"Bob La Londe" wrote in message
news
As part of my mold making business I often have to make insert pins
for various custom projects. Sometimes those pins are odd sizes
making them either hard to find or expensive to buy as pins.
Frequently I can buy wire of some form or another that is exactly
the perfect diameter, but then I have to cut it to length and clean
up the ends. One of my common sizes is 3/32. 10lbs of 3/32
stainless tig wire makes a lot of cheap pins for the price. I just
finished a mold that requires an insert pin thats a little over
1/16. I found some straight lengths of .064 stainless wire at
McMaster that will do the trick.


I cut the TIG rod needles and rollers for homemade bearings on the
lathe, holding the rod in a 5C collet and cutting cleanly with an HSS
cutoff blade, very close to the collet face. That may not be the
fastest way to cut them but the lengths are accurate and the end
cleanup is minimal and easy.
-jsw