Hello, everyone, I am building a wire coiling jig for maille and would like to show this to the beginners out there, who would like to make their own maille. I will send a step by step picture set up when I get to the shop this evening but first I wanted to show a coiling die to go over the mandrel on the jig I worked on.
The isometric drawing is of 1/2 of the die. Cut a block of hardwood in half, drill through the center along your cut the diameter of your mandrel, then drill half depth, the dimensions of the mandrel + twice your wire diameter. Where that diameter begins, along the edge, drill through one of the two blocks the diameter of the wire.
As the mandrel is turned with the two halves clamped together the jig and fed wire will move along the axis of the mandrel and this jig will keep the wire tight against the coil.
Here are the blocks I made out of poplar, just drill a hole through the larger diameter to the outside of the block at the edge near where it meets the smaller diameter
Here is my completed jig. Only pictures of it in action for now, can't upload video until I get home from work.
As the wire feeds through the block it pushes the block to the opposite end of the mandrel. At the same time, the wire is held taut next to the previous coil.
Video
Video of the jig in use but slowed down due to filming with one hand
, so the block and clamp moved freely.