Keeping core wires parallel?

[bmkvaper]

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I want to make parallel cores (not 2... I mean like 3-6). It's very thin wire, say 30-40g. I do have ball bearing swivels, in fact 3 of them as fail safes one after the other.

My core wire seems to just look like twisted poop. How do you go about keeping it nice and parallel?

Thanks in advance

 

[gary68]

Only ever tried making straight forward claptons. Have you twisted each individual strand in the drill to straighten/stiffen them up.. Before clamping them parallel in the chuck. Just a thought @bmkvaper

 

[monstermash]

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

I want to make parallel cores (not 2... I mean like 3-6). It's very thin wire, say 30-40g. I do have ball bearing swivels, in fact 3 of them as fail safes one after the other.

My core wire seems to just look like twisted poop. How do you go about keeping it nice and parallel?

Thanks in advance

Core wire as in a Clapton core for example?

 

[EmbraSewerRat]

Patience and taping the bundle together every couple of inches!

I tried to do a 3 core Clapton with 0.3mm and ended up using paper tape to keep the strands together, wee strips about 3-4mm wide and placed every so often along the bundle.
The pain is that you have to stop every couple of inches to peel the things off, loosing rhythm.

 

[bmkvaper]

Only ever tried making straight forward claptons. Have you twisted each individual strand in the drill to straighten/stiffen them up.. Before clamping them parallel in the chuck. Just a thought @bmkvaper

Yep straightened. I can do 2 cores without an issue, 3+ gets messy

Core wire as in a Clapton core for example?

Yes but let's say 3 in the centre / core not 1-2.

Patience and taping the bundle together every couple of inches!

I tried to do a 3 core Clapton with 0.3mm and ended up using paper tape to keep the strands together, wee strips about 3-4mm wide and placed every so often along the bundle.
The pain is that you have to stop every couple of inches to peel the things off, loosing rhythm.

I actually used the tape method when making a stapled helix, hated the peeling but it did help.

 

[wraith]

Could try a couple of lengths of plastic taped at each end as a clamp that can be slid up the wire as you do the outer wrap?

 

[monstermash]

Seems to me that you are breaking the KISS principle but how about using a larger gauge wire as a centre rod and wrestling it back out once you've completed the Clapton wrapover (I haven't tried this so fuck knows if it will work but it has a chance according to my brain)

 

[bmkvaper]

Could try a couple of lengths of plastic taped at each end as a clamp that can be slid up the wire as you do the outer wrap?

I like this idea, I'm going to give this a go.

Also, just has a lightbulb moment... Using a couple of small flat magnets, like the ones you get with the spoil from stealthvape. Using them as a clamp. Although this could be heavy and stupid. I'll try bits and bobs to find something suitable.

Seems to me that you are breaking the KISS principle but how about using a larger gauge wire as a centre rod and wrestling it back out once you've completed the Clapton wrapover (I haven't tried this so fuck knows if it will work but it has a chance according to my brain)

It could work, provided I use exactly the correct measurements for wire. Eg if I want a triple core the final core wires would need to be exactly 1/3 of the original cores size... Then again if you're doing more intricate work like a triple staggered Clapton I doubt you could remove and replace a core without screwing up the spacing.

 

[cloudcuckoo]

Tried the stealthvape magnet trick many moons ago, i just wrap the ends together with some high gauge wire and crack on. No swivels.

Wrap a few inches and 'finger' the cores flat, repeat.

On 2 cores i have a sub 1% fail rate, on multicores its prob closer to 5%, def a step up.

 

[bmkvaper]

I guess I need more practice and patience. Thanks @cloudcuckoo & the rest of you guys, much appreciated.