Newbie Question - Cleaning mandrel holes

[Gail Kops]

I saw an ad in a bead magazine for a Beadalon Bead Reaming tool that runs on batteries. Is this a good thing or a bad thing?

Just wondering how you all clean out the mandrel holes...
Thanks!
Gail

[Cosmo]

I have a bit that fits in my Dremel. I just use that. But, most anything that is abrasive that will fit in the hole will work.

[Gail Kops]

I have a dremel - duh...
What for a bit is that - something with a diamond abrasive?

Thanks!
Gail

[Cosmo]

The bit I use came from Arrow Springs. They have a hand-held reamer that comes with 3 interchangable tips. The tips are the exact same size as Dremel bits. I believe they are diamond bits, but I'm not sure.

[LavenderCreek]

Hi Gail, if you aren't annealing your beads yet, I wouldn't use a dremel, they tend to break the beads. You can get a set of hand held bead reamers from Volkmann's. You can try the dremel, but before I got my kiln, I broke alot of them with my dremel.

[Gail Kops]

Hi!

Thanks for that advice - it makes sense.
May I ask you, Teresa, where you got your kiln?
I have a huge hobby ceramic kiln, but it would be way to big to anneal the beads in...would love to trade it for a Chili Pepper or something smaller perhaps.

Later..G

[WillfulOne]

I have an abrasive diamond bit that fits in my battery powered Dremel. I also use a hand reamer. If you buy one of those, make sure they are diamond coated reamers. I have found that the others do not get all of the coating out of the mandrel holes. Of course, you could do additional cleaning with pipe cleaners.

[LavenderCreek]

Hi Gail,

I know you can buy a Chili Pepper kiln from C&R Loo (europian branch) but you have to have a wholesale permit. You can try Volkmann's. I'm pretty sure they sell kilns but I don't think they sell Chili Pepper. I found mine through a private sale...I got lucky. You could try selling your ceramic kiln, maybe on ebay, or maybe list it on the German forum Das Kunsthandwerkerportal
the url is: http://www.kunsthandwerkerportal.de/
I think they have an area where you can list things for sale.
You could ask Angela about a kiln, I'm sure she has alot more connections than I do.