Hello everyone,
I am trying to solve a problem with making a perfectly round solid gold
bead. I have tried melting on top of charcoal (leaves a flat bottom).I’ve
tried melting wire with the flame centered and come up with an egg shape.
The beads will need to be about 4mm or so for my project and the hollow
ones offered by Stuller and other suppliers won’t be strong enough. If
you can suggest some techniques it will really help.
Thanks again, Patty in MO.
I have tried melting on top of charcoal (leaves a flat bottom).I’ve
tried melting wire with the flame centered and come up with an egg
shape.
Patty, Try carving a small round indention with a ball burr in your
charcoal block and then melt…It should eliminate the flat spot on the
bottom of the bead. Good Luck Ken Sanders
Perhaps, if you press a 4mm dapping punch into the charcoal block, and
melt the gold into the depression, you will not get the flat spots. A ball
bur can also be used to cut the depression.
Bruce D. Holmgrain
e-mail: @Bruce_Holmgrain
http://www.goldwerx.nu
phone:: 703-593-4652
Hello Patty, Use a 4mm bur or ball punch to make an indentation in your
charcoal block. Melt the gold in that . The bottom of the bead will then
be round. Have fun. Tom Arnold
Use a round burr of the size you want your bead on a flexshaft or dremel
to make depressions on your charcoal block and then melt your wire in the
depression.
Chunk
Use a 4.5 mm round burr to produce a round “half” hole in the top of a
charcol block. After the metal melts and forms the bead, tip it slightly
as it cools so the charcol doesn’t adhere. Michael
Hy sounds heave to me. 4 mm I guess I would dap them out. or use a cup bur,
might be hard to hold on to.or turn it on a lathe. I guess I would dap it
in something other than 32g. happy rounding. True upnorth
Make a depression in the charcoal block the diameter of the bead that you
want to make with a round forming punch, approx. half the depth of the
bead dia… Melt your metal in that depression. Works good for small beads.
Good luck.
One method used for granulation which might work on a larger scale–Use a
European charcoal block (available from Allcraft tools in NY). Using a
round bur, carve or drill round crevises in the block approximately the
size of the bead you desire. Place you gold wire in the crevises and
melt. Hopefully they will be round unlike the ones melted on top of the
flat block. You can use a regular charcoal block, it just won’t last very
long.–Vicki Embrey
Hi Patty in MO
Take a dapping punch approx. the same size as your bead and make a
depression in you charcoal block. Place your metal in the depression and
heat. This should leave you with a rounded bottom (sorry the bottom of the
bead) leaving a good rounded bead.
You will have to experiment with the amount of metal required for the size
of bead.
Hope this helps
Best wishes.
Major
Major Boyce @pyramid
The greatest pleasure in life is doing what people say you cannot do.
EVERYBODY has a talent. What is rare is the courage to follow that talent
to the dark place where it leads.
Hi Patty-
What I do on the occasion of having to make beads this way is take the
charcoal block and a dapping punch the size you want the bead to be. Press
the punch into the block while turning it back and forth like boring, and
you should end up with a depression in your charcoal the size and shape of
the punch. You can then melt some metal and let it run into the depression
and keep adding metal until the bead is about the size you want. As the
depression has a spherical bottom, your bead will end up the same, not
flat on the bottom. Also, it is best to leave the flame of the torch off
of the charcoal as much as possible, or your “mold” will burn up! Try it,
you’ll like it! Good luck. Regards- Ricky Low
try to use a round ball bur the size of the bead you want and press it
into a charcoal block several times so you can make several bead at one
time. Heat the gold into that cavity and if that dos’t work, with a
soldering pick rotate the ball as you are forming it working one side at a
time until its perfectly round
Rael
Hi Patty,
I have made rubber molds of pearls before to get a perfect sphere. It
worked and didn’t damage the pearl (surprisingly).
Mark in WI
What is the differance between a regular charcoal block and a European
charcoal block. Have made my own by putting a pieace of wood in a
container filled with sand and putting container and all in fire for long
time. Please let us know what the differance is. Is it just european wood
and regular wood or what?
I have made rubber molds of pearls before to get a perfect sphere. It
worked and didn’t damage the pearl (surprisingly).
Better than this, even, is to make rubber moulds of industrial ball-
bearings. I have done this and it makes wonderful spheres for the ends of
torque bangles and the like.
Yours aye,
Dauvit Alexander,
Glasgow, Scotland.
I am trying to solve a problem with making a perfectly round solid gold
bead. The beads will need to be about 4mm or so for my project and the
hollow ones offered by Stuller and other suppliers won’t be strong
enough.
Patty, if you have facilities for casting perhaps you could use small
polystyrene beads as models.
An alternative would be lathe work - catch the swarf carefully!
Kevin
Kevin Eva, Northern England, UK
@Kevin_Eva (home)
I have had luck making smaller solid beads (2-3mm) perfectly round by
melting sheet or wire on a clean carbon block that is tilted up at a sharp
angle and has a quench below it. I fire coat first but sometimes the
surface gets pitty…make three times as many as you need to high grade
from. tlee