Silver Coring issues.....

[Sue H-K]

Tink, Evan, David Palnick....you coring gods and goddess! Help!!!

I have spent the better part of the last month trying to sucessfully silver core a large holed bead and I am soooo frustrated! I have managed to chip every single bead! I have followed step by step Evan's tutorial, read every thread I can find by Tink and still I am chipping one side of every bead. Do any of you have any hints or suggestions for the coring challenged? I only seem to chip one side of the bead right at the bead hole. This is driving me absolutely bonkers.....and tips would be appreciated!!!

[alissa]

sounds like your tubing may be too long - then when you're making the rivet, it's putting too much pressure on the bead instead of just folding over nicely.

[Nanette Marie]

Yes, or you could be flaring your tubing too much before you start flattening it. When you start your flaring, you only want the silver to flare out just a tiny bit so that it be easy to fit your dapping punches in the silver core. If you pound on your flaring tool (whatever you use, whether it be a plumber's bob or just a small dapping punch) for too long you are basically bending out the silver too far into the core which puts stress on your bead. Also, the fact that it happens on the same side just means that you happen to pound towards that side, we all have a dominant side. I try to turn my bead each time I flip it over so that I end up distributing the force more evenly around. Also, try to only pound 2-3 times on each side before you turn the bead over. Slow and gentle is the way to go. And sometimes if I see that one side is going down farther than the other side, I take my chasing hammer and very gently pound down the side that sticks up.
Hope this helps.

[Sue H-K]

Yes, or you could be flaring your tubing too much before you start flattening it. When you start your flaring, you only want the silver to flare out just a tiny bit so that it be easy to fit your dapping punches in the silver core. If you pound on your flaring tool (whatever you use, whether it be a plumber's bob or just a small dapping punch) for too long you are basically bending out the silver too far into the core which puts stress on your bead. Also, the fact that it happens on the same side just means that you happen to pound towards that side, we all have a dominant side. I try to turn my bead each time I flip it over so that I end up distributing the force more evenly around. Also, try to only pound 2-3 times on each side before you turn the bead over. Slow and gentle is the way to go. And sometimes if I see that one side is going down farther than the other side, I take my chasing hammer and very gently pound down the side that sticks up.
Hope this helps.

ohh maybe that's it!!! I have been flaring my tubing out pretty far. I'll try that and to maybe make the tubing a bit smaller next time. Thanks ladies....hope this does the trick!

[EvanH]

Sue -

You also might want to relieve the very sharp crisp edge of the hole on both sides by 'gently' running a diamond bit in a dremel tool or flex shaft tool around the inside edge of the bead so it's not quite as sharp on both sides. This way you don't concentrate all the force on a sharp edge as you flare the tube out.

Also as mentioned before - for a large bead (3/8" hole or so) the tube should extend out of the hole on each side no more than 2mm or 3mm. For a small bead 1/8" hole size only about 1mm on each side.

Hope that helps.

Evan

[Sue H-K]

Thanks Evan....I've been grinding down the edges as I thought that might be the problem, but no luck yet! I've some in the kiln now, so we will see how the next round of coring goes!!!

[Tink]

Sue, how wide are the beads you're using. By that, I mean how wide is one side of it? Skinny? Medium? Fat?

[Sue H-K]

Hey Tink,
From the edge of the bead hole to the outside edge they are almost half an inch. They are pretty big beads...at least for me!

[Tink]

How about in the other direction? How wide was it when it was on the mandrel?

[Sue H-K]

on the mandrel they have been between 3/4 and 1 inch wide....