Chips Around Bead Holes
 

Why am I getting chips around the ends of my beads?

Sorry, rephrase that question - my dremel is chipping the ends of my beads, what can I do to stop the chipping?

The beads in question have nice dimpled ends when they come off the mandrel but once I clean them with my dremel there are chips around the hole that weren't there to start with. I use a diamond bit in my dremel & use a fairly low speed, but it's really annoying me that I am losing bead after bead to my reject box because the ends keep chipping - help?! :(

Robyn,
Make sure your bit is tightly seated in the dremel, and that it is very straight - not bent at all. That should help.
Cheryl

Perhaps the grit of your diamond bit is too coarse? Also, be sure to hold the bit straight in the hold and not at an angle. Hope you work out the issue!

I have (and have posted asking about) the exact same problem, especially with my BHBs.

Someone recommended slowing down the speed of the dremel, and my husband suggested being very careful about the angle the of the bit in the bead hole. I also bought one of the Art In the Round's BeadReamers.

All I can say is that reducing the speed of the dremel to #1, being careful about the angle, and changing to the BeadReamer has reduced my chippage to less than 1/2 the beads instead of all the beads. I think I'm just not careful enough, what with being in a hurry, hating the process of cleaning the beads, and my fingers slipping on the bead in the water.

I hope this helps!

Slow, slow and slower!

An old bit is much better than a new bit. I use one that is long and slim and that I can just rub against the sides of the hole - rarely even touch the ends.

Remember that you're not trying to change the hole, you're just trying to scrape off a layer of something that isn't even as hard as glass.

And, lots of water.

Barbara

All of this is good advice! I would ALSO check your annealing cycle program. If that many of your beads are chipping, you may not be holding or soaking long enough. Or you may have such a deep dimple that no matter the speed of the rotary tool (mine is an old Craftsman that I have had since I was 14, and I am 48 now) you will get chips, just because of the angle of glass to steel.

If your dimples are deep, and you use 3/32" mandrels or larger, consider using a rod saw blade instead of a rotary tool. For me, half of a rod saw blade does a better job, is more controllable, and never chips my beads.

This is a rod saw blade -- just cut it in half at the middle with a bolt cutter or rotary tool cutoff blade, and you have two perfect bead reamers. http://www.amazon.com/Stanley-15-410.../dp/B000FK5DH0 The only caveat is that if you are doing *very* delicate transparents you might want to use another method, because rod saw blades can scratch the glass when new.

Don't use a dremel.

For all my opaque beads I just use the mandrel, scrubbed up and down a few times, Gets them as clean as they need.

For clear beads that I want really clean I use the mandrel and perhaps a pipe cleaner if I think they need a bit more.

Doesn't really take me any longer and I can sit in front of the TV and clean beads in downtime.

I find lining beads with a bit of silicone tubing stops them chipping when wired/on a head pin too.

Nichole, how do you sit in front of the TV and do this? Do you not use water? I would be afraid of the dust created when cleaning the beads.

Thank you everyone for your suggestions, I think I know the problem now! My bit is tapered so sometimes I will put it on an angle to clean the ends (because I'm lazy & it's quicker!). Obviously angle = chips ](*,) #-o

I will try to keep it straight from now on, hopefully that will solve the problem.

ETA - Simvet, I have done mine in front of the TV before I had my playroom, I do mine in a large bowl of water on top of a chamois, so no dust.

I use a stable table and an ice cream container with about 2" of water in it. A towel to dry them off.

Are you cleaning them under water? I use tapered bits. I don't exert a lot of pressure inside the bead holes. Remember, you are just removing the release, not taking off a layer of glass.

What helped me with this is after I remove my beads from the mandrel I throw them in water and let them soak for a day and then clean them. The release comes off easily that way so I don't exert enough pressure to chip them.

It happened to me recently, most of my bead holes were chipped after cleaning. I couldn't figure it out until I realized how thin my mandrels had become on each end (yes, I am cheap, when one end is used, I flip the mandrel and start using the other end). Some of them were 6 years old and you could see the difference in thickness at bare eyesight. I threw them away, ordered new ones and haven't had the problem since.

This. ^^^ The diamond coating on those tapered bead reamers you can get at places like Widget supply are just too coarse. Get a BeaDreamer and you will probably never see a chipped hole again.

I was cleaning beads this morning and had a couple of lentils chip on me. Only after I looked at the dremel bit did I realize that it was well beyond it's use by date.

THIS :)

I had that a few months ago. I had read here, I think, that poorly mixed bead release could cause that. I took the bead release out in a glass measuring cup and used a stick blender to mix it. No issues since then.

Mine seem ok until I accidentally bump the bead with the very end of the shank..those darn things are slippery.I make fairly long beads so i have to use most of the length of the bit but the bumping of the Dremel collette is my problem..working on being more careful :( I hate cleaning beads.....

If your bead release has tiny little lumps in it, that can cause a little roughness in and around the holes. Which can chip, of course. Mix it up thoroughly to get out all of the lumps. If your bead release has tiny bubbles which will either dry as a tiny bump or pop, those can make a rough surface also. After shaking it up, and before opening the lid, tap the bottle on the sides or hit the bottom several times on the surface of the table so the bubbles rise to the top. After you open it, you can tap a little more until you don't see any more bubbles rising and popping on the surface.

This thread is from a year ago, I was thinking I read this before and was going to look for the thread (this one) to link :lol:

:lol: yes it is from that long ago, I have since bought a BeadReamer & no more chips as long as I am careful. :)