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I watched a video on YouTube by another ring maker recently and he talked about a steampunk ring and how easy it was to make. My son likes Steam Punk style and I wondered if I could make one for him for his upcoming 18th birthday. 

In case youre not sure what steam punk it here is a definition: Steampunk is a subgenre of science fiction that combines fantasy and history with technology, often featuring steam-powered machinery from the 19th century. Here is a link for an article on it if you are curious. You can sum it up by saying it is a fashion from the Victorian era which incorporates mechanical parts.

Whenever I am thinking of making something new I will watch some videos and then ask myself: “Can I do that?” If the answer is, “Yes, I think I can.” then off I go to try it. I was pretty sure I could make this, I just needed to figure out the steps as I went along. 

First step: Buy a watch to get some cogs. 

You can buy “steam punk cogs” online. But they are too big for what I wanted. The ring blank that I had only had a groove 4mm wide. 

I started to look in charity shops for old watches. I bought a watch at Cancer Research shop for £10. I got it home all excited and started to take it apart. I soon realized it would be not good for my project. The watch was a modern battery watch and all the cogs we plastic, and there were not many of them. 

I asked around some friends and I was given this pocket watch. 

An old pocket watch with half a hand.
The Pocket watch.

The next “problem” was how to undo it. I thought the back would prize off. But it would not. So I took it to a key cutting / watch battery shop. The man there took the back off for me, it unscrewed. 

Pieces of a pocket watch on a work bench.
The bits of my pocket watch.

The workings inside were amazing. 

There was lots of details and decoration on the back plate, including a serial number. It turns out you can put the serial number into a website and it will give you information about the watch. The watch was made in 1908 so it is 116 years old. 

Screenshot from the Elgin Watch Company web site.
Information about the watch.

Now I had it in pieces I needed to start cutting up the cogs to fit in the groove. 

Man working at a bench with a dremmel style cutter and small pliers.
Cutting the cogs.

To cut the cogs I used a “Dremmel” style machine with a cutting disc. Some of the cogs were easier to cut than others. The escape wheel for example was very brittle to cut. 

Testing the fit of the first cog in the steam punk ring.
The first cog.

Once I thought I had enough cogs and they all fitted in the grove then I could start to fit them. You could not dry fit them because they would just fall out unless you started to glue them. They also had to be bent to fit the shape of the ring. I used some sockets from socket set. You can see them on the bench. Use one that is smaller than the ring. The cogs always spring back slightly when you let them go. 

Once they were glue in it was a case filling in the groove with superglue, letting it go off and sanding and it back to get a good finish level with the edge of the ring.

A stainless steel ring with sections of watch cog in it.
Steam punk ring first section.
Steam Punk ring second section.
Steam Punk ring third section.

Over all, I was very happy with the result. If you search Steam Punk Ring you will get results. This is not totally unique and there are some great ones out there. But for me knowing the provenance of where the parts came from gives it an added dimension which I have not seen anywhere else. 

The rest of the ring will not go to waste. I have some other ideas what  I can do with them but that’s a conversation for another day.

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