It's Crafty: Connecting Wooden Gears - Salvaging then weaving copper

I'm very interested in fiber and fabric and recently have been dabbling in spindles and spinning wheels.  I've learned some things about silk, cotton and wool.  I've been dyeing, spinning and felting wool.  I've been curious about doing something with wire, especially copper wire.  Weaving comes to mind.

Last Christmas, .  The movement of the adjacent gears was a bit clunky, and I thought that it might be better to separate the gears and join them with a chain.  But where do you get a chain with a 1" link length?  Oh goody!  I had to make it...  My introduction and enjoyment of Steam Punk creations led me in the direction of copper.  Copper, brass, wood, leather are all very present in Steam Punk creations.

The Copper in Wire

 Finding copper in waste electrical wire is practically inevitable. There are two commonly used materials for conductivity in electrical wire: copper and aluminum.  Although aluminum wire was used in homes in the 60s and 70s, copper is almost exclusively used in new household wiring today. Aluminum is still used for industrial situations. Wires that we may encounter as waste is usually a collection of thin copper fibers bundled together in a plastic sheath.  Some wires are made of several thin shielded wires may be bundled together into an outer sheath. For my crafting purposes, I was seeking long bundles of copper wires.  

Tools for Extracting the Copper

When you think about taking the shielding off of wire, you naturally think of using a wire stripper.  A pair of pliers was readily available, however, so I worked with those for a few days, removing the shielding an inch at a time.  I became fairly adept at squeezing the handles just enough to cut the shielding but not the wire.  Sometimes I cut the wire, but only one or two strands.  Sliding the shielding off, however, was a different matter, and very often the copper strands came with the bits of shielding and tangled into knots.

Which brought me back to a wire stripper.  A borrowed wire stripper in hand, I enjoyed not having to gingerly press down on the handles.  The wire stripper cut the shielding off perfectly, and an upward tug during the cut actually dragged the shielding an inch or two.  The stripper cut the shielding more precisely, but the shielding still had to be removed.  During the removal of the shielding by sliding it down the exposed length of the wire bundle, there was again the problem of breaking strands. It occurred to me that I needed to strip the wire lengthwise.  That would eliminate the problems caused by sliding the shielding along the wire.  I just had to figure out how to cut the shielding without cutting the wire.

If you were wondering whether lengthwise wire strippers exist, the answer is YES!  This one was advertised for the relatively inexpensive $59.95.

Or perhaps you're interested in an industrial tool for salvaging copper from wire.  For a mere $1,699.99 you can purchase 310 lbs of Automatic Wire Stripping Machine!

As you might imagine, I was unwilling to spend more than a few dollars on a tool for salvaging waste materials for my crafting.

The Right Tool for Me

The wire I was able to extract with the pliers seemed 'good enough', but I still wanted to try lengthwise extraction.  In the end, a simple pair of nail scissors was the best tool to use!  A snip at the end of the shielding and a tug at the wire within caused the thin wire filaments to act like a knife, easily cutting through the shielding.  I was able to accomplish in just a few minutes what had taken me an entire night to achieve using pliers!

Weaving the Wire

Once the extraction was complete, the wire needed to be woven.  This was the easiest part, as the copper fibers can be crimped in a few directions, and this will cause them to hold together quite well. The videos show some two versions of the chain and some problems I encountered connecting the wooden gears with the chain.  It also takes a look at some of the wires that I encountered, a discussion of the tools, a look at weaving the wire.

You may find on the Belmont Shore Patch and at the Handmade Penguin blog.