The titanium starts out it's life in bar form. The raw material comes as 3 foot long bars, in thicknesses intervals every 1/16th of an inch.
The blank for a ring begins with a hole drilled in the bar stock. The hole is then milled with a tapered reamer from both sides to the correct ring size.
The thickness of the stock is based on the widest part of the ring. The ring to the right will have a 11/32" wide stone setting, so it starts out with a 3/8" wide blank.
Traditional wedding bands, with consistent thicknesses all the way around, are milled down to what their basic shape is going to be.
If the ring requires more material on the top, the ring can be milled off-center.
For complex designs, it is easiest to index off a square piece, so the sides are exact distances from the center. The project to the right has been thinned at the back, and has a main stone setting channel, as well as two horizontal cuts.