Bench Jewelry Shop
A bench shop is where one primarily does hand fabrication which includes drilling, sawing, soldering, forging, chasing, and stone setting. The number of tools that one needs depends largely on what type of projects are being done. If there is mostly just making bezels, bands and setting cabochons then a jewelry saw, torch, setting and polishing tools are sufficient. However, if you like to do forming, or chasing you may need a number of other tool. I will show a lot of tools and what they are for, but, one does not necessarily need all of them.

There are many hand tools, saw bench pin, mandrels , pliers of all kinds and cutting tools. I will show some of the ones I use most and as a member of my class you will be familiar with. These are not all of your choices. As you dial in on what type of jewelry you like to make you may buy tools more specific to your tasks that make things faster and effective.

Adhesives are very useful. Two part five minute epoxy is what I use most often but E6000 is an amazing glue. Super glue is an essential and rubber cement and contact cement are great glues too.

Good anvils can be found on KSL and ebay and so on, marginal anvils can be found at Harbor Freight. You want a lot of carbon in the steel, so listen to the ring it makes, the better the ring the more carbon.

45˚ setting burs, for cutting seats in stone setting.

Round or ball burs, good for wax work but used on metal too.

Bud or pear burs, used a lot for wax but can cut metal in places that you might not be able to get other tools.

Straight, flush cut and inverted cone burs are good for solder removal and other metal trimming. Very good for wax work also.

Cup burs can be easily ruined by over heating them. They are however, wonderful for smoothing and rounding the ends of wires and prongs.

Rubberized grinding wheels are fabulous for cleanup and polishing. There are several different kinds but they are mostly chosen by the grit you want.

Diamond burs are very versatile. They work well for removing solder, small cleanup jobs, detail shaping on stones and texturing. They are available in grits from around 36 to at least 600.

Bastard files, are larger files for removing a lot of material quickly. These are cheap coarse files from Harbor Freight. It is worth spending the money for a few nice files, you will notice an immediate difference in how a good quality file works.

needle files and riflers are essential for cleanup and shaping.

Gravers are for engraving, but they are also for setting stones, cleaning up edges of metal, and wax work. A set of good gravers would be a great addition to any shop.

Ring mandrels are a must have. They come in wood, plastic, aluminum, and steel. You can get them with sizes and no groove down the edge or with a groove or you can get them with a groove. I recommend a steel one with sizes and no groove if you are only getting one, it is however, personal preference.

Bracelet mandrels are great. I recommend having a round and oval mandrel and I really like having a tang so you can put your mandrel in a vise to work with.

A vise is very good to have. I like having a large and small bench vise but one or the other a vise is very helpful in lots of production work.

I good way to make a quick and cheep bench pin is to cut your own out of scrap wood then use a C-clamp to hold it to the bench/table you work at.