mike4bears
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2007
Posts: 275
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Post by mike4bears on Dec 30, 2007 14:24:17 GMT -5
I'm thinking of trying some wire wrapping. now i know that the wire comes in soft. med. hard. now i have a draw plate. i do sterling rings and such. now you know about work harding. now can i use that for. soft med hard. for my wire. mike
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Post by akansan on Dec 31, 2007 14:54:34 GMT -5
I generally use dead soft wire and let it work harden as I wrap it. I'll be tumbling the finished products soon (Yippee!) to finish the hardening process...
Generally, you'll only use the draw plate on pre-purchased wire if you're wanting to resize the stuff...or harden. I don't think anyone wrapping on this board uses full hard wire, unless Doc does. Dead-soft seems preferred, with half-hard a non-preferred solution for most of us. There are a couple that use half-hard all the time...
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nancyf
has rocks in the head
Wired Cowgirl
Member since April 2007
Posts: 629
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Post by nancyf on Dec 31, 2007 16:18:55 GMT -5
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mike4bears
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2007
Posts: 275
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Post by mike4bears on Dec 31, 2007 22:38:48 GMT -5
thanks all of you. thats what i wanted to know. as far as the draw plate i melt my scrap pour it in a mold and then i use the my draw plate to make my wire. i also have a rolling mill it will roll flat plate and half rounds and square wire. if i want i can make pure silver wire. or 92.5 sterling or put more copper in and play with that. that is why i interested in wire wrapping mike
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nancyf
has rocks in the head
Wired Cowgirl
Member since April 2007
Posts: 629
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Post by nancyf on Jan 5, 2008 10:27:25 GMT -5
I was wonderig about adding copper to silver...would it make pink silver?
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mike4bears
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2007
Posts: 275
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Post by mike4bears on Jan 5, 2008 15:02:44 GMT -5
no but will make it harder. mike
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Post by docone31 on Jan 7, 2008 22:43:22 GMT -5
Mike, What I do is to pour into my billet mold. That I make longer in my mill, rolling as I roll. Of course that hardens the wire and must be annealed. From there, I pull down to one size larger than the thickness I want. At this point I anneal. I now pull down to the size I want. That hardens the wire one pull. If I want to harden it further, I pull through again. I usually use what is called 1/2 hard. I use this for the variety of wraps I do in the shop. When I work at home, I use hard wire. I prefer the handling characteristics of hard over the softer wires. For twisting, I always use 1/2 hard. Soft is too easy to break off, and so is hard. When I order wire, I order the next larger size, dead soft, then pull down to make harder.
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mike4bears
spending too much on rocks
Member since December 2007
Posts: 275
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Post by mike4bears on Jan 7, 2008 23:38:15 GMT -5
thanks for that info. i will be doing my first stone soon. got a lot of fat in the fire. mike
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Post by creativeminded on Jan 8, 2008 9:57:47 GMT -5
If you are just getting started with the wire wrapping I would start with some copper, because it is cheeper and easier to use. You can get the sizes and shapes of other wire without the high cost. I found that Brass is a litt difficult to work with, they say it is dead soft however, the brass I got was more like half hard. Tami
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