Jax25

Haha! Awesome! Also, your belt buckle makes me giggle. I love it!

Huh. Well, I suppose I'm no help because I don't tumble copper in stainless steel at all. I use rice and it comes out so pretty.

Yay Jodey! You're the one I get to pick on now when my orders have issues eh? Muahaha!

Out of curiosity, what does one do with 2000 feet of 16516 half persian??

Well darn. I'll be at Steampunk World's Fair or I would consider it. I've wanted to go to the VA RF since I've been out here.

Just to add my two rings, galvy is SO yuck for jewelry. Seriously, go with stainless. Bleh. Galvy. Bleh.

Hehe, most of us start with something simple like dice bags or bracelets. *grin* I've seen tutorials for the dragons somewhere on DeviantArt as well but there is also this one over at MAIL: http://www.mailleartisans.org/articles/articledisplay.php?key=545

I just can't justify NOT spending $100 with the shipping rates...unless it's something very specific for a paying customer that has to be ordered NOW. Even then, I usually add enough personal stuff to get at least the $100 discount. But I can usually manage to find money in my budget to get there.

Well, see, you're excused in this instance because you get discounts if you order $100...so it's justification for ordering $100.

Heheh, that was more toward mimic because they asked about the other thread after you posted. It always just cracks me up when people ask about other threads instead of searching for them.

Gosh people. There IS a search function on this forum. *grin* http://www.theringlord.org/forum/index.php?/topic/11471-chainmail-shoes/?hl=%2Bchainmail+%2Bshoes At the time there was a corresponding thread on MAIL. It has a search function too....

Anyone who has spent any time working in customer service knows that the customer is very rarely right.

As I recall, you don't have to claim it on your federal taxes if your profit is less than $450 or some such. However, if your state has a sales tax and you want to sell at craft fairs, farmers markets, ren faires, etc. they often require you to have a Tax ID to reserve a vendor space. If that's the case, you're going to have to register as a business to get one. I was going to go through the process a few months ago here in VA when I was starting to get serious about selling things again (do to looming furloughs)...but I've been too busy with school and the furloughs haven't hit my department yet, so I haven't actually done the leg work like I was going to. You can kind of dodge the issue by selling online if you're small time (like most of us are). It all depends on how honest you are and how much you're willing to risk getting caught. Myself, I like to play by the rules so nothing bad happens.

I am mildly annoyed by the 19 ga AA. I mean, it's cool that TRL has made it...but a couple years ago when I started my big Slytherin crest inlay, I bought a bunch of "18 ga" Parawire (not realizing at the time that it was NOT the same gauge as TRL's 18 gauge) to use for my colored rings. When I found out the difference, I asked TRL if they were going to carry 19 ga 5/32" white AA - because I was going to redo the little bit of my inlay that I had started with the 19 ga instead of the 18 ga that I had. They told me nope, sorry, we're not going to carry that. And now they are. So yeah, I'm a little bitter. I am glad that they're giving people more choices now though, even though it's too late for me.

If you do want a source of 4043, big box hardware stores like Home Depot and Lowes (and even Sears) usually carry "20 gauge" (wire diameter 0.030") aluminum wire in that alloy for welding purposes. Just go look in their welding section. They're a bit more expensive than TRL, but you wouldn't have to pay shipping. I once bought a spool of it, thinking to use it for making jump rings but I was then told that it was really soft for that purpose so I took it back and got 5356 instead.

You could have, when she said she didn't see how you could expected to sell the Dscale for more than $20, ask her how long she thought it took you to make it. Then when she guessed, elaborate how long it ACTUALLY took you and made her realize just how little per hour you would have made if you sold it for $20.

I'm with the rest of the crew on this one. I'm using TRL's 18" mandrels and I wouldn't go any shorter than that, myself....although with my current setup, I couldn't really go longer than that either. Hopefully sometime I'll be able to get some nice long mandrels and won't have to start coils as often. If I wanted something that was only going to make 4" coils, I'd go get a set of transfer punches.

Damn it! I don't do any of those things! *grin* I don't usually have problems funding big projects anyway though...especially if it's something I can cut my own rings for. It costs in time, of course, but I have more time for my hobbies than I have money (not that I have scads of either, most of the time).

Try trying to make a shirt out of 16ga Ti. Though to be fair, I got quite far on it before deciding it was too expensive to continue.

Looks purdy! Seems like you got it down very well so I can't think of any advice to give you.