I haven't tried pulling down rods the size you're describing, but I've found that varying the size of what I'm pulling with gives me better control of the diameter of the stringer. For example, for hair-thin stringer, I don't heat much of the tip of the glass to be pulled and I use sharp pointed tweezers. The larger the diameter I want, the more glass I heat and the larger the implement I use to pull the stringer, from larger tweezers to a disc punty. If your stringers are too thin, try waiting longer before you start pulling the glass. Hope this helps!
Mimi
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