Recently I aquired a draw bench so I could move up to drawing larger and
more diverse shapes. Now that I have this capacity I seem to face new
problems. First because I use gold it seems very wasteful to make a large
taper point out of 4mm+ gold, is it suitable to solder a piece of silver at
the end and use that as the pulling taper, Will it be strong enough?
Secondly the pull tong (callavin) does not seem to be able to hold on to
taper and always slips rather than grip the taper on large wire. The tong
teeth are not worm but are rather shallow and the jaws are hard so the
cannot be made sharper. Any help would be appreciated
Steve Ross
You wrote:
Recently I aquired a draw bench so I could move up to drawing larger
and
more diverse shapes. Now that I have this capacity I seem to face new
problems. First because I use gold it seems very wasteful to make a
large
taper point out of 4mm+ gold, is it suitable to solder a piece of
silver at
the end and use that as the pulling taper, Will it be strong enough?
Secondly the pull tong (callavin) does not seem to be able to hold on
to
taper and always slips rather than grip the taper on large wire. The
tong
teeth are not worm but are rather shallow and the jaws are hard so the
cannot be made sharper. Any help would be appreciated
Steve Ross
Steve, FWIW, I always file my wire ends before pulling. Also, if you
heat the wire a little, and pass it through a stick of beeswax, it will
pull more smoothly. Last and most important, anneal the wire every 2-3
passes , if you dont it will tend to be brittle and snap.
Ringold’s Jewelers since 1908 9865 Bustleton Ave/ Phila, PA 19115
215-671-8190 Fax: 215-969-1803 Ringold@IX.netcom.com
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Manufacturing / Mining / Product Development
On 29-Nov-96, steve ross wrote aboutlarge draw plates:
sr>
sr> Recently I aquired a draw bench so I could move up to drawing larger and
sr> more diverse shapes. Now that I have this capacity I seem to face new
sr> problems. First because I use gold it seems very wasteful to make a large
sr> taper point out of 4mm+ gold, is it suitable to solder a piece of silver
at
sr> the end and use that as the pulling taper, Will it be strong enough?
sr> Secondly the pull tong (callavin) does not seem to be able to hold on to
sr> taper and always slips rather than grip the taper on large wire. The tong
sr> teeth are not worm but are rather shallow and the jaws are hard so the
sr> cannot be made sharper. Any help would be appreciated
sr> Steve Ross
G’day. I use a home made drawbench based on a length of 4"x3",an old bicycle
chain and sprocket, and a sort of winch with two handles - you need them for
low carat gold. The tongs I made from a pair of VICE GRIPS - the sort you buy
in tool or hardware stores preferably with a long nose. I drilled a hole in
the handle to attach a steel loop to shackle to bike chain. I have used
brass brazing (welding) rod 1/8th" diameter, fastened to the 4 - 5mm gold wire
using the hardest gold solder, - or in a pinch, the hardest grade of silver
solder, but one has to be careful to remove all trace of the silver after
drawing is finished so as not to spoil the integrity of the gold. I use
beeswax or even candle wax as a lubricant, and don’t skip draw-holes. This
wacky-looking gadget has served me well for 5 years and I’ve even had the odd
(well, slightly odd) professional come to my place to use it. Wish I could
give you a drawing, but this ascii system won’t let me. Bummer, eh?
Cheers, and good drawing, John Burgess. johnb@ts.co.nz