Loop in Loop chain

Jewelry Discussion
21 
Where can you get a plastic or wooden draw plate.? I called my
regular supplier he said he doesn't have it.

Not to sound too exasperated or short tempered or anything, but
for heavens sake.

Make one. Takes about fifteen minues, max, once you’ve got the
needed tools and material. Neither is complex. It never ceases
to amaze me how many times we, who feel competent to make
jewelry, forget that we can also just as easily make some of the
tools… And this one is really simple to make.

material: Almost any suitably sized piece of lexan, delrin,
etc, or maple, corian, or whatever you like. Should be about
3/8th to half an inch thick, and suitably wide and long for the
series of holes you need. This doesn’t need to be rocket
science. Almost any scrap of fairly hard plastic or hardwood
can do the trick nicely.

Tools: A decent set of ordinary drill bits in the sizes needed.
A plain set in 1/16 inch increments, as most of us have in the
basement already, will work fine. if you’ve got a set of
numbered drills, which are spaced closer together, it’s all the
better. And you’ll need some means of drilling holes with those
drills. A drill press is best, but a portable drill, either
manual or electric, works fine too.

Drill one hole, with each drill bit, running the whole sequence
of your drill set. Then use a countersink, or a file, or
whatever is handy, to smooth/round over both front and back sides
of each hole, so it’s not a sharp edge, but a soft rounded one.
You don’t need a large chamfer on each hole, but you need some.

That’s about all there is too it. If you’ve made it in wood,
some hard wax will make it work better. Delrin or corian etc,
doesn’t need the wax.

And if you really insist on bying a chain plate, I think rio
probably sells one… Or better yet, email me. Tell me how much
you’re willing to pay. If I like the price, I’ll make you one…
Who knows. whole new lucrative career in the custom made tool
biz. :slight_smile:

Peter Rowe

22

We used two pieces of hardwood, with a simple hinge on one end
and a hook and and eye arrangement on the other. Drilled the
holes in the middle. That way, the drawplate can be opened to
accomodate a chain even if the end pieces are already in place,
and are larger than the chain itself. Hope this is clear!!
Sandra

23

Don’t Know who Joyce Chen is, But if there is a Japanese or
Chinese area in your city, these shears are of asian origin, and
are called “rabbit ear scissors”, because that’s what they look
like. They have been around for centuries. They are used in
bonsai work, so can sometimes be found at nurseries, and are
commonly found at Chinese and Japanese supply, or hardware, or
cooking stores. Even asian groceries commonly carry them. They
come in a very small size as well.

Lisa,(no more rain, the ocean is roiling with fish and sea birds diving for them),
Topanga, CA USA

24

Go to the home furnishings department of any good dept. store or
homewares store, buy a nice, smooth maple or oak cutting board of
whatever size you like–they are usually 1/2 to 1 inch thick–get
out the drill and all the bits, drill the holes (with a little
bit of offset, or cup ping–hardware store can sell you an offset
drill bit, which is slightly diamond-shaped and leaves wider at
top opening, to aid in guiding wire/chain into holes) smooth them
with a little of fine sandpaper rolled and pulled inside holes,
then pull chain to your heart’s content. Board will be easy to
affix to table with screws, or in vise, or however you want to
hold it. Sharon Holt

25

Not sure if this is directed to everybody in general, Susan, or
someone specifically, so I’ll just post my little reply anyway.
:slight_smile: I used .5 mm wire (which is vaguely close to 24 or 25 g. B&S)
and cut the wires 1.5" long, and just bent them around. The neat
thing about these chains is once you’ve got the links soldered
and stretched, you can sit on your sofa and do the chain itself
in a morning. Just a tip: try to do the chain forming all in one
sitting; you’ll find if you start and stop, you’ll see where you
stopped because it gets more even as you get into the flow of
it.

Not sure if it was you who asked about wooden drawplates, but we
had to make our own by drilling holes of decreasing size in a
chunk of hardwood. Easy. :slight_smile:

						-Kieran
26

G’day; for those who are considering making a chain drawplate, I
would like to offer the odd cents-worth of suggestions. Use a
piece of 1/2" thick hardwood, such as oak, walnut, any seasoned
fruit wood, teak, etc. A drill press would be ideal to use for
making the holes, but the speed of rotation should be fast in
order to get clean holes, and the drill bit should be withdrawn a
little way as the drilling progresses in order to remove waste
and avoid tearing the wood. Successive Imperial or metric size
drill holes would give excellent progressive reduction in chain
size without too much friction - and a little beeswax or even
candle wax or soap would help considerably to provide a smooth
draw. If the entrance of each hole is enlarged by means of a
countersink drill taken down to NO MORE than halfway through the
plate, entrance of the chain would be made much more easily.
The chain movement through each successive hole should be slow
and very steady - no jerks! It would also be essential to anneal
frequently, followed by a dose of pickle, then drying well. A
wooden drawplate such as this would be so quick and easy to make,
that no special care to avoid excessive wear is necessary - ten
minutes to make another if really needed. Cheers, –

     /\
    / /
   / /
  / /__|\      @John_Burgess2
 (_______)

At sunny Mapua Nelson NZ (Where we are in drought conditions, but there’s
violent rainstorms and flooding at the North of the North Island!)

27 
   -hardware store can sell you an offset drill bit, which is
slightly diamond-shaped and leaves wider at top opening,

I think you will a get better response from the poor hardware
clerk if this item is described as a countersink drill bit.
This is a conical rosette-like drill bit to create a funnel
shaped cut so that when you sink a flat head wood screw into the
board the screwhead will be flush with the surface.

Kelvin Mok (klmok@shaw.wave.ca)

Home: (403) 463-4099 | Home FAX: (403) 430-7120

28

De, You can make a wooden draw plate from a piece of maple wood,
delrin plastic or as my mentor uses a piece of ironwood.

I use a piece of maple with holes drilled in it of the standard
drill bits between 3/16 and 1/4 so the drawing down of the chain
is approximately 1/32 of an inch at a time. The holes are
chamfered a bit on the lead-in side done by a large diameter
drill bit turned by hand. Large sharp bits can snap the wood up
and into the drill bit quicker than you can realize and give you
hole sizes unwanted and possible injury. My entire chain making
equipment, dowel holder and draw plate is of one piece of wood
smaller than the one board foot of maple I bought. Feed a piece of
string or copper wire through the chain end link, pass that
through the 1/4 hole and gently pull the chain through and so on
and so on until the chain has gone through the 3/16 hole and you
have a beautiful, uniform chain.

Ifn you need a copy of the drawing let me know and I’ll be
pleased to send it along.

Bill in Vista

29

Hi, Lee Valley Tools sells these shears as well - $9.95 Cnd for a
set of 4 - that is roughly 6.63US. They sell mail order as well
1-800-267-8767. Although they focus on fine woodworking and
gardening tools they tend to also tend to have a lot of really
cool stuff that applies to other fields (Bocce balls anyone? How
about rosewood handled scratch awl?). For example - watchmaker
cases - a set of 56 nicely boxed in various sizes (33,42,48,53
mm) - aluminum with a glass lid - 12.95 and all sorts of stuff
for us tool freaks.

Cameron Speedie
Island Gem and Rock