Splitting silver cores - Impress beadliner - help please!

[Lush!]

I've finally gathered together lots of new tools and bits n pieces, including lots of rather pricey silver tubes, and sat down to do lots of silver coring today.

I finished up with 3 perfect cores, one almost perfect but it appears to have stress lines round the edge of the flared tube, and these poor specimens


Can anybody give me some advice please?  I just don't know why some worked and some didn't.  I cut the tube to length, annealed and pickled it, then took care to follow the Impress instructions.  The first one to split was 6mm tube (top left) then there were 3 using 5.5 mm tube, the pink one was the last one, using 5mm tube.

So now I've got to buy yet more tools to rescue these beads (I'm assuming I need a saw and a vice?).

My new press arrived from Maria Louisa today, I shall be thoroughly Peed off if the silver splits in those mahoosive beads.

[Funky Cow]

Oh b****r Julie  Gorgeous beads - I hope you do manage to rescue them 

[Les]

oh that's a pain
hope you manage to rescue the beads and get to the bottom of the problem xx

[Katiequiggle]

I know nothing, but, having watched Charlotte at the flame off demonstrate not on a bead cause she brought the wrong size tube, are you doing it slow enough, turning it too much each turn etc and have you checked that you have the right size thingummy in the bottom bit for the size tube you are using.  Don't know if any of this addvice is any good but thought I'd suggest it.  Gorgeous beads.

[Lush!]

Yes, I'm doing it slow, following instructions - 3/4 turn at first, then 1/2 a turn (although often I only do 1/4 to be really careful).  The split is most often happening after the first or second turn - and as it is often splitting at the top end on the first turn, I don't think it can be to do with the size of the peg at the bottom ... 

[saffie]

don't want to teach you to suck eggs but how are you annealing. maybe the silver is not "soft" enough!

[Maria Louisa]

Julie, do you preheat the silver tube first?
Only the thin walled silver tube (0,3mm) can be used without heating first.
The thicker walled tubes will split because the silver isn't soft enough for it to core.
It's too difficult to explain in English for me how it works exactly but if no one else knows I will try it later for you using a translater for the words I don't know.

[saffie]

I heat my silver tube till glowing and then slow count to ten keeping the glow but obvoiusly not melting it I then quench it in cold water and then core my bead! I not done any for ages but my success rate was 95% using dapping punches and hammer not bead liner! silver core death was the result of the glass bead smashing and not the silver splitting!

HTH a little

[Lush!]

Maria Louisa, I think you're talking about "annealing" the tube - same as Sam.

Well yes, I think I'm doing it right but this is the part of the process that I'm least confident with.  I've got a small butane pencil torch and a kiln brick.  I'm cutting the tube to length then I place it on the kiln brick and heat all over with the torch, making sure the silver blackens evenly all over. Then I continue to heat till it glows and keep heating for a few seconds, then pick up with my long tweezers and drop into cold water.

I tried it one time with my lampworking torch and completely overheated the silver so it melted - so I know that it doesn't take long for this to happen. Maybe I'm being too cautious.  Any tips on how to know how long to anneal for?

CROSS POSTED SAM - I'll read your post now!!

[saffie]

Can i just say i said the obviously not to melt thing cos in my silversmithing classes i was a disaster with soldering always melted the silver. Think I am too used to melting the snot out of glass my control goes a bit with soldering!!! LOL

I used guidance from the dawn and evan tut posted on here!

[Lush!]

Oh yes, I've watched that a few times - I think I'll watch the annealing bit again on there, good idea Sam.

I suppose it didn't help that I was annealing in daylight so its not so easy to see exactly what's glowing.

[silverlemon]

Interesting.

I did my coring using thick tube with this tool and I did NOT anneal my tube and it was good.

It looks to me like you may have overheated the tube and ended up making it fragile instead of malleable. I know about this because I'm good at knackering silver by overheating when I have to anneal a piece loads of times.  

Annealing is best done with the light off so you can see what colour you are getting. You want a cherry red colour not bright orange, and you want to play the flame along the tube with an even stroke. I don't normally time myself.

I've noticed when I get it too hot the silver surface bubbles a bit like when you cook a poppadom in the microwave.  

By the way I'm not saying I know what the problem is but I do know what happens to silver when it's overheated, it just ends up splitting.

Try without annealing, I've done all mine with this tool without annealing, and it was thick tube.

[TiaraHelen]

Know nothing about annealing silver, but can I chuck in an ignorant question?  Why can't you anneal the silver in a kiln?

[saffie]

i think cos although the name is the same it is a different process with a different end result! annealing glass is about getting rid of the stress in the glass so it is less likely to shatter annealing silver is about making it workable! I hope I got that right else I am about to look a complete muppet! 

[astringofbeads]

Ok, looking at the tubing I would say you've over heateed it during the annealing process. It's a pain when it happens as you've found out cos you only really know it's happened neal when it cracks! A good tip already mentioned is to anneal in dim lighting as you truly see the red colour then. I've had it happen a couple of times too. I must add that I have never really used the machines though as I dap each and every one of mine by hand. I find this way gives better control particularly if the bead is a hairs width less than perfect