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Dollhouse chandelier assembly tutorials or DIYs


MLI Designs

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I have been searching for what seems like endless hours to find tutorials or DIYs for the construction/assembly of the electrified miniature chandeliers. I've found several with one bulbs construction but none that shows how to make these beautiful elaborate crystal chandeliers. 

I pretty much know what jewelry findings I need except I don't know the name of the thin metal tubing for the arms (you can pass the wires through the tube).

If anyone has done this and cares to share their experience or pass on a link I would great appreciate it.

Also, if you know the proper name of the metal tubing,mth at would be great.

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For me it all sounded simple enough but it turned into a complete disaster. The entire project mess is sitting in a box. 

There are a number of problems: the brass tubing that you can pick up at any hobby store that sells remote controlled airplanes and cars, must be shaped using a template board. You hammer nails into the board and bend the tube around the nails. Insert your wires before you bend the tubing. Be extra careful not to scrape off the insulation.

Secondly, while at the hobby store pick up some tiny shrink tubing. That will assist at holding the pieces together. 

Thirdly, and here is where I gave up. When inserting the wires into the brass tubing you have to make sure you don't accidentally cut the scrape off the wire's insulation or the wires will short out.

Soldering melts the insulation and can cause shorts. And it is difficult to solder brass.

I use mine as spare parts for other projects.

 

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53 minutes ago, Sable said:

For me it all sounded simple enough but it turned into a complete disaster. The entire project mess is sitting in a box. 

There are a number of problems: the brass tubing that you can pick up at any hobby store that sells remote controlled airplanes and cars, must be shaped using a template board. You hammer nails into the board and bend the tube around the nails. Insert your wires before you bend the tubing. Be extra careful not to scrape off the insulation.

Secondly, while at the hobby store pick up some tiny shrink tubing. That will assist at holding the pieces together. 

Thirdly, and here is where I gave up. When inserting the wires into the brass tubing you have to make sure you don't accidentally cut the scrape off the wire's insulation or the wires will short out.

Soldering melts the insulation and can cause shorts. And it is difficult to solder brass.

I use mine as spare parts for other projects.

 

@Sable now that saddens me. There's no way I would pay $150-$250 for a mini chandelier. I'm too cheap fto buy r that. I like to DIY if possible. I purchased all the sizes in crystals and my mom supplied me with tons of jewelry findings.

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I just posted about my experience with using the K&S Metal Tubing Bender - not a good one. I have ordered the product below, which is used to bend gas lines in autobiles, and will report again on my blog about my experience using it. Maybe this will help. If not, the third link shows how one miniaturist made her half scale chandelier by just wrapping the wires around wire.

http://my-miniaturemadness.blogspot.com/2016/05/easy-teacup-chandelier.html

http://www.amazon.com/Dubro-Products-785-Du-Bro-Tubing/dp/B0006O4HOK?ie=UTF8&psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00

http://tinydistinction.blogspot.ca/2014/11/gothic-victorian-parlour-and-chandelier.html

Good luck!

Jodi

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36 minutes ago, mikeuk said:

I bend both brass and aluminium tube around dowel using these:-

http://modelshop.co.uk/Shop/Item/Tube-benders-Pk5/ITM6398

They work well......take it slow but I've never had a kink!..........not with tube anyway!!!

I was using copper tubing - 1/8" hollow. Maybe that was the issue?

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I bent mine around a glass test tube. Have to watch crimping on ends when you cut the brass tube. Might take an awl and re-open if you get a crimp cut. Then I very very patiently fed my wire through. Problem I had was getting all the wires then soldered together without breaking the tiny wires -- cause they have to be striped. I took one from each bulb pack and put those together then put the rest together and used tiny shrink tube to seperate. If at any time those sets of bundled wires touch in the exposed wire, you'll have a melted wire mess. It's advisable to stagger your two sets of wires so they don't touch. I had mine almost done and on the last wire it broke, I was doing 8 arm. 

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Yeah and don't think you'll keep it tidy and straight and use some glue on the findings, lol, well you can if you want, but....That's why when I broke the one wire I had to scrap the chandelier. I couldn't pull the wire out because I had used glue on the ends where the findings touched the brass tubes! Had to start over.

a tip on cutting the tubes, don't make a regular cut. Take your jewelry cutters and open the gently around the tube, go around and around gently applying pressure until it cuts off. Then if it slants inward, then take your awl and poke it in and apply pressure outwards, thus opening the end back up in order to get full diameter for your wires to feed through.

Mike's idea of using a dowel is a good idea. I used a glass test tube because that's what I had on hand.

with all the money I have spent on this endeavor, all the bulb wires I've burnt figuring this out or accidentally broke, I could've had a nice chandelier! I can see why they cost so much. Still though, this is something I'm determined to get so its worth it to me.

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@mikeuk @BriJohn alright, let me see if this is the same tubing I'm talking about.

for the holidays, my boys bought me a whole bunch of 1/24 scale rooms boxes from China. Each one of them had a battery pack with tiny LED bulbs. They can with instructions (in Chinese) on her w to make the lamps and chandys. 

The kit came with a gold colored tube. It was so soft and flexible and e wires slipped right through, no problems. 

Are the tubes you are speaking of easy to bend? These tubes were incredible

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In my opinion anything from China that is a easy to bend metal is probably colored treated Lead. If you think that is the case, make sure you wash your hands after handling it. Test it by rubbing it against sonething hard. If it looks like pencil then it is lead.

the metal tubing we are talking about brass. It is ridgid, but bendable.

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Yes, what sable said. It bends but there's some resistance. Plus, if it's too flexible it won't hold up to all the work you'll be doing on it with the wiring I wouldn't think. This is 1/16, smallest I could find and I know I wouldn't be able to thread that double wire on a bend in anything smaller. 

image.jpeg

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Just an optional thought on all the brass findings. It was kinda driving me crazy that the brass findings I had collected were not all the same shade of brass. I cleaned them all very good with vinegar, baking soda, and maybe flour? Anyway, that paste really cleaned them up but they still weren't the same color. I finally decided to use testors gold metallic paint on my findings so they'd all match. Very pleased with how that turned out. Less yellow, all even.

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Try this link, it takes you to a page of pinterest that has some tutorials. 

https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=dollhouse%20miniature%20chandelier%20tutorials&rs=typed&0=dollhouse%7Ctyped&1=miniature%7Ctyped&2=chandelier%7Ctyped&3=tutorials%7Ctyped

 

and for lots of different parts good for miniatures try jar/jaf miniatures here:

http://jar-jaf.com/

 

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Seriously, I must have spent over 20+ hours searching and nine for tutorials for extravagant crystal lighted chandeliers. It's like it is some big secret. And from blogs and answers here, it sounds like wiring through those metal dowels is a nightmare.

I am so frustrated. I don't want to spend $150+ for a Chandy. So mad

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59 minutes ago, MLI Designs said:

Seriously, I must have spent over 20+ hours searching and nine for tutorials for extravagant crystal lighted chandeliers. It's like it is some big secret. And from blogs and answers here, it sounds like wiring through those metal dowels is a nightmare.

I am so frustrated. I don't want to spend $150+ for a Chandy. So mad

It's not that it's a big secret, it's just very difficult to do and have it come out as nice as you planned on it being in your head.  People just give up. 

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Michele, if you check my "tutorial" (sorry got deleted) my album it might give you an idea how difficult it is. I'm with Brianna - good start and then the wiring shortened somewhere - it is in a box somewhere now....

 

http://www.greenleafdollhouses.com/forum/?app=gallery&module=gallery&controller=browse&album=7420

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4 hours ago, MLI Designs said:

Seriously, I must have spent over 20+ hours searching and nine for tutorials for extravagant crystal lighted chandeliers. It's like it is some big secret. And from blogs and answers here, it sounds like wiring through those metal dowels is a nightmare.

I am so frustrated. I don't want to spend $150+ for a Chandy. So mad

So you know a lot of those very nice fancy chandeliers don't use brass tubes, right? There are many other there that use the "spokes" jewelry findings and run their wires down the spokes and up the decorative beaded central column. You then paint the wires gold. Once you have it all do dadded up, you don't notice the wires. This one is a good example, they don't use brass rods, I think they used the spoke finding.

 

Screen Shot 2015-08-22 at 7.05.29 PM.png

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Here's a link with a simpler version of chandelier using a "spoke" (like a wheel spoke) finding. This one has flowers on it but i have some in my stash that are simple spokes I bought for this reason. I can't remember where I bought them but I think it was a UK company. They sell them with 2, 3, 4, 5 spokes, maybe more - you could always double a 4 spoke to make an 8 arm I suppose?

I too, spent hours and hours trying to find good tutorials on it, and I decided they don't exist. This one that I linked it pretty good - then you take it as fancy as you can manage. I happened to get obsessed with a brass rod chandelier I saw from a member here in the gallery so I wanted to conquer the rods first. I think the spokes would be easier plus it looks fantastic.

PS - I recommend crystals 2 to 2.5MM for the most part. Like the one you see above, the swag work in the middle, I'm pretty sure that's no bigger than 2 to 2.5MM. At first I had some 4MM mixed into mine in the chandelier photo I made that I shared back up the thread (for the record, that was not finished, had to do decorative work at the top to hide the mess with fancy brass beads and more crystals) - the 4MM you can see on the bottom. I decided that was a little too big for me. Changed that out. Just a preference but it's tricky to know what size to buy at first. I bought mine at Fire Mountain Gems. 4MM can have their place as accents, I think, but the tiniest size you see is 2mm on these fancy chandeliers.

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  • 4 years later...

I've been looking for tutorials also without much luck. There are a lot of great tips on this site, I'm glad I found it, I'm not alone!! It looks like the last post was in 2016 though.....it's now 2020 :(. I haven't been able to find those "spoke" parts, I don't know the correct name for them and google has shown me more wooden wheels then I ever care to see again BUT I did come across....gears!? Some of them are pretty delicate looking and would be mostly covered up anyhow, they already have the "spokes" and they are super cheap. There are a bunch of sets of steampunk ones on Amazon. Any thoughts or ideas about this? Can these things easily be cut I wonder? 81GSRZsPwxL._AC_SL1200_.jpg

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