Hi Gang,
Thank you so much for all of your input regarding successful results
when drawing fine wire (22ga to 30ga). Yesterday I needed some fine
wire (26ga) and the working process was much improved thanks to all
of you. The single biggest aide seemed to be using just plain old
flat nose jewelry pliers with smooth jaws in place of drawing tongs.
I did try wrapping the jaws with some cu (copper) sheet as suggested
however things went better with the pliers alone. There were a few
breaks at the beginning of the pull but that number was only a minor
problem. Also the tapering process was speed up by using a separating
disc on the flex shaft instead of my mini belt-sanding machine.
Someone had mention using two sanding disc face to face on the flex
shaft and inserting the wire into the sanding area with the flex
shaft on while turning the wire. I loved the idea however I did not
have that type of disc on hand. This comment cannot be repeated
enough, Orchid “rocks”. This is a generous community.
message split
Blessings to all of you,
Cathy Wheless
Someone had mention using two sanding disc face to face on the flex
shaft and inserting the wire into the sanding area with the flex
shaft on while turning the wire. I loved the idea however I did not
have that type of disc on hand.
Hello Cathy,
FWIW I just cut my own disks out of sheet sandpaper. It’s another
thing I learned here on orchid, probably in the same post as the
face-to-face disk trick for getting a taper on the wire.
Anyway, lets say you want one inch disks. Cut a strip of sandpaper
off the sheet, about 1.25 inch wide so you’re leaving yourself a
little working room. Cut the strip into squares. Find the center of
one square and mark it. Stack the squares up, say six or eight of
them, and pierce the center hole through the stack with a sharp
needle in a pinvise or whatever. Arrange the stack so that all the
squares are upside down (paper up) except the bottom one. Take a
screw type mandrel, shove the screw through the stack and mount the
stack on the mandrel then chuck up the lot on your favourite flexshaft
handpiece.
If you’ve got a slippy surface to work on the next step goes easier.
I use an old nylon cutting board that’s been clamped so that a couple
inches overhang the edge of the bench. Hold your handpiece in your off
hand --left in my case since I’m right handed-- and hold the
handpiece firmly so the cable goes out the bottom of your grip and the
stack is pointing up. Hold the handpiece against the edge of the
cutting board (a little notch in the board is helpful) and test run
it so the stack spins on the surface of the board like a pinwheel.
Now take an Xacto knife with a reasonably sharp blade in your good
hand and slowly press into the stack while running at low speed.
It’ll take a couple tries to get the cutting angle right but when it
works you’ll cut through the stack of sandpaper squares fairly easily
and you’ll be left with sandpaper disks. The cutting operation will
typically take less than 30 seconds.
The blade in the Xacto knife will get ground down a bit and it will
only last for three or four stacks worth but I find that an
acceptable cost for the sake of custom cut sanding disks.
You’ll no doubt find other uses for these sanding disks but they do
work smashingly good for the wire taper trick I’d brought up earlier.
Cheers,
Trevor F.