[Jewelry making - Article 01421] - Re: [Orchid] How do you bend silver tubing?

[JONLEE]

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    Here are my 2 methods, documented in many textbooks: 

    1. fill the tube with wax, bend away, then melt the wax out 

    2. run the next smallest tube inside the one you want to bend (with
    oil lubrication), then bend, then pull the inside smaller tube out -
    example: a 3/16" (6/16") OD tube will fit snuggly inside a 7/32" tube
    (or a 5/32" inside a 3/16", etc.) - and bend away - this works for
    slight bends - higher degrees of bending ==> the harder it is to
    remove the inside tube (even with lots of lube). 

    And the following "spring methods", which I have never tried. 

    3. Micro-mark (mircomark.com) carries a set of 5 smaller springs for
    bending tubes (these fit over the outside of the tube to be bent.
    ID's of 1/16 inch, 3/32 inch, 1/8 inch, 5/32 inch and 3/16 inch. May
    not work well with silver tubing manufactured metrically. See here: 

    http://tinyurl.com/yvtqlu 

    4. some jewelry supply houses have kits of metric-sized jewelry
    springs that will fit a variety of silver/gold tube sizes. 

Good luck!
Jon
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