Usually down here we call them Cocoa Bracelets [plain] or Bhiras [if
patterns and shapes are cut and filed onto them]. You guys might
know them as a torque bangle.
Ok, I need some help making end balls for a bangle.
The wire itself is 0 gauge round, and I want to put 14mm Solid balls
on the ends. My only problem… how do I go about making these solid
balls?
I thought of making shots, but they would not be round enough. I
thought of making hollow spheres, but they would be hollow, dent
easily and explode if I tried to heat them/solder them.
I have done this, I cast them with a deep hole the width of the wire
gauge going most of the way through the ball, this cuts out the
horrible casting shrinkageon a 14mm thick object. Then just solder
them on and they will only add maybe 5mm to the length.
If you have access to a lathe they are easy to make round, just turn
them in wax with a 12mm wadding punch. It sounds strange but works
really well. You have to make the wax approximately round first.
The way I have done in the past is: Use fine silver wire; cut
several snips of the wire and using a charcoal sordering pad then
make little divets on the surface of the charcoal block; this helps
prevent the balls rolling round after you cut you’ve formed the.
Using a small torch heat the balls until they bead up on their own.
This happens pretty guickly; as such you should remove the torch
immediately after you see a bright bright shiny surface on the metal
As far as the sizes you want to make many many silver balls and
sort, and/or mix and match them them for your project
Making 14 mm round balls seem like you’ll need to construct them as
hollow “beads” With a dapping block, punches, and a tree stump or
heavy wood stock of some kind, it’s not too tough to form up 2 halves
of your 14 mm hollow ball. So make it in a heavier gauge, say 20 ga.,
making it less prone to dents. Solder the halves together with hard
solder, and just take care that you are not getting any moisture
inside the ball as you solder. Explosion should not be an issue. I’d
solder the ball to the bracelet ends with medium solder, but not on
the soldered seam. We’ve done this kind of operation many times in
our studio, and I can’t recall a hollow soldered bead ever exploding,
although many would advocate for drilling a hole in the ball to
release any moisture present in the ball. Personally, I’ve never seen
the need for drilling a hole.