[Jewelry making - Article 01169] - Re: [Orchid] Drawing Fine wire

[Trevor F]

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>     Someone had mention using two sanding disc face to face on the flex
>     shaft and inserting the wire into the sanding area with the flex
>     shaft on while turning the wire. I loved the idea however I did not
>     have that type of disc on hand. 

Hello Cathy,

    FWIW I just cut my own disks out of sheet sandpaper.  It's another
    thing I learned here on orchid, probably in the same post as the
    face-to-face disk trick for getting a taper on the wire. 

    Anyway, lets say you want one inch disks. Cut a strip of sandpaper
    off the sheet, about 1.25 inch wide so you're leaving yourself a
    little working room. Cut the strip into squares. Find the center of
    one square and mark it. Stack the squares up, say six or eight of
    them, and pierce the center hole through the stack with a sharp
    needle in a pinvise or whatever. Arrange the stack so that all the
    squares are upside down (paper up) except the bottom one. Take a
    screw type mandrel, shove the screw through the stack and mount the
    stack on the mandrel then chuck up the lot on your favourite flexshaft
    handpiece. 

    If you've got a slippy surface to work on the next step goes easier.
    I use an old nylon cutting board that's been clamped so that a couple
    inches overhang the edge of the bench. Hold your handpiece in your off
    hand --left in my case since I'm right handed-- and hold the
    handpiece firmly so the cable goes out the bottom of your grip and the
    stack is pointing up. Hold the handpiece against the edge of the
    cutting board (a little notch in the board is helpful) and test run
    it so the stack spins on the surface of the board like a pinwheel. 

    Now take an Xacto knife with a reasonably sharp blade in your good
    hand and slowly press into the stack while running at low speed.
    It'll take a couple tries to get the cutting angle right but when it
    works you'll cut through the stack of sandpaper squares fairly easily
    and you'll be left with sandpaper disks.  The cutting operation will
    typically take less than 30 seconds. 

    The blade in the Xacto knife will get ground down a bit and it will
    only last for three or four stacks worth but I find that an
    acceptable cost for the sake of custom cut sanding disks. 

    You'll no doubt find other uses for these sanding disks but they do
    work smashingly good for the wire taper trick I'd brought up earlier.

Cheers, 
Trevor F. 

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