Posts: 10 Location: Aurora, Ontario, Canada
Thu 05 Jan, 2006 4:22 am
Sam Barris wrote: |
I use a regular metal rod of the desired inside diameter with one third of the length bent so it forms an L. They're about $1.00 apiece in any hardware store. A hole is drilled on the longer segment, about ten inches from the end. The wire goes in the hole, I brace the end of the rod on the floor with my leg and I turn it using the shorter L segment as a crank handle with my left hand guiding the wire. With good bolt cutters, I can coil and cut a 100' roll of 14 ga. wire in about two hours.
There's something almost meditative about the work when there are no power tools, but I'm certain it takes longer that way. |
I find (and many on the maile forums agree) that coils are best wound by hand in some sort of rig. It allows one to easily control the wrap and helps avoid errors. Early in my maile efforts I tried using a power drill on my mandril but found it was very difficult to control and I ended up with uneven coils.
That being said, many people are searching for an easier way to cut their coils. I find that cutting by hand is "slow" and sometimes painful (can lead to a repetitive strain injury). It can be difficult to obtain a consistent result with nice even rings. Cutting with some of the rigs shown and talked about here gives a faster yield as well as more consistently shaped rings. I am investigating how I can construct a similar rig myself as it is the cutting that I dislike the most.
Chris
Posts: 54 Location: NJ
Thu 05 Jan, 2006 10:30 am
Chris I certainly have run into the coiling problems you mentioned. I have a hand turned rig that produces wonderful coils and allows you to be very consistent. However I found that when working with certain gauges and ring diameters (14 ga, 1/4" ID) it could be a struggle.
A power drill can certainly alleviate this and is much quicker then hand turning but you can run into issues where the wire skips or overlaps back on itself. Couple of times I ended up catching my own hand in the wire as it coiled back :eek:
I don't have any pics of it, but what I ended up doing was mounting my spool of wire on a galvanized pipe that is bolted to my worktable. The pipe is about 3' long so the spool can move freely along it. Directly in front of the spool is a 2x4 that is just off the worktable surface and just as long as the pipe. By feeding the wire under there first and then to the mandrel it acts like a tensioner and since it is wood (soft material) it doesn't damage the wire. You can then use a power drill to coil the wire. Since the spool is free moving it will work itself along the length of the pipe as the wire coils down the mandrel.
Granted it still snags time to time if the wire on the spool is overlapped, but I can generally coil a 3' mandrel in about 30-45 seconds depending on the drill speed.
If you're really interested in setting up a jig like I posted feel free to send me a PM. I have my notes as well as a link to where I was directed to find the original.
~Dominic
Posts: 10 Location: Aurora, Ontario, Canada
Fri 06 Jan, 2006 5:34 am
Dominic Dellavalle wrote: |
If you're really interested in setting up a jig like I posted feel free to send me a PM. I have my notes as well as a link to where I was directed to find the original.
~Dominic |
Thanks Dominic,
I have seen rigs like yours posted on other forums and I think I'm going to try something similar.
I do have one question though....it's about the saw blade itself.
You mentioned that it is an HSS Jewelers saw blade and that they are cheap to obtain. I have tried many searchs on the net looking for places that carry blades like this one but have so far been unsuccessful. Where do you get yours from? Are they generally sold only through a jewelers supplier or are they readily available at places like hobby shops (i found many references to straight blades but none for this type of blade).
Any info would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance....
Chris
ps: I was going to send a PM asking this question but I thought that there might be others out there that would be interested in the answers. If this was wrong then I apologize.
Posts: 1,244 Location: New Glarus, WI
Fri 06 Jan, 2006 6:07 am
Chris Lee wrote: |
You mentioned that it is an HSS Jewelers saw blade and that they are cheap to obtain. I have tried many searchs on the net looking for places that carry blades like this one but have so far been unsuccessful. Where do you get yours from? Are they generally sold only through a jewelers supplier or are they readily available at places like hobby shops (i found many references to straight blades but none for this type of blade). |
I got mine a while back from here:
http://www.onlineindustrialsupply.com/hss-jewelers-saws.html
At the time, I didn't find a lower price, factoring in cost of blades and shipping. I got 10 blades shipped for something like $30. I still have 7 left... after cutting over a mile of wire. They can break - had one bind up and shatter... They also don't last forever - they will wear out eventually.
Posts: 54 Location: NJ
Fri 06 Jan, 2006 7:36 am
Aaron beat me to it :)
That's the same site I use for my blades, relatively inexpensive and easy to obtain. My rig currently is set up with a 2" diameter, 0.025" thick, 152 wheel. As far as mounting the wheel to a drill goes I ended up going through Grainger's Supply to get the arbor which I believe ran me only a few dollars.
As Aaron already pointed out they can break, bind, shatter, and obviously wear down. As with anything involving power tools, blades or otherwise take precautions. Impact goggles, gloves, etc. I even recomend a dust mask that will handle the dust that is generated cutting. You certainly don't want to be inhaling galvanized steel dust. 3M makes a couple that can handle that type of particulate. Check the blade regularly for any damage, fractures, significant wear or a large number of missing teeth.
If you can try and incorporate some sort of kill switch or on/off switch away from the rig itself, but within arms reach. I simply picked up one of those plugs that have a switch built in. Plug the drill into that, then run an extension to the outlet. You can find them in most hardware stores.
I also suggest at the very least to pick up some wax, paraffin or a plumbers candle works just fine. You can lube the blade between cuts to extend it's life. If I ever finalize this slow oil-drip system that I'm working on (more on paper then built) I'll be happy to share it with you.
I'm sure a lot of this is obvious stuff (probably even repeated from my earlier post) that we're all aware of but my conscious wouldn't feel right if I didn't repeat it here. I sleep better at night this way :)
~Dominic
Posts: 10 Location: Aurora, Ontario, Canada
Fri 06 Jan, 2006 8:11 am
Thanks guys....
I just placed an order for 10 blades.....
Chris
Posts: 95 Location: Kitchener, Ontario
Tue 10 Jan, 2006 7:45 am
What do you guys normally use for wire?? I have only been using coat hangers, which although work magnificently...yield few links and make more work for me. Is thin round bar used? Or are there large coils of solid steel/iron wire?
My links are 2mm (1/16") thick
Posts: 10 Location: Aurora, Ontario, Canada
Tue 10 Jan, 2006 9:22 am
C. Stackhouse wrote: |
What do you guys normally use for wire?? I have only been using coat hangers, which although work magnificently...yield few links and make more work for me. Is thin round bar used? Or are there large coils of solid steel/iron wire?
My links are 2mm (1/16") thick |
While coat hangers are probably a cheap source of wire, I can't imagine they are too easy to work with. The wire gauge seems rather large to me and the wire seems much too stiff for my use.
Recently I have been working with 14 gauge Galvanized steel wire. I usually get in 50ft rolls from my local hadware store or at Canadian Tire. The wire is wraped around a 5/16 steel rod in my hand cranked wrapping rig. I usualy get about 2 1/2 18in coils for each roll.
Yesterday I switched to making my rings from 16g galvanized steel wire, once again wrapped around a 5/16 mandrel. This does yeild rings that are lighter and in addition the coils are much easier to hand cut and the rings weave easily compared to 14g. The trade off will be that armour made from this wire will not be as strong as a thicker wire. I have started looking for a more reliable source for the wire as the hardware store only carries a few rolls at a time. I asked about odering 1000ft roll of 16g and they said they would get back to me about availability and price.
I have also made a few coils of 16g wrapped around 1/4 inch mandrel. This yeilded nice small rings that would be more suited to other applications instead of armour, jewlery etc. I did not make too many as this was just a test to see what the rings would be like and how easy it would be to weave them.
Chris
Posts: 95 Location: Kitchener, Ontario
Tue 10 Jan, 2006 9:46 am
Yes, my links are rather large. It's a fantasy costume piece I'm working on. The rod is about 1cm in diameter. Although not the ideal armor, the effect of the larger rings is great, very visible from a long distance. (good for film too).
I'll look into the thinner wire later on, looks like i have to stick with hangers for now -_-, at least its cheap :D
Posts: 95 Location: Kitchener, Ontario
Tue 10 Jan, 2006 11:27 am
Beautiful! Thanks for the into Dominic.
Yeah, I tried that 2mm wire with 1/4" links too. :p The hangers i used then were softer but had white paint on them. With the paint still on I couldn't actually weave the links. (thats how tight the weave was)
And I have a farm supply store in my city, I'll go check it out.
Posts: 10 Location: Aurora, Ontario, Canada
Wed 11 Jan, 2006 8:43 am
Thanks Dominic,
You just bailed me out again....
I just placed an order with The Ring Lord for 30lbs (about 2700ft) of 16g galvanized wire.
You were right, even with the currency conversion, and shipping, the price was still better than my local hardware shop.
I will also try at my local Home Depot in the department you mentioned (never thought to look there). They do carry some small heavily overpriced quantities in the rope and wire department so I never purchased any wire there.
The HSS saw blades I ordered should arrive today (UPS tried to deliver them yesterday but I was at work). It looks as if I'll be having a interesting weekend setting up my cutting rig. I'll post photo's of it when I get it all working.
I also reworked my coiling rig. I now have the option to wind using a cordless drill. For safety, I use a 7.2v cordless(low power) and set the adjustable torque clutch to just enough to wind the wire. That way if anything catches in the coil, such as my fingers, the drill does not have enough torque to turn. In addition I replaced the wooden tensioning bar with a 3/8 steel rod allowing the wire to glide easily over the bar. The whole set up works like a charm and I was able to produce several really nice coils this way. I think the quality of my maile is going to rise nicely.
Thanks again for all your tips.
Chris
Posts: 115 Location: Boston, MA USA
Thu 12 Jan, 2006 7:13 am
I've been wondering for a while....how did they make
maille 1000 years ago?
For starters, it seems like drawing down lenghts of wire would be very difficult to do via hammer and forge. Also, cutting the rings would also be tough, I would think.
Anybody have any idea how they used to do it?
You
cannot post new topics in this forum
You
cannot reply to topics in this forum
You
cannot edit your posts in this forum
You
cannot delete your posts in this forum
You
cannot vote in polls in this forum
You
cannot attach files in this forum
You
can download files in this forum