Gyrogami Blog - Precious Metals, Jewelry, Artwork

Ode to the Drawplate

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Categories: Instruction and information; Projects and equipment

Word count/read time: 477 words; 2-1/2 minutes

Drawplates are used to make wire. They have successively smaller holes to slowly decrease the diameter of wire. Crappy ones are plain steel. Better ones have carbide inserts which is what I use. In a shop setting there are few metals suitable for this DIY equipment: precious metals, copper, and select other metals.

They are used for reducing the diameter of tubing, too. It is more difficult than pulling wire since there is often much more metal being compressed. This is what drawbenches are for since it is not feasible to pull large tubing or wire by hand.

Another use is for chain making. The drawplate compresses and homogenizes them into something quite appealing. There can be oodles of flaws in the undrawn chain - people are even lazier with these chains than for chainmaille - yet it still comes out looking good, at least to the untrained eye.

While metal drawplates are required for making wire, they can (will) damage chains so it's best to use non-metal versions. Wood works well for Viking Knit chains since there is little pressure as the weave passes through the holes provided the holes have small increments. Don't skimp here; get oak or something serious or else you'll be getting another when it cracks.

Loop-in-loops are a different story. I've split 1" thick oak drawplates so forego the wood. Fortunately, a well-made chain doesn't need to be molested by a drawplate. I make high-quality, nearly perfect chains so drawplates are only used by special request. All of my clients have left the chains untouched once they understood what was happening. Besides, relying on a random process to "fix" the chain is an invitation to disaster.

I ditched wood entirely and made several different drawplates out of Delrin using a CNC mill to precisely bore and position the holes, one side of which must be tapered. This plastic ain't cheap; it didn't help that I ruined a few getting everything dialed in!

For the matching set of four, the increments range between 0.002" and 0.010" for the 112 holes. The Viking Knit version has 61 holes ranging from 1/16" to 1" in 1/64" increments. There should be the right size for every occasion. I can't believe how much time it took to arrange the holes...even with a program it was excessive. Measure countless times, reposition repeatedly, get everything to fit into the plastic blocks. Then do it all again to fix any screw-ups on the prototypes.

I'm making the mother of all drawplates in 304 stainless steel! It will draw down everything "strong" like tubing, heavy duty chains, etc. Each hole has a 3deg taper and an extended constant diameter section unlike a regular metal drawplate which has a very thin orifice. With 1/128" increments from 1/8" to 109/128", it should do it all. Machining it will neither be timely nor easy.

Posted by M: May 2, 2024

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