Hey guys!
Does anyone have experience with the Table Top “Style” Wire Draw
Bench???
I am interested in getting one, as my personal home workshop is
rather small, and I won’t have room for a full set up.
Lemme know.
Thanks,
Giancarlo.
hello there
i own one of those, got it from an Orchidian vendor actually I forget
the name right this minute. it works quite well for what it is.
having said that I worked in the industry for over 25 years and have
had the expierence of using the industrial ready made cavalins, and
the machine shop custom made joby, and while working /teaching at the
University we had one that was home made right there at school, 2x4s
a winch steel cable some forged steel holder plates…
there is no comparison as far as the industrial one is conserned ;
power and heft of metal you are drawing down,could go up to 2 or 3
gauge that would be in the ball park of 4-5-6 mm thick with out a
problem. none. the others home made or machineshop made do okay, with
limitations. the one I bought is made of aluminium, but fairly solid
and pretty good power ratio.
i would definitly bolt it down to a bench if i were drawing down
anything larger then 14 gauge/1. 5mm. it has done fine up to 3mm. i
have not tried anything thicker yet. I suspect it will be fine, but
will take a little longer then it’s industrial counter part of
cavlin, cavlin runs on a heavy duty chian that looks like a Bycicle
chain gone on steroids, the other uses a sort of an Auto sit belt
strap material for the Pull ring, and a medium weight winch, which
stretches under stress. not a good thing. but still for a small
studio on a budget it works fine. i bought mine for around 180. 00.
vs 1000. 00 for the cavlin small version.
I am sure you know they go up a lot higher in price then thatall the
other home made models I worked with used thick steel cable which in
hind site i recognize is much more dangerous then the sit belt strap.
the strap sits flat on the beam it is running upon, where as the
cable always had tendencies to pull to one side or the other making
it dangerously close to the edges or a chance to jump off of the
raised edges. and I used the older versions long enough to see the
steel cables come unravled and snap cut or start fraying and reek
havoc on the whole draw bench because people in the work shop just
kept useing it as is. i have not had the draw bench long enough to
have the pull belt get old and abused, but i suspect it won’t do that
since I would take care of anything like that ASAP.
my opinion as an owner of one off these units is, it’s worth the
money, good value for the small shop that does wire drawing on a
weekly basis. and if you were doing thinner material like 18g/1mm it
is a dream. it gets a harder when you go up in thickness of wire, but
if you respect the tools limitations it will work. you can make one
that may have a much heavier base and winch, but for me the time
spent away from the bench did not justify the making of a tool that i
will use once or twice a month.
hope it helped
Hratch
Giancarlo,
I have had a Table Top Wire Drew Bench for about a year. It is well
made and does what it is supposed to do. I store it hanging from a
nail on the wall of my studio so it doesn’t take up much space.
When using the draw bench, it really needs to be clamped to a work
surface.
This is a useful tool if you will be drawing heavy gauge wire which
can’t be drawn by hand. I think that I would have been better off
investing the money in a combination rolling mill as most of the wire
that I need can be drawn by hand and the rolling mill is more
versatile and is a much faster way to reduce a wire ingot.
Richard Simonite
Giancarlo,
The combination rolling mill will make you square, rectangular, or
half-round wire (if you have a side roller for the 1/2 rd.) of any
dimension, but won’t make you round wire at all. We use the draw
machine to turn square wire from the rolling mill into round wire of
any size. Yes, the smaller wire can be easily hand drawn with a draw
tongs through a drawplate mounted in a heavy vise, mounted to a
workbench, fixed to the wall or floor. The draw machine is an
inexpensive way to take the “muscle” out of drawing wire.
Jay Whaley
Whaley Studios
The drawbench made from a boat trailer wench has worked for me very
well for over 18 years.
It’s been used to draw heavy tubing and up to 8 gauge wire on a
weekly basis.
I bolted the boat wench on to a piece of wood 6"x 2"x 4 feet long.
Don’t make it longer than you can reach with both arms. There are 2
stops bolted onto the opposite end from the wench and I cut a slot
for the draw plate to sit into.
The cable is 6mm aircraft cable but I agree with Hratch that you’d
probably be better off with seat belt material. The cable does
unravel and present some hazardous little pointy wires. (ouch)
The hardest part of the cable was making the loop to hold the
drawtongs which I did by making a brass tube about an inch and a
half that just barely accomidated the two strands side by side, then
collapsed the tube to pinch the cable and flooded it with lead
solder. I’ve done one repair on it in the time I’ve been using it.
Total cost is less than 50$ and there is the satisfaction of making
it your self. The other thing is the drawtongs that I made by taking
my grandfather’s linesman’s pliers, heating the ends and bending
them to work in the tongs.
Good luck,
J.M.Richardson
Giancarlo,
Does anyone have experience with the Table Top "Style" Wire Draw Bench?
No experience with that model, I do have a boat trailer winch bolted
to 2 foot 2"x4" with ears screwed and glued on to hold the draw
plate. Whole thing gets clamped in my large bench vice. Really ugly
despite a two tone paint job 
It has handled 10mm heavy tube and
down. Winch cable is going to break one of these days but has
survived 15 years of abuse. I believe that a Charles LB web version
is in the archives. Mine is even simpler and cheaper, winch came off
the curb. Maybe
40 years ago I bought a Dutton boat winch with a good gear
reduction. I used heavy duty polypropelene belting as it is much less
elastic than nylon seat belting thereby reducing spring back greatly.
One of the best investments I ever made!
David
jewellerydavidcruickshank.com.au