Damnit, burnt finger again..

[EmeraldLeo1982]

So I'm sitting here rolling a new coil, and it's the style of microcoil but with ribbon wire in a 2mm diameter using the drillbit method but with a q-tip shaft. Everytime I take the coil off the shaft I have to anneal it so it holds it's shape and doesn't just spring itself out to a 3mm coil. The only way I've found to accurately hold the legs without warping the coil shape is between my thumb and forefinger, well obviously this isn't the best way to anneal something.

Any tips and tricks for getting your ribbon coil to hold it's shape when you remove it from the shaft of your rolling base?

 

[Elantis]

I use a pair of hemostats, or a long nose pliers to hold the two ends tightly while torching the wire....But then I don't wind mine on a Qtip, I either use a drill bit end or a 16ga blunt tip needle. I usually don't take mine off the drillbit/needle until I have torched it at least once to hold it's shape.

 

[EmeraldLeo1982]

It's the same basic thing as a drillbit, a straight hard shaft. Except you can blowtorch the drillbit. But..I don't have a blowtorch just a regular bic lighter...now that I think about it though the woman does have a butane jet lighter around here somewhere.. now I need a bigger drillbit hah. I tried using the needlenose pliers and tweezers to hold the ends but I always end up have to put the 2 ends into the same spot for it to grip them since it's flat wire, any small gap let's em slip away. But this causes my coil to sort of go into a rainbow shape.

Ah well I suppose a lil sore thumb is a small price to pay for a perfect coil lol. It'll harden up over time.