After spending a couple hundred bucks on low-dome oval
drawplates and drawing the wire (yeah I’m the guy who flies) I
proceeded to wind the coils on a 5 mm mandrel and cut them.
Here’s my problem: winding the wire,( which for anyone who
doesn’t know what low-do= me oval wire is, is close to a
rectangle cross section with rounded corners= ), around the
mandrel has a very strong tendancy to be very tight on the inside
spiral and loos= e on the outside. This causes the jump rings to
look more cone shaped(seen from the side) than donut shaped with
straight sides. Anyone have the answer ? Always appreciate any
help.
Peter: You might try a technic I find helpful when coiling wire
having a profile other than Round. I pass the wire thru the hole
in the eqivalent drawplate so that it goes thru without binding,
and I either use the drawplate to wind the wire around the
stationary mandrel or else hold the plate against the slowly
revolving mandrel directing the coiling of the wire to obtain a
contiguous coil of links. If you would like further
clarification feel free to E-mail me at @DrDule
This causes the jump rings to look more cone shaped(seen from
the side) than donut shaped with straight sides. Anyone have
the answer ? Always appreciate any help.
If you’ve ever seen how a wedding band reducing machine works,
you’ll see how the following procedure works too. Take the jump
rings, close them as best you can, which will still leave both
that taper, and a bit of a twist, and insert them large side
first into either a suitible hole in a bezel block, or into the
smallest depression you can fit them into in a dapping die.
Gently compress the rings down into the depression. Best way is
with a press of some sort, but vise jaws or just a flat steel
plate and a hammer will work too. The dapping die does leave a
little facet mark around the ring, but it will true it up very
nicely, both for the twist and the taper. Closes it tighter
than a drum too. This is also a good way to close and flatten
very heavy wire jump rings as well, when you need them really
round and flat. A variation consists of placing the jump ring on
a flat surface, large side UP, and gently hammering a bezel
closing punch over the ring. Be careful with this one, however,
as you can break those punches with a hammer. They were really
intended as bezel closing BURNISHERS, driven by hand, not by a
hammer.