On Wed, 20 Sep 2006 01:36:06 -0700, in rec.crafts.jewelry Abrasha
wrote:

Yo Ted! Pay particular attention the numbers for 1.2 mm wire. When rolled down
to .6 mm, the width ends up to be 1.8 mm. By my calculation, that is an
increase of 50%! And it is not even rolled out to .1 mm yet!

2 - 4% indeed!

it's also informative to compare the degree of spreading when, say, rolled to
half the starting thickness, for different initial guages of wire. Note that
the heavier 4mm stock does not spread out as much, when rolled to 2 mm
thickness, as the 1mm stock does when rolled to .5.

That nicely illustrates the point I made about Ted's test with quarter inch rod,
compared to smaller wire, and how it is explained by the ratio of the wire size
being rolled to the diameter of the roll being used.

Also, note that the chart shown uses square wire (actually, probably the almost
square wire, with slightly chamfered corners as produced by the mill), not round
wire, as the starting point. That's a practical assumption for those making
their own stock, since the normal sequence is to roll a wire ingot in the square
wire mill to get smaller square wire until it's the size needed to roll flat.
It's not normally drawn to round wire prior to rolling flat. No need.

And round wire spreads out less than does square wire.

Thanks, Abrasha, for posting it.

Peter