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Chandelier question


Goldenrodfarm

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I cut rod like that with the Dremel cutoff wheels before, it gave a nice clean cut if you take your time and don't apply too much pressure.  I clamped them in a tiny jig I made and just cut off at the end.  Took a couple of tries to get the jig right, but I have quite a few brass tubes.  The jig is just a simple flat piece of wood that I used the router to cut a narrow grove that the beads fit in, then I measure and clamp and cut off at the end.  I have a hard time making every thing the same size if I don't do something like that.

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44 minutes ago, Goldenrodfarm said:

I cut rod like that with the Dremel cutoff wheels before, it gave a nice clean cut if you take your time and don't apply too much pressure.  I clamped them in a tiny jig I made and just cut off at the end.  Took a couple of tries to get the jig right, but I have quite a few brass tubes.  The jig is just a simple flat piece of wood that I used the router to cut a narrow grove that the beads fit in, then I measure and clamp and cut off at the end.  I have a hard time making every thing the same size if I don't do something like that.

Okay, good advice, thanks!

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On 1/24/2018, 9:52:12, BriJohn said:

I thought about soldering too but then I read it's very difficult to solder brass and you have to use a small torch. I used Elieen's the Ultimate which was a clear glue. Here's how close I got. The second picture wasn't finished at the top, I was just so proud of my progress up that point. Never finished either of these, makes me sad. It was getting all the wires from all the candle bulbs condensed into two cords that kept throwing me. Those wires are just so tiny, they break so easily when you're stripping them and trying to get them all on the same circuit line or whatever. I told myself once I got one of these to work with the brass tube arms I would never do one again! I was going to use the spoke findings from there on out because feeding that wire through the brass is tough also. But I firmly believe where there's a will, there's a way. 

Added: yes I remember I tried to solder that brass and when it didn't work I went online and watched videos about how to do it and they were using little torches to get it hot enough to fuse. If you're using the spokes for arms and the beads down the middle, which I was going to do some like that also, then  I don't think you'll have to use anything more than glue. I wanted to solder my brass tubes together at the top because the design I was after, it really needed it there, I felt, so the darn thing would stay together.

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Isn't it hard to get the wires to go through those curved tubes? It looks difficulty so was just wondering.  I also wonder, how do you connect all those separate wires to your power source? I wonder if you can connect them to go in one plug?  I use round wire.   I had thought about trying to make one but gave up, wondering how you would do that.

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16 minutes ago, havanaholly said:

Cheryl,  somewhere in the discussion the suggestion was made to thread the wires through the tubes before bending them, which seems a far more civilized approach.

First,  a big {Hugs} back at you Holly.  and Congratulations :congrats:on getting the Garfield! You will have a lot of fun.  Oh my .....of course.......omgosh I should have thought of that lol  :dunce: from me to myself!  Perfect idea. I guess I was thinking they were purchased already in a curve. :crazyeyes: but yes......string the wire before bending! 

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6 minutes ago, havanaholly said:

I found a wire bending jig many, many years ago in a Ben Franklin store in Kailua, HI.

LOL thanks Holly.  Like I am going to find one now haha..........I miss Ben Franklin Stores. they were so cool.  We always called them Dime Stores  ...:)    oh and then there was the Penny Candy we use to buy.  no such thing now.  honestly we had candy that was a penny! .......we also use to buy  a lot of Candy Cigarettes  OMGosh! 

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1 hour ago, mininecessities said:

LOL thanks Holly.  Like I am going to find one now haha..........I miss Ben Franklin Stores. they were so cool.  We always called them Dime Stores  ...:)    oh and then there was the Penny Candy we use to buy.  no such thing now.  honestly we had candy that was a penny! .......we also use to buy  a lot of Candy Cigarettes  OMGosh! 

Cheryl, I thought you were younger than I!  FYI there's still a Ben Franklin store in Woodstock, VA, that still has its lunch section, but they didn't have wire bending jigs whenever we went.

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1 hour ago, havanaholly said:

Cheryl, I thought you were younger than I!  FYI there's still a Ben Franklin store in Woodstock, VA, that still has its lunch section, but they didn't have wire bending jigs whenever we went.

I imagine I am younger then you too, but I remember all of the above, used to love those candy cigarettes!  an the bubble gum cigars.   We used to pour over the penny candy forever trying to make a choice!  

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2 hours ago, havanaholly said:

Cheryl, I thought you were younger than I!  FYI there's still a Ben Franklin store in Woodstock, VA, that still has its lunch section, but they didn't have wire bending jigs whenever we went.

That's awesome! Too far to go though :(  but that is amazing.  I have been going back on this thread to see if I said my age whew!!  oh it is ok lol I am 68  and sometimes just go ahead and say 70ish.........I am old enough to forget movies so I get to watch them again haha

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34 minutes ago, Goldenrodfarm said:

I imagine I am younger then you too, but I remember all of the above, used to love those candy cigarettes!  an the bubble gum cigars.   We used to pour over the penny candy forever trying to make a choice!  

Yes we did Barb.........it took forever because our money would buy so much.  oh yes the big pink bubble gum cigars lol.  

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1 hour ago, SewMini said:

Hey now, I'm not quite 40 and I remember well candy cigarettes! I loved those and "Big League Chew" that was supposed to look like chaw :D 

I'm 45 and we had candy cigarettes well into my teen years here in Oz. :) And when I was under 10 we also had 1 and 2 cent lollies (candies). I used to go to the milk bar and get a mixed bag for 20 cents. Choosing which ones was most of the fun. :D 

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10 minutes ago, Samusa said:

I'm 45 and we had candy cigarettes well into my teen years here in Oz.

You know you can still get them here.  https://www.oldtimecandy.com/walk-the-candy-aisle/candy-cigarettes/  A few years ago, for our twenty-fifth anniversary, we had a 50's-style cocktail party.  We had candy cigarettes because smoking was so common back then, but we didn't actually want our guests smoking.  :french:And I also absolutely remember Ben Franklin stores, penny candy (some were actually two for a penny!) and bubble gum cigars.  There was a little mom-and-pop grocery store about half a block from our school, and they had buckets of all different kinds of penny candy.  I remember that some of the jelly-type candies weren't wrapped.  Not very sanitary, but we didn't care back the.

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2 hours ago, Samusa said:

I'm 45 and we had candy cigarettes well into my teen years here in Oz. :) And when I was under 10 we also had 1 and 2 cent lollies (candies). I used to go to the milk bar and get a mixed bag for 20 cents. Choosing which ones was most of the fun. :D 

I've got 3 years on you and I remember getting candy cigarettes in my trick-or -treat bag! There were the minty ones, and the pink bubble gum type that was wrapped in paper....if you blew on it, the powdered sugar looked like smoke. I also remember getting stale penny gumballs out of the machine, I lost a tooth on one of those stale ones!

 

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One of our hops in Havana, FL, sold a lot of retro stuff, and the penny candy (which was a few dollars by then).  Do they still make the Sugar Daddy?

We have strayed from chandeliers, has anyone started one?  I really like the colored drops.

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On 1/31/2018, 2:53:34, mininecessities said:

Isn't it hard to get the wires to go through those curved tubes? It looks difficulty so was just wondering.  I also wonder, how do you connect all those separate wires to your power source? I wonder if you can connect them to go in one plug?  I use round wire.   I had thought about trying to make one but gave up, wondering how you would do that.

So the idea was to separate each of the double wires of each bulb string set, strip them, then if my memory is correct you take one from each set of two and combine all those into a group. Take the others, the remainder, and combine into one group. Then you can take these tiny heat shrink tubes and my plan was to fuse it all onto two final wires and that wire would come out the top of my chandelier. It's been so long, and stripping the wires and twisting was hard for me, they kept breaking but going to use the solder gun next time to try and strip the wires. If you can get the wires simplified into two final wires, an in current wire and and out current wire, you could definitely put them on a plug.

Getting the wires through the tubes is a small challenge no matter what. My curves were pretty big so it was not a huge deal. Like the others were saying, if you had any smaller curves than what I have here, or fancy curves, I'm guessing you'd need to bend the brass with the wire fed through already. I was using the smallest diameter of brass that could physically hold those two tiny wires.

Used 1/16 brass tube. My bends were 1"

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