Thursday, February 28, 2008
Back in November I blogged about how much I wanted to make my own silver headpins, the kind with little balls on one end of them. Since I don't know how to solder, and since I was obsessed with wanting to make headpins, I resorted to using my GAS GRILL to make some. (Here's the link to the original tale. )
Since the gas grill had the unfortunate side effect of burning off all the hairs from the backs of my hands, I thought I should go ahead and invest in tools that could help me make those headpins.
I read up about propane torches and other similar weapons of destruction, and decided that maybe I should start with something a bit smaller: a butane microtorch. "Micro torch" sounded so inocuous. Plus I read somewhere that they're pretty useful for soldering.
So I went to my local Home Depot to find my toy.
Let me introduce you to my purchase: the amazing BENZOMATIC:
Together with the butane , this little baby only set me back about 25 dollars.Next step: filling it with butane and lighting it.
My son helped me with this. It took about an hour to figure out how to fill the torch with butane and light it so that it produced a steady flame. If it wasn't for my son, this probably would have taken me at least 10 minutes.
Whoo hoo! Now for the headpins!
I cut up some lengths of 22 and 20 gauge wire, then realized I didn't have an good way to hold them in the flame. (Using my fingers would be a BAD idea.) I remember someone mentioning that sticking them in sand worked well. Unfortunately I didn't have any sand. It crossed my mind that soil might be an alternative, but the ground outside was frozen solid.
So what could I stick the wire in to make it stand up so I could flame it? The best thing I came up with was a slice of white bread.
So that's what we did. Unfortunately, the flame from the Benzomatic wasn't hot enough to melt the silver effectively. It took so long that the bread started to toast up. And it took forever for the 20 gauge wire to ball up and make headpins.
Despite my optimism for the Benzomatic, I wan't exactly happy with the results. So I decided to return it and get something BIGGER.
Oh yes. I went out and bought myself a butane torch. So please look forward to hearing about my new adventures. I'm sure I'll be blogging about them soon.
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Vicki
I'm no good at jewelry making so I just live vicariously through others and buy it.
hehe. have fun with the bigger toy:)
Good luck!
You won't get any toast though...
So, thank you for sharing this. I cant wait to see what happens next.
Good luck.
I used pliers but your toast makes for a much more entertaining post! :) Best of luck with your new torch!
Thanks for the links. Those are great!
2 tips I've recently gotten (but haven't tried yet:
1. put the wire in the very end of the blue flame, it's hotter there
2. to make more symmetrical ends, form the balls at the bottom, not the top, of the wire.