Folding Cross and Making the Proof of Concept.

This is the first cross I made. I filed the pieces 45 degrees, quick and dirty.

Which DID fold up like this–but very fugly.

I made several types of hinges to see which one was best.

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Remember, all this stuff is taken on the fly and is also unfinished, so it looks kak.
So I developed the cross further.
Problem was, for it to fold up nicely it had to be broadened on the center ‘post’. (Is that the right word?)

Anyway, so it folded up into this box affair. About 15mm by 15mm.

This is the top open. But I didn’t like the shape of the cross. It looks clunky.

So I cut 12mm square pieces of silver and glued them onto a dop and proceeded to cut them on my Imahashi.— Imahashi = milling machine
This did not work as smoothly as I thought it would.
Reason was, I use epoxy to dop my stones but because silver conducts heat extremely well , so it heats up super quick.
So no matter how much water you use on the diamond lap, the fracking thing heats up and “poef” –off it is.
Because heat makes the epoxy release.

No matter. All I did, (after a nights sleep figuring out what to do, admittedly), was to solder the thing onto my dop with silver solder.

12mm squares that have a 45º bevel . Exactly.

Okay, so this is the completed box. Unfinished off, but the basic stuff completed.
It is 14mm square.

That pin pulls out to open it. It is one of those pins that doesn’t pull out all the way.

Then the bottom folds out.

And the arms fold out.
The gold one will have stones set in the flat part of the pyramids.
And on the outside of the box.
The unfolded size is 50mm x 35mm, excluding the V-link.

When the arms are folded in they are held in place with those two little lugs.

Like that.
The gold one will have the V-link hinged.
I’m not going to do it on this one because I’m gatvol on working on this thing.But now that the proof of concept is finished I can make one in gold. Then the gold one will have stones set on the outside, and different coloured stones set on the inside. Also the folded up shape is going to be more half round, so that it is not as stark as this one. Also much easier on the cleavage, it you get my drift…..