[Jewelry making - Article 00842] - Re: [Orchid] Rolling Mill Basics - The Square

[John Donivan]

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>     This wire shape, the Basic Square, is the start to making all wire
>     and bezel stock. When planning your "goal" wire or bezel shape 

    I don't want to steal Jay's thunder - very nice beginning to a useful
    series, I'd say. To elaborate some on what was Helen's post, though.
    Using the drawplate IS to some degree "cheap", though I can pull 50
    kinds of wires, myself, including off-gauge sizes - I have a
    collection of drawplates. It may surprise readers, but I have never
    used a drawbench. I knew people who had one because they made
    hand-made curb link chains - like ID bracelets. I'm sure they're nice
    but they take a huge amount of space to have one just for the
    occasional bit of 18 gauge wire. Which is to say it's a nice luxury
    (unless your work really requires it, like the chain makers), but
    it's not necessary, usually. A big vise on a stout bench and
    drawtongs will get you a lot of wire. To me probably the most
    frequent thing I do on the rolling mill is to make rectangular stock.
    The mill makes "wire" and "sheet" which I put in quotes because often
    the wire is a chunk, like 4mm wide, and the sheet could more properly
    be called a slab. If you roll a square wire into a shape to make a
    wedding band, you could say it's sheet, but it's more proper to call
    it rectangular stock - same with many of the building blocks for
    constructing jewelry. Somebody somewhere (Revere?) even calculated
    how much width and length can be gotten from the square size on a
    mill - most people just need it "about yeay big". One big tip is that
    you can get much more width out of a square by forging it - hammering
    it - first. Anyway, as has been said, the mill is much more than a
    way to make your own 20ga., it's how to get any size and shape you
    want for what you want to do - and that's where experience comes in:
    "How much length and width do I need to start with to hit this piece
    right on 2.6mm x 1.8mm? Have fun.... 

http://www.donivanandmaggiora.com
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