Titanium Piston Ring Tutorial

I made a couple of different designs for this ring.
Some pistons out of titanium and the 'crankshaft' needed a couple of redesigns.

First I made the chassis of the ring out of two pieces of silver plate about 1 mm thick.
The crankshaft I made out of silver that I soldered together.

Then I cut two pieces of titanium and first drilled the locating holes in each.
Because the silver plates were made as one piece, the locating holes are identical.

Because all the locating pins are equal,it was a lot easier to pierce the oblong shaped piston 'windows' out.

Then I riveted them together with temporary rivets and did the final filing.

Once I got to this stage, it was time to make the piston.

So the crank was made out silver, but the conrod out of titanium.
Then the crank's two sides were fitted together with the conrod in between and then they were soldered together.

I made spacer tubes to hold the two ring sides at a set distance from each other.
This allows for the piston to slide up and down easily.

Each titanium side had a diamond set in the star.
When the titanium is heat blued, the diamond is not damaged in anyway by the heat.

Select gemstones for this project.

I set a Sandawana emerald into the titanium on the top of the piston.

First I turned and filed out a groove for the gold in the titanium.
Then I bent some gold into the groove and soldered it closed.
The I set some hauyne gemstones with diamonds in between.

I made little gold tubes as spacers.

Once the spacers were the correct length, it was just a matter of riveting everything together.

The ring complete with the piston working smoothly.