[Jewelry making - Article 00335] - Re: [Orchid] Rolling and making wire

[James Miller]

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Hi Jerry, 

    Buy yourself a small open wire ingot, about $10 in the USA. Then melt
    the coin and pour it into the ingot, this will give you a shape that
    you can easily mill into wire. 

    Over here in the UK we can buy small square open crucibles, I have a
    method which works well for me, I have made a clamp on the end of a
    12 inch old flat file, this clamp holds a small flat open crucible,
    which is about 2 inches square. I melt the scrap in the crucible ,
    using my oxy/propane little torch, then while keeping the flame
    playing on the molten metal, keeping it fluid, I hold the crucible
    against the edge of the ingot mold then pour it into the wire ingot
    as quick as possible, keeping the flame on the metal until the pour.
    This gives me a two inch long, quarter inch semi square wire, which
    is easy to mill and draw down into wire. I use a lot of my clean
    scrap from piercing to make myself a stock of various size wires. I
    would be wary of using coins as I would not be certain of their
    alloys, it depends what the wire is for, in the past when I have
    melted so called pure silver or gold coins I have found that the
    resulting wire is of a hard alloy and does not draw down easily.
    Good luck anyway. 

    James Miller in the UK, today I am making a letter opener / paper
    knife with a guilloche` enamelled handle and rock crystal pommel
    complete with a 6 inch, 18ct gold blade.
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