# ruby sphere ring



## btboone (May 8, 2007)

Here's a pretty cool one I made today.  It has a sphere of ruby from a coordinate measuring machine.  It's probably round to within a millionth of an inch or so.  I had a hard time locating some, but finally found a manufacturer of them.  I'll need to add this one to the site.


----------



## edman2 (May 8, 2007)

Way Cool! Quality, beauty, craftsmanship, and excellence all rolled into one. Congrats!


----------



## gketell (May 8, 2007)

Very gorgeous and very unique.  I can't say I have EVER seen a ring with a round stone before.  If my wife wore high-mount rings I would be placing the order right now.

GK


----------



## kkwall (May 8, 2007)

Wow!!!!!!!! As always, excellent work, and outstanding design.


----------



## Ligget (May 8, 2007)

Absolutely fantastic work Bruce![]


----------



## Gary Max (May 8, 2007)

The most amazing part to me is --with the # of hours a day you work where in the heck do you find time to add products to your inventory. 
Oh SWMBO is still showing off her new ring----even the mailman has seen it now-----LOL


----------



## btboone (May 8, 2007)

Thanks guys.  Gary, that was an actual order, otherwise, you're right, I probably wouldn't have found the time to do it.  After working all day and getting a lot of rings out, it looks like I didn't do anything yesterday!


----------



## JimGo (May 8, 2007)

Bruce, I can't believe you copied my design! lol

That's a beauty! What are the letters in the inside of the ring?  Are they engraved, or merely a reflection of something near the ring?


----------



## btboone (May 8, 2007)

Hi Jim, that's engraving.  It says Ivan.  I have a CNC ring engraver that does the inside of the rings.  It scratches the surface with a stylus of diamond or carbide.


----------



## Paul in OKC (May 8, 2007)

Yeah, look awesome, but where dies the refill go?[]
Incredible as always, Bruce.


----------



## btboone (May 8, 2007)

I was reading that fine pens do use ruby spheres for their ball point.  There is only a couple places in the world that make the ruby balls, and they all get the raw material from a place in Switzerland that grows the crystals.  Apparantly, a company named Linde makes synthetic sapphire which is the same stuff, but with some kind of additive.  They are used in laser optics amongst other uses.


----------



## Skye (May 8, 2007)

Millionth of an inch or so? Pffffffft! Why dont I take that one off your hands while you work out the kinks?

Sweet ring man. I'm going to have to order one (simpler and cheaper) some day from you.


----------



## broitblat (May 8, 2007)

Really beautiful and elegant -- like all of your work, apparently.

  -Barry


----------



## Randy_ (May 8, 2007)

> _Originally posted by btboone_
> <br />.....It has a sphere of ruby from a coordinate measuring machine.....



Bruce:  What kind of a machine is that??


----------



## btboone (May 8, 2007)

Randy, they are extremely accurate measuring machines that usually have a gantry and a granite base.  They are typically used to measure 3 dimensional coordinates in things like plastic molded parts or machined parts where they must be accurately measured to ten thousandths of an inch.  This is used to trend quality control and processes.  If on a plastic part, a certain critical dimension is too long, they could fine adjust the cooling cycle and control that dimension.  On complex machined parts like a car engine, they can measure very exactly whether surfaces ar perpendicular to each other and machined concentrically and things like that.  Here's a picture of one.  The probe at the end is what touches the part, and that is where the ruby balls that are made so accurately are used.

http://www.brownandsharpe.com/cmm_microhite_3d_reflex.asp


----------



## Randy_ (May 8, 2007)

Thanks, Bruce.  Very interesting!!

Why does it not surprise me that they are made in Switzerland??

I bet those puppies cost a bushel of Swiss francs!! 

And one more question for you.....why do they use rubies rather than some other material.....carbide and diamond coming immediately to mind??


----------



## btboone (May 8, 2007)

They do make those probe tips in carbide as well.  I've also seen some kind of black ceramic. I guess it has to do with how perfect they can grind a sphere.  It must also have something to do with the hardness and crystal structure.  They need to be extremely perfectly round.  If it gets worn down at all or something caked upon it, it would be useless in that application.  I don't know that diamond can be ground in the same fashion.  They are not that expensive; something like $15 or so.  I was surprised how cool it looks in a ring though.

I also have a ruby rod about 5" long a 3/8" diameter for a ruby laser.  That's a "spare time" project to get the electronics for its flashlamp working.  It should be powerful enough to blast holes through thin steel.


----------



## elody21 (May 20, 2007)

Totally amazing Bruce! Now stick an amethest in there and send it my way and you have it made![]


----------



## Dario (May 20, 2007)

Very nice Bruce! [^]

How much pressure is holding the ball in?


----------



## btboone (May 20, 2007)

Hi Dario, there's probably around 70 pounds of pressure on the ball.  It's enough that you can pull with all your might and never get anything to move.  Alice, I haven't found any amethyst spheres as of yet. []


----------



## skiprat (May 20, 2007)

You know I've always admired your work Bruce, really cool stuff.
Tell me tho, is the stone held between flats or do you have 'dimples' to locate it? If there are dimples, how do you make them on the flat surfaces?[?]


----------



## btboone (May 20, 2007)

Skiprat, I did make dimples.  I used a diamond shaped burr on a milling machine and dug the cutter into the side wall and raised the table to get an approximation of a spherical cut dimple.  I don't have any spherical cutters that would work in the titanium but it seemed to work fine.


----------



## underdog (May 21, 2007)

Bruce,

How can you tell it's 70# of pressure? 

Very classy ring by the way....


----------



## btboone (May 21, 2007)

Hi Jim, it's what it takes to spread the arms.  It's done with a technique I developed that has a lot of mechanical advantage, so it takes less effort when setting it, but it takes a lot of force to open the arms.


----------



## gerryr (May 21, 2007)

Beautiful work as always Bruce.[]


----------



## rtgleck (May 21, 2007)

Bruce,  as the other's have said, I always admire and lover your work and this is no exception.  Very nice looking Ring to add to the rest of the works of art.


----------

