath, tweezers, solder, cutting pliers, flux

Unit Components

ADVANCED CONCEPTS:

Research

Spend a few minutes thinking before you search the internet for ideas. Sometimes your ideas are better than the ones that come up in a google search.

When searching, you don't need to search for a silhouette. You can make any image a silhouette yourself! Just draw the outline of the image and skip all the details inside.

Make sure you end up with at least two negative space cut-outs in your design. 

Drawing

Getting Started Sawing

Sawing Practice

Starting your Pendant

BRING UP YOUR FINISHED SAWING PRACTICE AND YOUR PENDANT DESIGN - make sure your pendant design has at least two negative spaces (fancy holes)
  • In order to receive the metal for your final project, you'll turn in the sawing practice to your teacher
  • When you turn in your sawing practice metal, bring up your resource book with the final design you want to make
  • You'll discuss your design with your teacher in order to receive the metal - that way you'll know any challenges associated with your chosen design and can get started with confidence.
​

Draw Your Design on the Metal

  • You can draw directly on the metal or use rubber cement to glue paper to the metal.

Chase the Metal where you want a Hole

  • Chase divots into each negative space hole. The design below has 7 divots.

Drill the Interior Holes & the Hanging Hole

  • Drill each interior hole, plus the hanging hole for the keychain.

Cut the Interior Holes

  • Feed the saw blade through the hole and cut out your interior hole shapes

Cut the Exterior Shape

  • Cut out all of the exterior edges of your shape

File the Edges at a 45° Angle

  • Use the micro files from your toolbox to file the edges of your keychain at a 45° angle.

Sanding

  • Start with the roughest sandpaper and work the whole surface
  • Sand both sides with sandpaper starting with 100s, 200s, 300s, 400s, 500s, 600s

Jump Ring

  • Carefully open the jump ring and attach it to your key chain
  • Close the jump ring completely - the ends must touch perfectly
  • No gap between the ends!

Soldering Station Introduction

  • You must have a teacher or TA guided introduction to the soldering station
  • You will need your keychain metal with jump ring attached
  • When you set up your jump ring at the soldering station, your ring should be parallel to the table with the pendant dangling off to one side
  • Make sure an equal amount of ring sticks out of the third arm and the opening is very visible and centered

Solder the Jump Ring

  • Use the Third Arm to hold the ring
  • Paint flux onto the metal (should be visible & look like snot)
  • Put a tiny piece of solder on the metal you want to join
  • Start with the flame far away and dry out the flux
  • Melt the solder
  • Quench the metal
Picture
FLUX & SOLDER ON RING
Picture
START WITH FLAME FAR AWAY
Picture
MELT SOLDER WITH CLOSE FLAME
Picture
CHECK BEFORE QUENCHING

Pickle & Fine Sanding

  • Pickle the metal for 4 minutes (optional)
  • Sand all of the metal (especially around the jump ring) with 600s, 800s, 1000s, 1500s, 2000s

Buffing & Polishing Stations

  • Buff both sides of your keychain
  • Use the wood support block to keep your keychain metal flat while buffing.
  • Remember to use all of the safety gear (finger guards, glasses, hair tie)

Finishing

  • Clean your work - you can wash it off with water at the sink and then a paper towel, or with a dry polishing cloth 
  • Your pendant needs to be functional - you can choose to put a chain on it so that it can be worn as a necklace, a keychain ring so that you can attach it to your keys, etc.

Grading Criteria

Documenting your Work

  • Use a solid background (no distracting lines, shadows, table, or other stuff) like the photo cube
  • Use quality lighting (soft shadow from your work only)
  • Photo should be in focus, with your work centered
  • Crop your photo so that the artwork is the majority of the image and the sides of the photo cube are not visible in the photo
  • One photo of the front
  • One photo of the back side
  • One photo of it in use (wearing the necklace or attached to keys)

Email an image of your Keychain