Drawplates

Is there any advantage in buying an expensive tungsten carbide drawplate?
The price differential is large, but I'm inclined to buy one over an
"economy" model as I'm thinking the wire will come out smoother.
Then again gold is soft relative to other metals...?

Just wondering.

On Wed, 19 Oct 2005 17:50:42 -0700, in ¸õ "Paul Wilson"
wrote:

Is there any advantage in buying an expensive tungsten carbide drawplate?
The price differential is large, but I'm inclined to buy one over an
"economy" model as I'm thinking the wire will come out smoother.
Then again gold is soft relative to other metals...?

Just wondering.


Good carbide plates are a joy to use in that they produce a bright polished wire
without the striation marks that steel plates usually leave. And graduations in
size tend to be more uniformly accurate. The accuracy of the stamped wire
measurements does seem to vary depending on the quality of your carbide plate,
but unlike steel plates, the carbide ones remain at the size they start. Also,
carbide produces less friction when drawing wire, so less effort is required to
pull the wire. This is especially noticable on hard to draw metals, likesome
white golds and especially, platinum.

Personally, I use my carbide plates a LOT more than the steel ones, and consider
them very much worth the money. However, not every use needs them. Wire, when
bent, looses some of it's bright polish anyway, so to some degree, some uses of
the wire you draw are not better off for use of the carbide plate in terms of
final finishing. Other uses, the difference might be dramatic. So you'll have
to examine what you're doing to the wire, and whether than bright smooth high
polished wire you draw is worth the cost of the plates.

Also, it's worth mentioning that though the wire size does not wear to a larger
size over time, the carbide plates are more fragile than steel ones, especially
if you draw hard wire like nickel white golds. At work we have several carbide
plates where some of the holes are not usable after someone drew down white gold
wire too far without annealing, which can stress the small carbide insertenough
to fracture it. If you need more durable draw dies that can withstand really
heavy use (such as larger diameter harder wires, perhaps in a draw bench), then
consider purchase of the individual round draw dies rather than a plate. The
round dies are much thicker and heavier carbide (or even diamond if you need).
They cost more, and generally are more in the province of manufacturers, but
they're an option to be aware of.

Also, be aware that there are, as with steel plates, different qualities of the
carbide plates. The italian made ones seem to be heavier and thicker than
chinese plates, and mainland chinese drawplates (the bulk of what one finds on
ebay, for example), seem slightly lighter duty than those even from Taiwan. So
just keep in mind that they're not all created equal. The more expensiveones
will be sturdier, and perhaps a bit better finished too. But even the cheapest
ones are usable, and if you're not drawing hard white gold or other difficult to
draw material, you'll likely not notice much difference.

Also keep in mind that the carbide plates are generally only available inround.
I've got a couple sizes of square ones too, but I don't see them in the usual
catalogs. No doubt they're available, but not so easily, and shapes other than
round and square might only be available on special order, if at all.

HTH

Peter