I'm looking for a draw plate that will work on sliver, gold, copper and brass. Hope to find a cheap one that will work. Any suggestions on a make and model? Anything to watch out for?
Tungsten carbide plates can be had for good prices now days. Be sure it goes down very fine like .26mm. Also keep in mind that wire larger than 2mm almost requires a draw bench to pull. My plate covers 2.80mm down to .26mm and is the prefect range for hand pulling.
"... Simply take a toothpick and charge it with triploli. Chuck it in your flexshaft handpiece and polish the
insides of the holes and tapers..."
Brian, I do like your tip about polishing with a toothpick charged with a cutting paste, like Tripoli!
I find that a standard toothpick will nicely fit the 3/32 inch diameter collet of an electric 20,000 rpm hand piece. I then get it spinning as I fashion the wood nose, against the revolving graver lap disc, to a perfect cone or bullet nose, running concentrically. Following Brian's tip, load it with your tripoli, or any grade of diamond paste, and it makes a great finish lap, tipoli cuts steel, diamond paste will lap carbide. In my gilded flare cut procedure, I can remove any tiny area of gilding that I missed on the silver surface, while under the 'scope.
While we are on the subject of Tripoli and diamond paste., smear some from your finger onto a sheet of white paper, and spread it around. When placed on a flat surface plate, or sheet of glass, this give a good lapping or final polish to flat objects.
You are right, bamboo is great stuff... and... a yearly plant, and not a tree. China is doing so much with bamboo and resin these days, and you can make really good flooring, workbench slabs etc., from it.
I will give it a try with a chunk of my chop sticks!
Yes, I use bamboo chopsticks in the shop too. Not for polishing, for a certain technique setting very fragile stones.
Riding a tour bike down through Oregon a coupla years back I stopped at a bicycle shop where they had one of the first bamboo framed bikes made in down in Santa Cruz... I sure wish I could have afforded one.
You could lift the thing with one finger. On the test ride I took (after I got out of sight of the shop) I went off a few curbs and up a couple - not too gently either. Then I cranked it up as fast as these old legs could go. Just the right amount of flex in the frame.
I left convinced that it was as good as any carbon fiber frame. In some ways better. It is renewable...
I have 2 steel ones, one I acquired and another I bought, because I didn't like the first. Now I use a carbide. It works like a charm. I'll have to try the toothpick/bamboo trick, and maybe I'll have 3 drawplates. I use 3-1 as a lube, should try the wax, it would be cleaner, but the oil is really easy to apply! LOL
Hears a suggestion I got about pliers to draw the wire from Ray Viramontez,take a pair of needle nose pliers and grind them down to fit the hole in the back of draw plate to get a better grip on the wire. J.J.
this technique also has the advantage of making a work-hardened end to grip with the pliers. i've done it this way for many years and can easily taper wire down to virtually nothing.