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  • [Cambry] I love it. I think it's super unique. And I thought when I first started dating

  • that my wheelchair would deter people from dating me. I never thought it would be something

  • someone would want to put in their wedding ring.

  • [Music]

  • [Zack] Today we're going to do something a little bit different. I get married in a couple

  • days and instead of going out and buying a generic wedding ring, I'm going to make something

  • that's a little bit more personal.

  • Cambry, my fiance, got hurt in a horse riding accident about 15 years ago and this is her

  • very first wheelchairmade out of titanium. I'm going to take a strip of that titanium,

  • inlay it in this 14 karat gold, and make a ring that has more of a story...more of a

  • connection for me and her. Let's get started.

  • [Intro]

  • So obviously a solid strip of gold is nowhere near ring ready. I can't just plop this on

  • my fingers and be ready to go. It takes a lot of steps and special skills to be able

  • to get it to that point. Luckily one of my good friends for the last 5 years knows quite

  • a bit about making rings.

  • [Weston] And the first thing we need to do is anneal this metal, which is basically softening

  • it so that we can start working with it.

  • So when you get flat stock like this gold, it comes from the factory pretty hard because

  • of the way they extrude it and the way that they process it. So heating it up with a torch

  • disperses those molecules and makes it soft again and makes it more workable.

  • [Hammering sounds]

  • [Zack] Heating it up also makes the gold black, which takes away the shininess for now, but

  • we'll fix that later.

  • [Twanging sounds]

  • Next we'll take a jeweler's saw with a very fine metal cutting blade and cut through each

  • end of the ring so that the tips will line up and we can bring it to size.

  • [Weston] Okay, so we've got it all pretty much lined up. We've got a little bit of a

  • lip on the top side that's sticking out, but we need to take a file and file that down

  • anyway. Solder won't bond with dirty metal so we need to remove this top layer of black

  • oxidation so we can get a really strong bond with the gold.

  • The reason that we have to line the ends up is because solder isn't like welding where

  • welding fills gaps. In welding, if you've got a little bit of a gap...this is the ends

  • of the metal...you can fill that gap with weld. But with solder, you have to have all

  • the metal touching because if it's like this and only a single point is touching, only

  • that single point is going to bond. The solder's basically just like a glue.

  • [Zack] Solder is an alloy of gold and other metals that has a lower melting point than

  • the actual gold ring itself.

  • [Weston] So when we solder this together we need to use flux and flux is an anti-oxidation

  • agent. And so it keeps the metal clean so you can get a really clean bond with the solder.

  • [Torch sounds]

  • Okay...ooo went anyway!

  • [Sizzling sounds]

  • More than anything, I'm just trying to see if the solder really made a good connection

  • with the gold. So that looks pretty good. Pretty happy with that.

  • [Hammering sounds]

  • [Zack] So we want the ring to be divided up evenly into thirds with an equal amount of

  • gold on either side of the titanium center piece. So we're using the calipers set to

  • two and two-thirds to create a dividing line between each of the segments, so we can use

  • the lathe to cut out the center.

  • [Weston] So I'm just going to start moving this forward.

  • [Lathe cutting sounds]

  • [Zack] So we have been saving the scraps of gold from the lathe because this can be melted

  • down and reused later.

  • So this is Cambry's very first wheelchair that she got 15 years ago. It's made of titanium.

  • And the reason it's made from titanium and not something like steel is because titanium

  • is 40% lighter than steel while still being as strong as steel. The reason wheelchairs

  • need to be so light is that the people in them are usually constantly moving around

  • and transporting themselves and the chair at the same time. And the more the chair weighs,

  • the harder it is to move.

  • So we're going to take a piece of this chair and inlay it into a gold ring. Another cool

  • thing with titanium is that it's biocompatible, meaning that titanium can be used inside of

  • your body, whether it's for like screws or rods. And it's also non-magnetic which means

  • if you get an MRI it's not going to mess with the titanium inside of your body. Because

  • of all the cool properties and the high strength to weight ratio, titanium is quite a bit more

  • expensive than, say, steel. But because of how lightweight it is, it's totally worth

  • it.

  • Cambry's upgraded her wheelchair several times since this first one so she won't mind if

  • we take a little sliver.

  • [Sawing sounds]

  • [Weston] We're going to put this into the lathe, get this squared away really nice,

  • and then we're going to take this and cut off the 2 millimeter slice that we need to

  • inlay it into the ring.

  • [Zack] So right now we're measuring the distance inside of the groove of the 14 karat gold

  • ring so we can take that measurement over to the titanium insert and mark it along the

  • edge of the ring so we can cut it off in the right size.

  • [Lathe cutting sounds]

  • [Weston] There it goes!

  • [Zack] Nice.

  • So now we have the gold that we've been working on before and the titanium insert which is

  • extremely lightweight. And even though it's made of metal, it's about the weight of a

  • toothpickwhich is crazy. Lucky for us, the diameter of the wheelchair is almost the

  • same diameter of the ring. With a little fancy metal manipulation, Weston should be able

  • to get it to fit around the outside.

  • Alright, show us how it's done.

  • [Weston] To avoid cutting the titanium we're going to shrink one side of this ring and

  • slide the titanium over top and expand it back out. The way we're going to do that is

  • with this ring re-sizer. And these little holes are cone shaped so that as you push

  • the ring down, it forces the ring to fold in on itself. Once it's shrunk enough, we're

  • going to slide the titanium over the top into the groove and expand it back out on the ring

  • stretcher.

  • [Zack] So we've been compressing one side of the ring and now it's just small enough

  • to allow the titanium insert to cross over. So now that the titanium insert is on the

  • ring, you can see one side is much more compressed than the other side. That's because of the

  • ring smasher. So now we're going to put it back in the ring stretcher and bring it back

  • so it looks like it was before.

  • So after each couple passes with the ring stretcher, we go back to annealing it to soften

  • the gold to make sure it doesn't crack on us. Then it goes back on the ring stretcher,

  • and then back to annealing. And repeat the process probably 20 times. The black oxidation

  • over the gold and the titanium should come off after we're done polishing it when it's

  • all formed again.

  • These titanium shavings are so light...like basically holding air... or like Styrofoam.

  • It's kind of like metallic cotton candy. Now both sides have been equally stretched. It's

  • uniform. Titanium's in the center. Now we just need to size it. I'm a size 10 and right

  • now this is about a size 9.

  • [Buzzing sounds]

  • [Zack] So after a lot of sanding with the flex shaft rotary tool we finally have the

  • ring to size. Now it is time to clean it up and level out the top.

  • [Lathe machine sounds]

  • So we've lathed down the titanium center piece and now we just have the gold. We're going

  • to sand off the oxidation and leave it with a brushed finish.

  • [Sanding sounds]

  • There you have it. The ring is done. 14 karat brushed gold with a titanium inlay. Weston,

  • on a scale of one to ten, how hard of a project was that?

  • [Weston] I'd give it a solid 9, maybe 10. It was a lot harder than, you know, some of

  • the other inlays I've done where it's like antler or turquoise, some of these other softer

  • things. You know, it was pretty difficult.

  • [Zack] That's true cuz titanium is like...it's up there in the hardness scale and it's like...it's

  • super compact and brittle I guess. So we had to be careful when we were like bringing it

  • down. But I think it turned out pretty sweet. It pays to have friends with skills.

  • If you want to see some more projects that Weston's done, his Instagram is @rose_anvil.

  • You know mine: @ZacksJerryrig.

  • It's crazy to think that this ring was once a part of Cambry's first chair.

  • So Cambry what do you think? Was it worth cutting off a sliver of your old chair?

  • [Cambry] Yep. I love it. I think it's super unique. And I thought when I first started

  • dating that my wheelchair would deter people from dating me. I never thought it would be

  • something someone would want to put in their wedding ring. And I love it.

  • [Zack] It makes for a good story and it's something that was like a big part of your

  • life a long time ago.

  • [Cambry] Well...it's a big part of my life right now.

  • [Zack] Well that particular chair!

  • [Cambry] We're already going to be married by the time you guys see this. But one of

  • our favorite wedding gifts was from the What's Inside channel.

  • [Zack] They gave us something super special.

  • [Cambry] They gave 2 classrooms full of desks with our name on it to a school in Kenya.

  • And as a result of that, we fundraised over $20,000 to build an entire school in Africa.

  • [Zack] An entire school. So I'm going to take Cambry to go see the desks that What's Inside

  • donated to the schools in Africa and see the school that you guys paid for. And the donations

  • are not over yet. We still have time to maybe, I mean this is a stretch, fund a second school

  • in Africa. And even if we don't fund the school, the money will be used for like water storage

  • or water filtration.

  • [Cambry] Or books for the library.

  • [Zack] Every single penny is going to be used for the schools in Africa. So if you haven't

  • seen it yet, I'll leave a link for the What's Inside Family channel where they revealed

  • our wedding present. I'll put a link for that right here and down in the video description.

  • [Cambry] Make sure you see it. It made me cry, so it's super special.

  • [Zack] Thanks a ton for watching. We'll see you around.

[Cambry] I love it. I think it's super unique. And I thought when I first started dating

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