Yum! Lined beads

I am totally digging using this new bead liner. This is the new bead liner from Nortel - with the snap-in tools.

So far - I'm just enjoying lining single colour "spacers." The red one is 26 mm outside diameter - the lined hole is 8.4 mm.

The red is Lauscha Transparent Light Red (the batch that goes cloudy) and the blue one, on the left, is CiM Halong Bay.

I have a couple of observations - in no particular order, as yet.

If the tubing is too long for the hole - the result is much uglier than if it is too short. Err on the side of shorter. Too long, and it starts to collapse and turn into an oval hole!



You can easily anneal your tubing on your torch. Have a pot of water handy - slide your cut tube piece onto an undipped mandrel - hold level. (If you think you might tip your hand and slide the tube towards you - wrap a turn of glass around the mandrel to act as a stopper - you can crack or shock it off later - or use a bent mandrel.) Hold the tubing in the flame till it gets a dull red glow - take it out immediately (this is easier to see without too many lights on.) It will heat up very fast. Use a small flame - a little on the bushy side. I melted through the first two pieces of tubing. It goes very fast. When you get your dull red glow - slide into the water to cool.

A wire brush on a dremel is great for deburring after cutting the tubing.

I'll keep you posted as I get to larger and larger holes!