Making earwires/hooks

[Milomade]

very annoying to navigate and find what you're looking for, but lots of useful tip sof there so thanks for the link.

[Emerald]

Milomade, not sure if these have been metioned sorry if it has but have you a pair of half round pliers one half round the other flat i use these to make jumprings etc and because the one side is flat it doesent mark.

[agent_44]

the reason I bought it was to make figure of eight loops quickly and easily as making these individually by hand using pliers takes time and also marks the wire - I want to be able to set up the jig so that I can wind wire round the metal posts and form about 5 at a time and then cut the wire with my flush cutter and be done with it - no marking from the pliers and lots made quickly.

Whether it works out or not, I've yet to find out, but I'm not feeling very positive now that I've heard two of you moan about the device.

Sorry You might find that you get on with it, sounds like you will be using it differently to the way I did.

Ebay has a free listing day on the 13th Sep

Ooh thanks for that!

[Ominicci]

Jules - thanks for the tip about moving the jig not the wire - will use that in my classes!!!

[snow_imp]

Hm, not sure if I still want to try using a jig - although I do know a couple of people who've made their own using a lump of wood and a few nails for particular patterns they want to create. Maybe I'll try that instead.

Thanks for the info.

[Milomade]

I did that initially and found it inflexible - firstly it took me ages to find nails with the right girth, but once banged into the wood there was no way of changing it - I also had to saw off the top of the nails once banged into the wood so I could easily get the wire off after creating my loop - all too much faff and so I thought the jig wouldbe the perfect solution.

[Di Sandland]

Reading this thread reminded me of a website I put in my bookmarks months ago. I haven't really looked at it since, but I know I was quite impressed at the time as it gave loads of detailed instructions of working with wire and jigs. Just thought you might be interested...it says there are about 2,000 pages of instructions... so be prepared!!
WigJig University - Free Jewelry Making Designs using Beads and Wire

This was the site that made me decide I just couldn't live without a jig. Right...

[snow_imp]

I did that initially and found it inflexible - firstly it took me ages to find nails with the right girth, but once banged into the wood there was no way of changing it - I also had to saw off the top of the nails once banged into the wood so I could easily get the wire off after creating my loop - all too much faff and so I thought the jig wouldbe the perfect solution.

Okay maybe not - it sounds even worse than the others made it sound when they talked about it. I'll stick with the knitting needles and pliers for now. Thanks

[Boo]

I haven't read all of the pages of this thread, so it may already have been touched on, so apologies if it has.

I made my own jig initially with various found objects nailed in place for the shapes I wanted, but I then bought some bail pliers - one half is 6mm and the other 8mm - just straight rods. I make my earwires with them, as well as bails and all manner of other shapes. They are possibly one of my most used tools and one of the things I'd put up a real fight if you tried to take it off me. I also have a couple of tubes (pen barrels etc.), that I can slide over to get larger diameters too.

I make all my own wires, loops and rings etc. these days - I like the idea of being able to label pieces 'entirely hand crafted'. I make a batch of my more popular shapes watching a movie or something. When I get short, I make some more. I always make a pair together so they match - being hand made they vary a little - and work and store in batches of 5 pairs - few enough that you can match each pair easily. Each batch of 5 gets hammered together, filed and goes in the tumbler wired together.

[Boo]

I also have a pair of these from Cooksons - they're not as consistently round as my Bead Smith ones, but they get used a lot too - they compliment the others as they're different sizes:

Multi-sized Looping Pliers - Cooksongold.com