Time
starting to spend too much on rocks
Making something positive out of COVID restrictions by learning to create jewelry out of stones.
Member since September 2021
Posts: 154
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Post by Time on Aug 15, 2023 10:29:53 GMT -5
I have been watching a few videos on using draw plates to form your own wire. Some start with little ingots designed for that purpose. Depending on if you start with ingots or a larger piece of wire that you want to resize it looks doable. I don’t need that much wire yet but am accumulating information I may never need.
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gunsil
spending too much on rocks
Member since January 2023
Posts: 345
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Post by gunsil on Aug 15, 2023 13:36:36 GMT -5
Draw plates are cool but using them is a lot of work. Making wire from ingots usually requires a rolling mill to make wire from an ingot and then draw plates are used to make the wire whatever shape and size you like. I sometimes make woven chains of fine silver and need to draw wire down to the right size, it is very time consuming and a lot easier to just buy wire in the size you need. Wire needs to be annealed before drawing and if you need to draw it down a lot you may need to anneal it more than once. Draw plates used to be very expensive and I guess the European high quality ones still are although cheaper ones made in India and China are available and they do work. I do use them if I suddenly need a thinner wire than I have in stock for a given project but I generally try to have a good selection of wire sizes in stock. It takes time to make jewelry and the more time spent making it the more one needs to sell it for. Nobody is going to pay for the time it takes to draw out wire.
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Post by opalpyrexia on Aug 15, 2023 17:25:59 GMT -5
My recommendation is similar to gunsil 's: simply buy the wire gauges and profiles that you need, and in the amounts that you will most likely use. I have a rolling mill that I hardly use. I also have a drawbench that I built but rarely use — a beautiful thing that I over-engineered while in "project mode". On the other hand, I just recently bought an oval drawplate. I like oval or so-called "comfort" profiles for rings, and I have a coil of 8 gauge round wire that I'll run through it.
I should add that I don't wrap.
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brotherbill
spending too much on rocks
Member since October 2018
Posts: 388
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Post by brotherbill on Aug 15, 2023 18:07:40 GMT -5
It is not difficult to make wire and it is a useful skill when you are in a pinch.
That said, I agree with the advice above. Definitely not time or cost effective.
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Post by vegasjames on Aug 15, 2023 21:23:30 GMT -5
I have been looking in to it as I already bought a large smelter to melt down some aluminum, copper, brass, etc. I have. Although, I am looking at making specific alloys, which are not available in commercial wire. Primarily a mix of mainly copper with a small amount of aluminum and zinc and a trace of tin. Forms an alloy that looks kind of like gold called Nordic gold used to make coins in parts of the world.
Other than making wire from special alloys, it is not worth the cost and hassle. There is the cost of the smelter, crucibles and fuel, the ingot or wire molds, then the rolling mill and draw plates.
In addition, from what I have read, the wire has to be annealed between each draw.
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Time
starting to spend too much on rocks
Making something positive out of COVID restrictions by learning to create jewelry out of stones.
Member since September 2021
Posts: 154
|
Post by Time on Aug 15, 2023 23:02:29 GMT -5
I hope you do some video of your project, some of the things I want to experiment with don’t make sense time or money wise but I just want to do it for the experience. I really have enough of those type of things on my list so right now I will watch videos.
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