I finally used my homemade drawplate to create wire. I was intending to be self-sufficient in drawing wire. However, I discovered it far easier said than done…
I took pieces off of a .999 fine silver trade token (a Liberty token) using a fiber-reinforced cutoff wheel, since I didn’t as yet have a metal saw available.
I started practicing using the thick piece in the middle of the picture below:
Reducing thickness of pure silver using annealing, hammering, and drawing. Left: Fine silver trade token. Center: Piece cut from token. Right: Piece of center thinned down using drawplate.
I found that my Radio Shack butane pocket torch was more than sufficient to heat a small section of pure silver ingot to a bright red for the brief time needed for annealing, that is, to make the metal malleable enough for hammering thinner.
I learned not to be afraid of hitting the metal with a fair amount of authority, and so I was able to skip every other drawing step until I reached the .07 inch thickness slot. I then had to anneal and reshape the metal at least once each for the .07, .06, and .05 primary slot.
Running quickly through the thicknesses starting from .12 inches and going thinner...
I now have a very nice strip at .05 inch width. But since I want .05 diameter wire, I now use slots of successively smaller width.
Thickness having been reduced to .05, we now concentrate on the width of the strip...
The strip keeps the same thickness, but I had to re-anneal each time to drew through a smaller width, with some occasional hammering of beaded areas. At this thickness I needed to use a lubricant for drawing. People suggest beeswax but I didn’t have any, I had to make do by sacrificing a candle.
I couldn't find beeswax, so I had to use ordinary paraffin...
I discovered a cute way of drawing wire. I could use the drawplate itself as a pull handle rather than using draw tongs..
Here's another way to draw wire...
The idea is to draw through smaller widths until we get to .05 inch wire size..
Once I reached the smallest width of .05 inch thick drawing slot, I drew the wire through my .06 diameter hole so that I could even out the dimensions prior to drawing through my .05 inch hole.
Repeating annealing, hammering, and drawing gets results!
I’m not exactly happy with my results. The wire isn’t what you call “round”… all it is guaranteed to be is to fit through the drawplate hole. Worse, the wire broke in several places as I drew .06 inch “round” wire through a .05 inch drawplate hole.
I strongly suspect that the 20% difference in hole widths is responsible for the breakage. I need a short series of smoother transitions between .06 and .05 inch diameters.
The day's yield. Left: .05 inch thick wires, Right: .06 inch thick wires
I also found that hammering the wire round was a nearly impossible thing to do. This stuff is unacceptable for earring wire… but it might be okay for chain link bracelets and other purposes after restoring a uniform rectangular cross section..
Anyone have other suggestions about how I can get the wire rounder?
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Michael Johnson 11.03.09 at 8:54 am
If you want the wire round, why did you use the slotted drawplate? I generally use my mill to get wire down to the size that I need, and then just draw through a round holed drawplate. I usually just have to do four or so holes to get the shape.
The draw tongs will help prevent breakage. Using the plate as a handle is creative, but the tongs gives you the control in starting the draw and in maintaining a straight, constant draw.
I modified an old, wide pair of vice grips to use an my draw tongs for a while. When I finally broke down and bought a good pair, I realized how much easier my life was going to be :o)
Great blog, keep on making…
Aulë 11.03.09 at 11:08 am
[Author's Note: I can't afford a good rolling mill to follow Mr. Johnson's suggestion! But drillling more round holes leading down to
.05 inch diameter might be good. Stay tuned!]
Jerry Fowler 11.03.09 at 11:34 am
Anneal, anneal, anneal. Also try using your extra virgin olive oil as a lubricant instead of candle wax, it’s much better. You need to follow the advice of Mr. Johnson about using the Vise Grips as draw tongs, it does make a difference, trust us on this. Nice rectangular wire, if you want round wire use only round hole.
Jamie King 11.03.09 at 11:57 pm
Aule,
I loved reading about your travails. Thanks for sharing.
Jamie
John Dyer 11.05.09 at 9:08 am
As some other people said, the key is using round holes in your draw plate. Otherwise your results will never be nice and round. If you make the drawplate yourself then ad some small degree of taper to the hole, that will make your life easier. Also the more polished the hole is the better. (And I bet standard olive oil would work as well as extra virgin!) I used a wd40 equivalent to lube since that is what was handy.
I just drew my first wire in Argentium Silver using a commercial drawplate and it was great fun with very good results. I annealed between each drawing or every two drawings and took it down about a tenth of a MM each time.
It was a LOT easier to draw when freshly annealed.
Taueret 11.12.09 at 5:11 pm
thanks for sharing this adventure.