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bead glazing support wires?

updated sat 30 nov 96

 

Larry Phillips on sun 24 nov 96

Does anyone know if stainless steel welding rod would be suitable for
holding beads for glaze firing to ^5 or 6? If not, what type of wire
would be suitable?

Thanks,
larry

--
Socrates said that no man is truly free.
Socrates was never a pilot.

Kenneth D. Westfall on mon 25 nov 96

At 04:36 PM 11/24/96 +0000, you wrote:
>----------------------------Original message----------------------------
>Does anyone know if stainless steel welding rod would be suitable for
>holding beads for glaze firing to ^5 or 6? If not, what type of wire
>would be suitable?
>
>Thanks,
> larry
>
>--
>Socrates said that no man is truly free.
>Socrates was never a pilot.

Larry the stanless will probbly work but I have use Ni chrom wire. It's the
same wire they make elements out of. I am sure you can get it from
Duralite, Inc. phone: 860-379-3113 or fax: 860 -379-5879 or any other
element company. I got mine when I ordered new elements, they included
strait wire to make staples or pin to hole the elements in the grooves on
the kiln.
Hope this will help
Kenneth

DON'T GET STUCK IN THE MUDPIES--K & T

N. Heller on mon 25 nov 96

steel is an alloy and has varying melting points depending upon its
composition. An average melting point it 1540 C (about 2802 F). WIth
this in mind steel should maintain integrity, but it may not. Niobium
is the world heavy-weight champ in terms of melting point. Its melting
point is 2468 C (about 4474 F) and more expensive.

On Sun, 24 Nov 1996, Larry Phillips wrote:

> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Does anyone know if stainless steel welding rod would be suitable for
> holding beads for glaze firing to ^5 or 6? If not, what type of wire
> would be suitable?
>
> Thanks,
> larry
>
> --
> Socrates said that no man is truly free.
> Socrates was never a pilot.
>

Harvey Sadow on mon 25 nov 96

Larry Phillips wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Does anyone know if stainless steel welding rod would be suitable for
> holding beads for glaze firing to ^5 or 6? If not, what type of wire
> would be suitable?
>
> Thanks,
> larry
>
> --
> Socrates said that no man is truly free.
> Socrates was never a pilot.


I use Kanthal wire (electric kiln element wire) for all such uses,
including pinning ceramic fiber insulation into the kiln. You should be
able to get it from any ceramic supply place and bend it into any shape,
such as a clever, self supporting bead rack. It will withstand many
years of firings.
Cheers,
Harvey Sadow

Frank Hartlieb on tue 26 nov 96

Using nicrome(sp?) wire in a medium to heavy gage will work....

frank
hart9535@uidaho.edu

Tadeusz Westawic on tue 26 nov 96

Kenneth D. Westfall wrote:
>
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> At 04:36 PM 11/24/96 +0000, you wrote:
> >----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> >Does anyone know if stainless steel welding rod would be suitable for
> >holding beads for glaze firing to ^5 or 6? If not, what type of wire
> >would be suitable?
> >
> >Thanks,
> > larry
> >
> >--
> >Socrates said that no man is truly free.
> >Socrates was never a pilot.

Not for beads, but for napkin rings I have usesd 6-8" sections of
electric oven element from junkyard to support ware in kiln to cone 8.
I cut the lengths with a small conduit cutter and put L-shaped bends on
each end so the element would not roll (used propane torch and fuel line
bender to make the bends). I then drilled small holes (you need a low
speed drill) and inserted kiln element holddown pins in the drilled
holes and clipped them protrude about 1/4 inch. Pass the rig through the
napkin rings and rest the bent ends on kiln posts. Position the napkin
rings over the prodtruding nichrome pins and its ready to go.

The oven/broiler element is pretty interesting in itself. Approximately
1/4" diameter tubing that I assume is nichrome, is sheilding for very
fine guage "curly" element which I assume is also nichrome. The inner
element is the one that actually gets heated by the electricity. To
prevent the inner element from grounding on the outer tubing, a packing
of diatomaceous earth (I assume) is used. I would leave the packing in
the tube as is no telling from my two firings whether the tube alone
remains stiff enough at high temp.

Check it out, its free at the local junkyard.

Tadzu

Don Goodrich on wed 27 nov 96

Larry,
Yes, stainless steel welding rod will work for supporting beads at ^6. If
it's the kind with flux coating, clean that off first. I used it regularly
to support thimbles when I was making 'em out of porcelain.
Another source of high-temperature wire is heating elements of discarded
electric appliances, provided they're not too brittle. Appliance repair shops
may be able to give you usable wire from elements they've replaced. My
favorite source is the heating coils of old soldering irons ( the kind with
replaceable tips): lots of fine, hi-temp wire in them.
On the other hand, simply buying new stuff from Duralite might be
easiest...

Don Goodrich

Larry Phillips on wed 27 nov 96

In article <329A350A.5AFE@zianet.com>,
Tadeusz Westawic writes:
>
> Not for beads, but for napkin rings I have usesd 6-8" sections of
> electric oven element from junkyard to support ware in kiln to cone 8.

Thanks a bunch! It probably won't do for the beads, but they will
sure be handy for other supports (sculptural).

--
Socrates said that no man is truly free.
Socrates was never a pilot.

Larry Phillips on thu 28 nov 96

In article <961126215438_1984832124@emout13.mail.aol.com>,
Don Goodrich writes:
> ----------------------------Original message----------------------------
> Larry,
> Yes, stainless steel welding rod will work for supporting beads at ^6.

THanks... I'll give it a try. I picked up some last time I was wandering by
a local welding supply place.

> If it's the kind with flux coating, clean that off first.

The stuff I grabbed was bare. I figured the flux would not be a good idea.

> Another source of high-temperature wire is heating elements of discarded
> electric appliances, provided they're not too brittle.

I hadn't thought of this stuff. I figured it would be too flexible.

> On the other hand, simply buying new stuff from Duralite might be
> easiest...

Right. I don't mind buying new. The only stuff I had previously seen was
part of a kit consisting of a ceramic rack and a couple of wires. While
it looked handy, I figured I could save the 15 bucks by making one.

--
Socrates said that no man is truly free.
Socrates was never a pilot.