Hello Everyone, I often find that a design would be far more elegant
if it had oval jump rings. Any ideas for a way to make them (what to
wrap the wire around) would be greatly appreciated. If you know of a
company that sells graduated oval rods or would like to start one
please let me know. I thank you in advance for your time. Victoria
Hi Victoria, You can buy oval triblets for making jump rings, or you
could ask a friend to make you an oval rod on a lathe that can cut
eccentric shapes.
Richard.
If you Expect to arrive you will eventually do so
Victoria; When I want to make oval jump rings I place two drills
side by side in the bench vise and wrap the wire over them. Jerry in
Kodiak
Victoria; When I want to make oval jump rings I place two drills
side by side in the bench vise and wrap the wire over them. Jerry in
Kodiak
You can make your own mandrels by flattening brass rod in a rolling
mill.
Timothy A. Hansen
TAH Handcrafted Jewelry
E-Mail: @Timothy_A_Hansen
Web-Site: www.home.earthlink.net/~tahhandcraft
Hi Victoria, use two round mandrels/rods and wrap the wire aroud the
two. The wire-coil can be more difficult to remove when ready than
from a round mandrel but if you place a thin paper around the two rods
before wrapping it is easy.
Two round rods for example 3mm in dia will give you a jump ring 6 mm
wide and 3 mm high…
Hope this helps…
R G D S
Lars Dahlberg, Gotland, Sweden
Victoria, oval jump rings can be made by wrapping the wire around 2
mandrels of equal size. The mandrels are taped together to hold them
in proper alignment. This gives you a 2:1 ratio. I often use round
toothpicks or wooden shish kabob skewers for my small oval sizes. Two
round wires (like brass or copper–cheap) can also be used for various
sizes. If you need a different ratio, it can be achieved using
rectangular wire or hardwood stock. If your wound wire is too tight on
metal forms, heat the whole works with your torch and quench to anneal
and loosen the wound wire. Hope it helps. K.P. in WY
Victoria,
One method is to simply make round ones, solder and then squeeze into
an oval shape with parallel jaw pliers. This allows you to control
the proportions of the oval. Another method if you need to form the
oval befor soldering is to tape, solder or otherwise attach two
pieces of round metal (wire, brazing rod, etc.) together and wrap your
wire around that to form an oval.(Thanks to Jurgen Maerz for this
method.)
Hope ths helps.
Sharon Z.
Hello Everyone, I often find that a design would be far more elegant if it had oval jump rings
Victoria, I use oval rings extensively in chainwork and find it best
to make up circular rings, solder the joints and then stretch them to
the oval shape. This can be done with a pair of round nose pliers if
the rings are light, but I use special jaws that I made for a small
vice, where each jaw has an upstanding pin which is half round in
cross section so that when the vice is closed the two pins line up to
form a circular upstanding pin. Drop the soldered ring over the pin
and unwind the vise to stretch it to the required length of oval, this
can be checked with a pair of calipers preset to the size required.
When the ring is part of a chain the ring already in can be brought
out to one side to allow the last ring to be stretched. Its also a
good test of your soldered joints. Regards Eric
@efgriff
Hi Victoria, the method I use is to find two round rods which
together will make the size of the oval jump rings needed. Tape the
top and bottom of the rods together and wrap your wire around the
middle. Remove the tape from the top and slide your coiled wire up
to the top, or off the rods if you prefer, to cut into jumprings.
Hope this helps! Emily
No one seems to have mentioned it, but the Jump Ringer system has a
set of oval mandrels available as an addition to the basic system.
Works pretty well. I haven’t had any jump ring issues since investing
in this unit.
Lisa,( heading out to the horses with that piece of copper, and a pair of
tongs…ick…) Topanga, CA USA
Try this. I use metal knitting needles to make jump rings…when I
need ovals, I tape 2 together (opposite ends so they fit) of an
appropriate size, and then wrap the wire around. I can easily remove
the coil by untaping and sliding the needles out one at a time.
CD Paetz
Hi Lars and Victoria, Just to add a note; Putting 3 or 4 layers of
tissue paper around the two mandrels (not individually, but treating
the pair as one) is a great thing to do. After you wrap the wire
around, you can then anneal it in place. This burns out the paper,
giving you room to just slide the coil of jump rings off. I pass a
nail thru my rollers making it twice as wide as it is thick. This
makes a good mandrel for making oval jump rings.
Have fun. Tom Arnold
I learned a trick from an old chain maker about oval jump rings. It
goes:
Take a round brass rod, squeeze it through your rolling mill/plate
part, then draw it through a draw plate for oval rods and finish with
the dimension you want as the inner dimension of your jump rings. Use
this as a mandrel for your jump rings and then make the rings on the
mandrel. Next anneal the whole lot, mandrel and the spiral of jump
rings. Then, to get the spiral off your mandrel, place one end of the
mandrel in a wise and give it a quick and heavy pull with a pair of
draw tongs or place it in a draw bench, one end secured by a wise and
the other gripped by the tongs and pull it, and whoops, you can get
your spiral off the mandrel. Save the mandrel, it can be used for
other but smaller oval jump rings. And with the cost of brass this is
not a very costly affair.
Kind regards
Niels L�vschal, Jyllinge, Denmark
@L_F8vschal
I use oval rings extensively in chainwork and find it best
to make up circular rings, solder the joints and then stretch them to
the oval shape. … Drop the soldered ring over the pin
and unwind the vise to stretch it
G'day; So do I, but I couldn't be bothered with a vice to do the job
of stretching. I bought a pair of those special pliers - available in
most good hardware/tool shops which are designed and made for a
similar job; that is, circlip removal pliers. (Never heard of 'em?
Then ask the bloke/s behind the counter for a pair. They ought to know
what they sell, and where it is) These are normally closed, but open
when one squeezes the handles. The business end consists of two
‘noses’ like those on round nose pliers, and many circlip pliers have
‘noses’ which are removable and able to be replaced with other sizes
of ‘nose’, to suit your jump ring size. I prefer using these to using
oval mandrels or two rods together. Firstly the coils are easier to
wind on a round mandrel, and secondly, every link is tested. If a jump
ring is joined poorly enough so it breaks during the gentle
stretching, then it shouldn’t leave your workshop anyway. Agree?
Cheers, John Burgess
victoria, you could try using a small oval bezel mandrel if you only
need to turn up a few jump rings, and because of the taper of these
mandrels you aren’t limited to one size of jump ring. jo
Hello Everyone, I often find that a design would be far more elegant
if it had oval jump rings. Any ideas for a way to make them (what to
wrap the wire around) would be greatly appreciated. If you know of a
company that sells graduated oval rods or would like to start one
please let me know. I thank you in advance for your time. Victoria
I pass a nail thru my rollers making it twice as wide as it is thick. This makes a good mandrel for making oval jump rings.
But it also risks putting a serious scar on your rolls. Rolling
mills may be hardened, but not to a high degree of hardness. Mild
steel nails won’t mark all mills all the time, but some mills will be
damaged. And nails are not all mild steel. Some are case hardened,
or fully hardened. Those can destroy a rolling mill.
How bout using s file to shape your nails? Plus you can get a more
truely oval shape than just two flat sides…
Peter Rowe
There is a real easy way to stretch soldered round links. There are
O-Ring pliers which when pressed in the normal way squeeze outward
stretching the link to the correct size. To assure equal sizes it is
possible to attach a long screw onto the pliers with a nut stop at
the end and adjust the nut as needed to length desired.
I find these pliers at Harbor Freight, or any Automotive supply
store. Teresa
I bought a pair of those special pliers - available in most good hardware/tool shops which are designed and made for a similar job; that is, circlip removal pliers.
You can find a similar tool in the Gesswein catalog (or similar
source) listed as “Bow Opening Pliers.” These work well for
stretchinig round jump rings into ovals. Also for opening an old
sizing joint in a finger ring one must re-size - just heat the joint
while applying gentle pressure with the bow-openers ( Bow openers
were originally designed to open bows [obviously] - those little
loopy thingy-doos that you use to link your pocket watch onto its
chain, or fob, or whatever.) Here endeth the Lesson for the day.
John; I’m familiar with the tool you describe and use them, but I
also use something left over from my dental practice days. ( sound
like Skip). The tool is called a Rubber Dam Clamp Holder, and,
unfortunately, most Dentists stopped using rubber dam. One can
probably ask his dentist for it, or buy one at a Dental Supply Co. I
have modified mine by adding a set screw so that I can limit the
amount of stretch and thereby get uniformly sized links. Great for
loop-in-loop chain work. J. Dule