[Jewelry making - Article 00032] - [Orchid] Tubing dies. (El Cheepo corner)

[John Burgess]

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    G'day;   When I wanted to make tube and 'organ' settings, I had
    to make my own dies.  (wot, no money? No, not then!) 

    Got a 6"x1"x 1/4" steel bar (from the local garage)  I wanted
    1/4"   tube, so drilled a hole in the bar 5/16; another at 19/64,
    at 11/32, and so on down to 1/4".   I used a countersink drill to
    open out one side of the holes to around halfway through the bar.
    A small tapered reamer helped with smoothing the entrance of the
    holes.  Using bits of wooden dowel in a power drill (got that for
    my birthday!) and coarse and then fine grit carborundum (valve
    paste - (garage gave me a bit!)  I used the dowel back and forth
    as well as round and round, angling the dowel(s) as I worked.  I
    finished up with tin oxide and water to provide  polished holes
    of varying sizes. Not first class dies, you understand, but they
    did their job well. 

    I used a small block of hardwood in which to carve swage-block
    type grooves, hammered the piece of thin annealed silver sheet
    with perfectly clean and parallel edges into the grooves using
    odd large nails, bolts, etc. to force the sheet into a U.   The
    silver I pre-polished on the side that was to become the inside. 
     One end of the U shaped metal was cut to a long taper, then
    inserted into the biggest die-hole - and then I pulled like
    hell!  (one foot on the bench edge!) Until the 'tube' edges met
    perfectly with a bit of 'spring' to hold them in place.  I used
    the hardest solder to fasten the edges, cleaned up the tube, and
    pulled it through the final hole - Voila!! I should mention that
    I did case-harden the draw-plate, and still use it on occasion. 
    That exercise prompted me to make a drawbench (from junk of
    course) but that's another story. I still use that too - it's at
    least 15 years old now! 

    But, please,  what is corolan? Never heard of it in NZ. Cheers, 
       


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         /  /__| \      johnb AT ts.co.nz
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