Kirsta Klein at Rio Grande writes:

Recently our website underwent a complete makeover, and one of the coolest updates, in my opinion, are the product review tabs! Did I mention that I make some of this stuff? That means that you, the customer, have a direct line to me, the operator. Your product reviews are a powerful source of information! If the ball on the ball head pin you purchased is not round, I want to know about it. I want to know if my bezel cups are off-center. And please let me know if my crimps are cracking.

Like most manufacturers, we set quality standards that we strive to adhere to. These standards vary from product to product, alloy to alloy, and machine by machine, but the following example shows how I quality-check my snap set settings.

The viewer you see above is called an optical comparator, and it’s totally cool! See how one prong leg in the round viewer is a tiny bit taller than the other? What you’re seeing is a .001 difference in height. Whew – this is what we’d consider an acceptable variation. Any more difference than that and this piece would be scrapped. What’s most important is that the two curvatures are parallel to one another.

We get our jewelry supplies from these folks, they’re solar powered and we’re happy to see a look behind the scenes on their blog!