Dave Snelling Master Goldsmith, Microscopic Laser Welding and Expert Jewelry Repair and Watch Parts Repair

Expert Service at Very Reasonable Prices

Located Near Chicago, Illinois, USA  -  Providing Service Worldwide
cell:       (630) 650-9898
e-mail:  bsnelling18@gmail.com

SERVICES OFFERED:  Expert Goldsmithing, Jewelry Repair, Casting, Metallurgy & Microscopic Laser Welding  -  Over 20 years of experience as a master goldsmith and trained jeweler with many projects repairing gold watch cases and micro welding watch and clock parts.

• Original jewelry design & manufacturing
• Platinum & gold casting
• Diamond & jewel setting and repair
• Gold watch case repair
• Microscopic laser welding of gold, platinum, silver, steel, copper brass, and other metals
• Microscopic laser repair of antique watch and clock parts

Most of the pieces I repair or create can be shipped by UPS fully insured from anywhere in the world and returned to you completed and insured.   Contact me by phone or e-mail with your requirements and I will respond with how I can complete the work for you. 

Examples of some recent work:

 18K Pocket Watch Case

 18K Pocket Watch Case  - Replaced two glass crystal covers with 18K solid gold covers.  The case is shown here after it was restored to the original solid gold covers condition.  A prior owner of this antique watch had added glass crystals to both sides of the hunting case, and these were restored back to the solid gold covers as original.

18K solid Gold Pocket Watch Case - Open Case View




























18K Diamond & Peridot Necklace

 This customer wanted a 50th birthday necklace for his wife, custom made from a peridot he had given her on her 21st birthday plus a new perfect 1.2 carat loose diamond.  The necklace was to be both simple for everyday wear on a thin gold chain and also elegant for formal evening wear.

The diamond and peridot were combined on a simple gold bangle with a gold surround made to enhance the stones for formal wear.

 On a thin gold chain without the surround, the necklace is simple and elegant for everyday use.  The stones are the hero here.

By combining the custom gold surround with the bangle on an Italian smooth gold choker, the piece is highlighted for formal wear. Both the bangle and the surround were made to fit this choker necklace.


















Platinum & Diamond Ring

This customer wanted a custom made platinum ring with serpentine diamond bands.  In this case, I custom ordered the platinum casting from a Chicago jewelry casting company and had them set the diamonds to my specifications, including polishing the interior of each setting before mounting the diamonds.  The ring is one of a kind and higher quality but lower cost than any comparable diamond ring.  It matched the design the customer wanted exactly.














Microscopic Welding Minute Repeater Minute Star From Pocket Watch

 This is microscopic laser welding of an intricate broken steel part of a very complicated watch, a minute repeater, which chimes the time on demand.  The internal parts that signal the correct time for the gongs to sound is the "minute star", located under the dial on the center staff.  This watch had a broken minute star as shown here.  The left star should never come off the center staff, but the original steel riveting was broken completely off.  

The 15-step star had to be welded back on to the center staff and must be perfectly aligned vertically and horizontally.  It was measured to extreme tolerances and set in Rodico (a Bergeon jeweler's putty) to ensure alignment for welding.

 Then it was microscopically welded with the laser welder.  Extremely small welds that fit in the space where the riveting material originally was leaves the correct room for the moving parts attached to it in reassembly. It was tested for accuracy and cleaned.


























Here, the minute star with quarter snail is re-assembled back into the watch.  Testing shows perfect function for all hours, quarters and minutes.  A great watch is repaired to excellent operating condition.  This watchmaker customer did the watch work, and I completed the microscopic laser welding of the part.





















"Impossible" 18K Watch Case Expansion

This customer had been told by others that it was impossible to cut an 18K gold pocket watch case and add new gold to make it deeper to fit a very rare type of Grande Sonnerie watch movement.

I completed the work by very carefully cutting the case with a #8 jeweler's saw, which has an almost hair fine blade.  Then I matched the gold color and made an 18K gold ring to add the required new depth to the case, exactly matching the existing case dimensions and contours.  This spacer was laser welded it in place from the inside so the work was invisible from the outside of the case.  The spacer is shown here in the completed case as a gold band in the middle of the edge band.

Back side of the same case.

The gold operating button in the edge band of the case was made from matching 18K gold and designed to fit the requirements of the movement lever inside the expanded case.


















Watch Time Setting Lever Fixed

In this case, a watch set lever had worn down from over 100 years of use and no longer moved the clutch wheel in the watch forward far enough to set the time.  The length of the operating tang to be fixed here is only about 1/8th inch.

New steel was welded in place to increase the reach of the operating tang.  The new steel added is less than 1/16th inch.

 The new steel was filed to the correct dimensions on both sides and the operating face.

The set lever was cleaned and tested in the watch to ensure proper operation.  This was a very simple and inexpensive repair, but almost impossible without microscopic welding.
















Very Thin 18K Gold Case Watch Repair

This antique pocket watch case was solid 18K gold.  It was an original case for an 1820 Automaton Repeater, but the edge band was extremely thin gold "roping" (only 0.3 mm thick) that had broken in many places simply from the case movement made by holding the watch and pressing down the pendant to run the repeater.  It was so badly broken that it would not operate.  You can see the gold case broken through on both sides of the pendant in this picture.

To fix this, I had to create 26 very small shell shaped gold inserts that fit the inside curve of the original roping and individually laser weld each shell into the back inside of the roping edge of the case.  Because the case was broken and flexed out of shape easily, I had to make a jig to hold the case in the correct shape during the gold work. 

After the roping was strengthened and shaped from the inside, it was then polished from the outside for a professional appearance.



































Creating an Exact Copy of an Original Crown in Solid Gold

For this Grande Sonneire minute repeater, the original crown had a thin gold cap over a steel crown.  The gold cap was badly worn, was broken in many places, and was coming loose so that extreme care had to be taken to wind or set the watch.  In this case, the best solution is to make an exact copy of the original crown in solid gold to retain exact original look with a gold crown that will last forever.  Below is that process.  Because it takes a substantial amount of time and uses solid gold and specialized equipment, it costs about $400 to $500, but the solid gold crown is a perfect match from the original and will last the life of the watch.  


 



First, the thin gold cap was removed, leaving old glue and accumulated gunk on the steel crown.














The steel crown was cleaned with cleaning solution and a brass brush wheel.











Then, a plastic cone was glued to the steel crown before molding to create a funnel in the mold to inject hot wax.  A silicone rubber mold was made from the original crown.  Here, the steel crown is inside the gelled silicone.  The areas that look like ice crystals are razor cuts in the silicone made to separate the silicone mold in half and remove the steel crown.

 



When the steel is carefully removed, an empty silicone mold is left. The wax injection cone can be seen above the crown cavity.
 












Hot wax is injected into the mold and cooled.

















When the mold is opened, a wax crown is there, with a wax cone attached.  Even the smallest detail, like the stem retaining screw hole is duplicated exactly.  Even a serious scratch on the original would show up in the wax copy.









Here, I am cutting off the injection cone and cleaning up the square stem cavity.

















The finished wax crown is tested on the stem and the watch for fit and geometry.




 















After adding a new wax filling channel, the wax crown is cast into a specialized casting medium, almost like a high temp plaster of Paris.  After the mold dries, it is heated to high temperatures to melt and then vaporize the wax, leaving a completely empty mold.  Here you can see the mold with  the hole in the top to pour in molten gold.  The mold is taken from the oven for casting while it is still very hot.  The mold is sitting on a vacuum table that pulls air out through the bottom of the mold to prevent bubbles when the gold is poured in.











 
18K solid gold is color matched to the case color and melted in a crucible.



 












The oxy-acetylene flame is directed over the liquid gold as it is poured into the mold while the special mold machine pulls air out of the bottom of the mold.








 




After casting, the hot gold is still glowing pink in the mold.

















After cooling some, the mold is placed in a bucket of water.  This cools it completely and the molding plaster turns to mush in water.

The gold casting is dug out of the casting medium.

The casting is recovered from the medium.

The casting is ultrasonic cleaned to remove all casting medium.  The crown casting is attached to a "sprue" of gold from the pouring channel of the mold.
















The sprue is cut away and then a dimple is cut into the top where the sprue was attached, just like the original crown..








 



Each small valley of the crown is shined with very fine abrasive wheel.  This leaves the ridges crisp for the right feel of the crown when used.











 


The finished crown is polished lightly with a bristle wheel and gold polish.














The finished solid 18K gold crown is an exact copy of the original steel crown.  Even the screw hole for the stem is exactly duplicated.   It will stay perfect for the life of the watch.

The stem is put back into the crown and the new crown is assembled in the watch.  A perfect match, exactly like the original, but in 18K solid gold.