Working with Craft Wire and Beads

This is something that I would like to have members add their experience to if they have any. For about 2 or 3 years now I have been working with craft wire on my models, also Beads. This is what I have found out about it after making several mistakes and buying stuff that was to big.

As far as the Beads go ,like all things, Beads are sold by size. I have found that #20 is the right size for 1/24-1/25th scale.You might be able to go a little bit bigger but not much. At size #15 they are to big and look out of scale. So no matter the color or shape you pick #20 is the best. I try to pick a red and blue that look like A&N fitting colors. Now if you go to car shows you will see A&N fittings anodized in all kinds of colors. There are some cool looking Black and Silver ones out there. I haven't looked for beads that match but plan to soon. You can even use a color that matches the build and then it looks like you have custom colored fittings.

As far as the little Silver and Brass things I use for fittings they are called Bead Crimps you need #1. I have larger sizes but never use them they are just to big.

The braided line I use comes in different sizes and different strand counts. The smallest I have found is .012" that's a little under 3/8th of an inch in scale. The biggest I use is .035, that's 7/8 inch which is a pretty big line for anything. Also after that it becomes so big it's stiff and hard to work with. If you have ever built a Ross Gibson engine and plumbed the dry sump with the furnished line you know what I mean. It is .038".

If this is something you want to do then I would recommend that you look around your home town for a bead supply place. I use this one.

http://shipwreckbeads.com

I don't know how their prices compare to others. Their main store in is a town about 80 miles from me so whenever I am in the area I stop in and look around. There is a Bead store that just opened at my local Mall. The woman that owns it said she would order anything I needed. The problem is unless you can see it you don't know it it's right.

I have been ask about this quite abit lately and figured I would share what I have found out. One other thing I have found out is Craft Wire takes paint quite well, so if it's the wrong color paint it.

As far as cost goes. A 50 ft roll of this stuff is between $4.00 and $6.00 depending on the scale. 50 feet is a life time supply. The beads come in bags or on strings They are $2.00 up to $8.00 again depending on what you are buying.

One last thing. If you buy Beads on the string, make sure you have a bowl under them before you cut the string to get them off. Dude they go everywhere and you will be finding beads a year later in places you didn't know stuff could hide in.

All comments and questions are welcome.

Al, I probably don't need to say this but I will just in case. I have only used these beads in 1/24-1/25 scale. I have a calculator on my build bench that I use to find out size. Let's look at a battery cable. A battery cable made from #0 wire is 1/2 inch. So .500 divided by 25= .020" wire. If you are working in 1/12 scale then it would be .500 divided by 12= .04166666 or about .042" . I hope this helps you out. Like I said you probably already knew that stuff but I didn't want my smaller scale tech to doink you up. Also you will not be able to get exact wire you will have to get as close as you can on size. Also all the craft wire I have work with so far takes paint quite well. So the color can be changed.