Setting tolerances

[MAC-W]

will a 5.9mm RB stone fit into a 5.5mm setting?

 

[chrono]

Usually it will unless the RB is unusually deep which some coloured stones are.

 

[StonieGrl]

I'm in a similar miserable position: I bought a 12-mm Four Peaks round ammie and a 10-mm of same. Ordered Stuller 14 kt yg 6-prong solitaire settings for them, had them sized and polished. Assumed they would be of decent quality. I was wrong.

They arrived. They are not what they should be, prongs are not uniform height, they are tending to the too-short side, and I have no idea how my dear spousal unit is going to get the stones in those settings.

I cannot send them back because a friend ordered them for me on his account as a wholesaler and I won't impose further on that relationship. My husband also believes he can set them, so I'm further scrooed that way.

So: If you're ordering Stuller settings, be cautious. I would say only do so if you are a bit smaller than the setting, example: a 7.8 mm stone for an 8 mm setting.

 

[AustenNut]

This is not my area of expertise, but I've heard that people should expect a 0.2mm amount of leeway either way.

 

[Michael_E]

will a 5.9mm RB stone fit into a 5.5mm setting?

Probably. It depends on a number of things such as, prong length, prong thickness, prong curvature, stone depth and girdle depth. Some prongs are long enough to be bent backwards a bit and then look alright being bent backwards and so it all works well. Some designs have very short stubby prongs in which the stone must fit perfectly, with a too large stone not working very well without modifications, (like new prongs). Do you have a picture?

As for Stuller, my experience has been that they usually leave the prongs quite long and they need to be cut down. I've only had one recent piece from them that was a bit odd. The attached tag told the story though..."Made in China". I was a little surprised that they were outsourcing stuff from China without mentioning it in their catalog for this item. The quality was O.K., just a bit short in the prongs.

 

[Largosmom]

A good jeweler can cut things back some inside the prongs, so it may not be as bad a situation as you think...ASK!

 

[MAC-W]

Thank you all so much for your advice. I really appreciate it. (StonieGirl, I'm really sorry to hear about your ammy. Hope you can find a solution).

Here's a picture of the setting I'm considering. Michael, do you think the prongs are long enough? I'm thinking it might be possible for my local benchman to lengthen the prongs by adding more metal if necessary? Is that realistic?

I already have this setting - bought it for my light purple spinel, but feed back for that stone in this setting was 'mehh'. If I could buy again I would get this as a 6mm setting cos I got some nice feedback when I showed my M diamond in this setting even though I thought the stone was too big, but hubby loves the combination, so I'm reconsidering if I can make it work. The diamond is 5.88 x 5.92 x 3.61.

I'm going to take all your advices and ask my local jeweller on Monday what he thinks but appreciate any feedback you all have in the meantime.

 

[MAC-W]

here are pictures of the diamond and the spinel in this setting. (Note: the spinel looks a lot darker in this picture than in real life)

What do you all think? should I persevere with trying to make the diamond fit or revert to the spinel?


Other pictures of the setting with the spinel can be found at https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/my-new-spinel.150097/ and with the diamond at https://www.pricescope.com/community/threads/an-m-for-me-part-2.150125/

Really appreciate your feedback.

 

[Michael_E]

Michael, do you think the prongs are long enough? I'm thinking it might be possible for my local benchman to lengthen the prongs by adding more metal if necessary? Is that realistic?

I think that it would probably work alright. Your stone is not that much bigger than the setting size listed, so a bit of a bend wouldn't hurt anything. The stone may even look better in this setting since it would fill any gaps between itself and the halo that might occur with a smaller stone. As for adding length to prongs, well it's definitely possible. The best approach for longer prongs however is to remove the existing prongs, cut little "seats" for new and slightly larger diameter prongs and solder them into the halo. This is much stronger and gives more wiggle room in fitting your stone.

 

[MAC-W]

Cool Thanks Michael