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Old 01-02-2003, 12:30 PM
Chili_Verde
 
Posts: n/a
Default [IBC] Annealed Copper Wire

Ok, so if this process is the kind of annealing that I am familiar with,
then the wire is heated up to full red heat and then allowed to cool slowly.
Copper doesn't have the same kind of hardening that Steel would, so the
process of actually making the wire hard would be from drawing the metal out
into smaller diameters by passing them through tapered holes in iron plate,
or hammering.

Tempering on the other hand, is the process of carefully softening the metal
to retain various properties. I. E. in a knife blade you would want the
edge to stay hard so it would hold the sharpness, but the spine of the blade
you would want to be soft enough to not snap from stresses; the spine would
then be heated carefully on a red hot metal block to remove the hardness and
brittleness.

Metals get their maximum hardness by the size of the crystals of the
material. In some cases the metal is melted together with other materials
to make an alloy that is harder by causing those crystals to form smaller
and thus give greater strength and hardness to it. Carbon + Iron in Steel,
Zinc + Copper in Brass, and Tin + Copper in Bronze. We wouldn't be talking
about an Alloy like this when we talk about wire for Bonsai would we? If it
is straight Copper wire then it should anneal the same way every time.

Chili!
==================

"Marty & Patty Weiser" wrote in message
news:000001c2c9ae$eca983e0$c9e9bb3f@Weiser1...
All,

When working with wire gauge numbers please keep in mind that there are
approximately 10 different standards in use around the world today. In
the US the most common is the American Wire Gauge (AWG) which is also
know as Brown & Sharpe. In the Japan it appears to be the Imperial or
British Standard (IBS). A general rule of thumb is that for the same
diameter wire the IBS is 2 larger than the AWG - an 8 gauge IBS is about
the same diameter as a 6 gauge AWG. For reference the diameters listed
below are very close to AWG (within round off error).

As someone else stated there may by differences between electrically and
heat annealed Cu wire. The biggest issue with electrically annealed
wire is that it is generally done at a fairly high rate of speed.
Annealing is a process that depends upon both temperature and time -
getting it hot may "anneal" it from an industrial standpoint, but may
not leave it as soft as we desire from a bonsai perspective. Finally,
Julian Adams sells high quality, well annealed Cu wire
at good prices as well as presenting some good information on bonsai in
International Bonsai and US East Coast forums.

Regards - Marty

-----Original Message-----
From: Internet Bonsai Club ] On Behalf
Of Alan Zucker
Sent: Friday, January 31, 2003 11:04 AM
To:

Subject: [IBC] Annealed Copper Wire

Just ordered some annealed copper wire. Here's a sample of the pricing
for
single rolls. They offer quantity and volume discounts.

1/4" DIA. = .250" - ( 6.35MM ) - 6 FEET @ $6.00
3/16" DIA. = .188" - ( 4.76MM ) - 10 FEET @ $6.00
6 GAUGE = .160" - ( 4.11MM ) - 12 FEET @ $6.00
8 GAUGE = .128" - ( 3.20MM ) - 20 FEET @ $6.25
10 GAUGE = .102" - ( 2.60MM ) - 30 FEET @ $6.50
11 GAUGE = .091" - ( 2.30MM ) - 40 FEET @ $6.75
12 GAUGE = .080" - ( 2.00MM ) - 50 FEET @ $6.75
14 GAUGE = .064" - ( 1.60MM ) - 80 FEET @ $7.00
16 GAUGE = .050" - ( 1.27MM ) -125 FEET @ $7.25
18 GAUGE = .040" - ( 1.00MM ) - 200 FEET @ $7.50
20 GAUGE = .032" - ( 0.82MM ) - 325 FEET @ $7.75
22 GAUGE = .025" - ( 0.65MM ) - 525 FEET @ $8.00
24 GAUGE = .020" - ( 0.52MM ) - 800 FEET @ $8.50
26 GAUGE = .016" - ( 0.41MM ) - 1295 FEET @ $10.00
28 GAUGE = .013" - ( 0.32MM ) - 2050 FEET @ $12.50
THEY CARRY SIZES FROM 2 GAUGE ( .250" ) TO 32 GAUGE ( .008" )

PARAMOUNT WIRE CO
www.parawire.com

First time I ordered from them. I'll let you know how it goes.

Alan Zucker zone 6b
You're never to old to learn. You can learn from both beginner and
expert.




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