Any suggestions for an oval shaped mandrel for jump rings?
Charlie
Any suggestions for an oval shaped mandrel for jump rings?
When you wrap your wire around an oval, then remove the wire, it
makes a pretty spiral pattern that’s almost impossible to saw.
Or This:
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep8095
Paf Dvorak
Any suggestions for an oval shaped mandrel for jump rings?
I wouldnt know where to buy one tho the jewellery tool suppliers
probably have them, If you want to make your own how you do this
depends on wether you have just a jewellers bench or have a full
sized mechanics workshop.
It will probably be easier for you to find some steel round rod with
the larger dia you need then file or grind it down into an oval,
either by hand or with an angle grinder.
Anything from a 4in nail upwards.
My preference is to put the rod in the propane forge and form the
oval hot on the anvil, then finish shaping on the linisher. but then
I have to have a fully equipped engineers workshop to back up what I
do.
If youve not made oval jump rings before youll find having wound
them on the mandrel, they dont line up for you to cut through with
your saw. there always some 20deg out from each other.
It also depends on how many you need to make.
A final thought is, make the jump rings round then reform them to
the oval shape in a sliding horizontal concave oval shaped 2 part
press tool, would take several days to make, but when you had it
right then youd be in production of hundreds.
To give you an example of making the tools to make the item, i
needed to make 1000 round beads in silver a certain od size and int
dia.
Having sourced the drawn seamless tube, I then made a minature
circular saw bench using a 1/3rd hp motor, a 2in dia 15/1000in hss
circular saw blade, a rise and fall table with an adjustable side
fence.
Set it up, bees wax on the blade, tube against the fence push
through the running blade holding the cut piece with tweezers.
Repeat. Best part of a day to make the saw bench, then a mornings
work to cut the 1000.
Nest step was to form the cut lengths into beads. that required
making the tooling. Then polish them before assembly into rosary
braclets.
The only oval mandrels I am aware of are the Jump Ringer Oval
Mandrels. BTW, the jump rings need to be cut while they are still on
the mandrel.
John
bijoux-de-terre.com
To save money, time and otherwise, take two round anythings, each
about half the size you intend the oval to be. Tape these say
barbecue skewers together and then wind your wire around them. End
result an oval.
Hugs,
Terrie
Teresa Masters
Two round rods held side by side in a vise will do the job. I often
use drills of the appropriate size.
Jerry in Kodiak
I solder two pieces of copper wire together side by side to make a
mandrel. Cut a notch into one end to hold the beginning end of the
wire to start the twist. Don’t pull the jump ring wire too tight as
you twist your coil. When you are done, you should have oval shaped
jump rings. Experiment with wire size and pull tension vs. finished
size and shape. I also use two different sized wires to make a simple
pendant bail. As a general comment to this discussion, go to the
hardware store and buy lengths of copper wire in different sizes. I
can easily find 4 - 14 gauge wire. You can pull other sizes. This
wire can be used to make small mandrels (you have to work harden
them), models of new designs before you do them in silver or gold,
practice forging on 4 gauge wire (it is grounding wire in the
electrical world and very therapeutic to pound on), and copper is a
wonderful metal to work with in and of itself. I also use different
sized nails as a mandrel. Just clean them up by cutting off the
friction notches and file down the point so you don’t stab yourself.
Leave the head on if you want as it makes a good stop when you put it
in a vise to twist your coil. For me, this is one of the many fun
parts of our art. I really enjoy making my own tools and I think that
it is a skill that every silversmith (or whatever we call ourselves -
I like “artist” and I hate “crafter”) should have. Rob
Rob Meixner
Hi John,
The only oval mandrels I am aware of are the Jump Ringer Oval Mandrels. BTW, the jump rings need to be cut while they are still on the mandrel.
Why do you need to cut the rump rings on the mandrel? I don’t know
that’s why I’m asking.
I’m assuming you meant this is only for oval shaped jump rings.
Regards Charles A.
I roll out nails until they are as wide as they are thick. I the n
wrap a bit of wet tissue around it (wet so it sticks to itself
anddoes not fall off). I wrap the wire around it, and anneal the
whole thing. The paper burns away, leaving a bit of a gap. The wire
is annealed so that it slides off the nail (mandrel) and does not
unwind. It is done faster than the time it takes to explain it. Have
fun. Tom Arnold
Hello,
For untapered oval jump ring, you need three tools: (2) lengths of
steel rods that when held together lengthwise will be the very
slightly smaller than the inside dimension of the jumpring you wish
to make; Tape (masking, artist’s, packing, etc.). Procedure: 1.
Holding the rods together, wrap with the tape; 2. Wrap the joined
rods with your chosen round wire; 3. Saw, clip or use a separating
disc/flexshaft to create the jr’s. Keep in mind that the tape does
add thickness to the ‘mandrel’ and that’s why the two-rod mandrel
without the tape needs to be slightly smaller than the final oval jr
dimension.
You can also use wooden dowel rods instead of steel rods. You can
glue the dowel rods instead of using tape (as above) and should take
this into consideration when estimating the final dimensions of the
ellipse that will be made. This will give you greater flexibiity of
dimensions. By flattening/sanding one long edge of each dowel, you
will be able to adjust the angle and size of the ellipse
(longer/shorter/wider/narrower) to suit the dimensions of the oval
jr’s you want to create.
Hope this is useful,
Linda Kaye-Moses
If you use two wires soldered together side by side as previously
discussed by several responses, you can leave the coil on the
mandrel, slide the saw blade down the groove between both wires and
saw the entire length. This limits the number of jump rings to what
you can easily saw at any one time, but it works. Rob
Rob Meixner
To save money, time and otherwise, take two round anythings, each about half the size you intend the oval to be. Tape these say barbecue skewers together and then wind your wire around them. End result an oval.
Another idea is to take an oval drawplate and draw oval tubing of
required size.
Tubing can be filled with variety of substances if extra rigidity is
required.
Note that with this technique one can obtain many different shapes
of mandrel.
Leonid Surpin
As students, we rolled brass rod down a bit then wrapped stiff paper
round before winding the jump rings. Not very scientific, but worked
pretty well.
I use oval nails as mandrels for small oval jump rings. For bigger
ones I sometimes tape two round mandrels of the same diameter
together to get an oval shape. More often I make round jump rings,
solder them, then use round nose pliers and my finger and thumb to
pull/squeeze them into an oval. It is possible to use this method
even after you have linked a lot together, as long as they are not
too tiny.
Annette
Oval mandrel set Rio Grande
http://www.ganoksin.com/gnkurl/ep8099
Comes with instructions.
Ray Grossman
Most jewelery supply vendors sell them in mini size for small jr’s
and a standard size for larger (4mm up) rings. But You can always
take 2 rods, dowels or large gauge work hardened wires and connect
them in a vise or file or grind one “side” flat, as for round dowels
and apply wood glue to the flattened edge wiping off any excess
right away, then clamp or just tape tightly until the glue is cured
and you have an oval- the only consideration is the size of the
dowels you choose to yield a jump ring of x size. large gauge copper
wires taped together work well too, and given that you can find it
free or cheap you can make many sizes. rer
Another way to shape rings once they are shaped is to use the pliers
that open when you squeeze them
Yes, only the oval and square jump rings. they will start to unwind
when released and you cannot slide them off the mandrel.
John
bijoux-de-terre.com
Hi Ray,
I have the jump ring maker set but I bought it with a set of oval
mandrels which is OK when I want oval shaped jump rings. But if I
want round jump rings which set of round mandrels do I need to buy?
Thanks,
Sharron