#affiliate For this week’s
#tooltalktuesday I’m talking about Thermo-Loc from
@grstools available from our friends
@ottofrei1930 but I’m also peppering in some tips and I welcome any member of the community who also works with Thermo-Loc to share their uses and techniques! Thermo-Loc is a special reusable polymer material that is rigid at room temperature yet becomes pliable when heated or warmed. So it is ideal for holding work while you set stones, or engrave. I’ve also made handles for tools with it, it is pretty rad stuff. The biggest thing is figuring out how to warm it and get your piece in and out. You need to be careful not to burn yourself and be mindful of potentially damaging your piece (in the case that you have a fragile heat sensitive stone). For this I turned to GRS for advice and they sent me an awesome Teflon pad (this pad comes with their Thermo-Loc Sticks and Teflon Pad Starter Kit available from Otto Frei!) For months I was working with Thermo-loc but I didn’t have a surface to heat it on and the Teflon pad is the solution. You pop it in the microwave with the Thermo-Loc on it, and heat it using 20-30 second intervals (depending on how powerful your microwave is). When the Thermo-Loc is warm but not glossy or bubbling (this means its a bit too hot and you could get burned touching it) you take it out. I like to put it directly into my vise. I also use a crafting heat gun, this recommendation came from @piecesofstarr. The heat gun is great for readjusting if my piece isn’t quite right and the Thermo-loc is starting to cool and it also works great to reheat the Thermo-Loc to remove your piece. 🚨 Do not place metal in a microwave! Another method to remove Thermo-Loc is to place your piece in hot water, this is another method you’ll want to be careful with fragile or heat sensitive stones. I would love to hear how others use and remove Thermo-Loc so leave us a comment!! I used
#affiliate because when you shop with Otto Frei and use code MMSOF you not only save 5% but they give back to the page. Let me know if you have any questions and thanks for reading this far.
#thermoloc #grstools #ottofrei1930 #holdingjewelry #jewelryworkholding #ballvise
