Wire - hard drawn, mild drawn, copper coated....

[bogmonster]

Hi,

 

Not sure if this is in the correct section....

 

Newbie alert :(

 

I am making a candelabra from 12mm round with wood turned pillar candle holders. I have made a jig for the arms and they look good. I plan to arc weld (or braze if I buy an oxy propane torch) six arms to a central shaft with a hook on the top. I want to hide the welding with a wire wrap. I may also wrap wire down the arms in a wide spiral. I think 4mm is about the correct size. Trouble is I don't know what to buy. I have had a look at F H Brundle (I am in the UK) and they sell wire. They sell hard drawn and mild drawn. Presumably either is of for my purpose but a dumb question, what is the difference, presumably the mild drawn is easier to work?  They also sell copper coated. This sounds like it will add the the finished item nicely. Any issues with using copper coated? I don't think I will need to braze (or weld) the wire in place as I hope the wrapping will hold it secure enough? Presumably I could braze if I wanted to? 

 

Sorry for the dumb questions...

 

Help, Chris.

[John B]

Hi Chris,

I suggest you contact Brundles, and ask them the difference between hard drawn and mild drawn, most of the wire is relatively soft, but the thicker it gets, the harder to manipulate cold, I think the mild drawn is similar to what is used to tie bundles of steel together from depots to consumer

 

For a tight wrap, you need to control it by applying heat as and where necessary, so copper coated would not be appropriate, as the copper would be burnt off, similarly if you were to braze copper coated, the finish would be different.

[Bentiron1946]

No use buying hard drawn, as the name implies it is hard and stiff, not easy to work by hand. If you are going to do wire wrapping buy the mild drawn so you can manipulate it by hand without the need to anneal the wire. You only get one or at the most two attempts with mild draw to do the wrap then the wire magically turns into hard draw, who would of thought about that? Careful with the heat on copper as it turns it dark in color and that's good or bad depending on how you want he color to look. If you don't mind a dark brown go ahead and heat it, that's annealing it and making it soft and allows for a really tight wrap but your bright copper look is gone.

[MOblacksmith0530]

Like bentiron says use the mild drawn. I have used a torch to reheat and anneal as necessary then either dip in mild acid to clean it up or more often use a wire wheel or steel wool to clean it up and brighten it again.

[bogmonster]

Thanks for the help. I have some 4mm bright rod I will try as I could get it locally and in small quantities.