# Braided coils



## Friep

My latest obsession when it comes to building.
The braided coils.

I have been building a few slentre braids and I must say the flavour is great. I thought we call them slentre braids because of braiding over core wires but it turns out I was wrong.
The term slentre braid actually has to do with the hand position for these. The palms are facing down and not each other like in other loop braiding techniques. Wont go into further detail that it is a hybrid between two other methods etc.

So basically the idea behind this thread is for braiders to come together and share some tips and tricks the have picked up and hopefully I can encourage more people to braid.

Braiding doesn't require a lot of special equipment only patience and a vice and some wire and time... Thinner wire seems to braid easier less tension is required and they are less rough on the fingers. 

For me personally braiding is calming in comparison to the alternative of messing up claptons, aliens and frames. The rhythmic braiding clears your mind and relaxes me for some reason.

I don't have a vice yet and use a g-clamp to keep my wire straight. 

I was wondering if the braid master himself might have some tips for me. @smilelykumeenit

Reactions: Like 3 | Agree 1 | Winner 3 | Informative 1


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## Raindance

Friep said:


> My latest obsession when it comes to building.
> The braided coils.
> 
> I have been building a few slentre braids and I must say the flavour is great. I thought we call them slentre braids because of braiding over core wires but it turns out I was wrong.
> The term slentre braid actually has to do with the hand position for these. The palms are facing down and not each other like in other loop braiding techniques. Wont go into further detail that it is a hybrid between two other methods etc.
> 
> So basically the idea behind this thread is for braiders to come together and share some tips and tricks the have picked up and hopefully I can encourage more people to braid.
> 
> Braiding doesn't require a lot of special equipment only patience and a vice and some wire and time... Thinner wire seems to braid easier less tension is required and they are less rough on the fingers.
> 
> For me personally braiding is calming in comparison to the alternative of messing up claptons, aliens and frames. The rhythmic braiding clears your mind and relaxes me for some reason.
> 
> I don't have a vice yet and use a g-clamp to keep my wire straight.
> 
> I was wondering if the braid master himself might have some tips for me. @smilelykumeenit


Will be keeping an eye on this thread @Friep. I have been admiring the braids you have been posting in several threads but thought this would be incredibly difficult and frustrating, especially with less than optimal vision.

Will be nice to see more on this wire type.

Regards

EDIT: Just to clarify, trying to make these coils myself is what I thought wold be frustrating.

Reactions: Like 2


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## vicTor

me too, real talented people here, wow

Reactions: Like 3


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## Friep

Raindance said:


> Will be keeping an eye on this thread @Friep. I have been admiring the braids you have been posting in several threads but thought this would be incredibly difficult and frustrating, especially with less than optimal vision.
> 
> Will be nice to see more on this wire type.
> 
> Regards



Thanks man I am far from perfect with these but will get better with time. 

Give them a go think they are the best option to give a go with failing eyesight as you can kind of build with feeling the rythem of changing loop then shift down you can get into and then afterwards you can zoom in on your phone and observe. 
With that being said this weekend I tried some framed staples and was frustrated out of my mind because I can not see where the border wires are laying. Need to invest in better lighting and maybe some jewlers magnifying glasses. Or something like that

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## Friep

What I am trying to wrap my mind around is how to mount and stabilize something like a framed staple.

The core wire tends to move from the braiding action and I am wondering how you would keep all six or 8 wires together and then also with a framed staple you are working with flat wire. The gripping action of the vice might squeeze them flat and pull everything appart haven't tried to do this yet but it's eating away at me. @smilelykumeenit do you have a tip for me?

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## Steyn777

Following this solely to see the stunning coils...after seeing that build I have no intention of ever attempting this. Fingers might be short and fat but I only came with these 10.

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 2


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## smilelykumeenit

Friep said:


> Thanks man I am far from perfect with these but will get better with time.
> 
> Give them a go think they are the best option to give a go with failing eyesight as you can kind of build with feeling the rythem of changing loop then shift down you can get into and then afterwards you can zoom in on your phone and observe.
> With that being said this weekend I tried some framed staples and was frustrated out of my mind because I can not see where the border wires are laying. Need to invest in better lighting and maybe some jewlers magnifying glasses. Or something like that



@Friep i think your clamp is letting you down here! the end of a G-clamp is normally a metal disk, against a work surface. softening these surfaces will help prevent damage to the cores when clamping. 
post a pic of your framed staple cores (both ends) so i can check that setup. could be doomed from the start  haha

as you touched on, it is my strong belief that eyesight is less important than feeling for building, and this holds true for any coil type!
it is important to focus on feeling the wire; understanding/knowing how much tension will tighten a loop, stretch a loop or break a loop, will give you more consistent results.

Reactions: Like 5 | Winner 1 | Thanks 1


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## Friep

smilelykumeenit said:


> @Friep i think your clamp is letting you down here! the end of a G-clamp is normally a metal disk, against a work surface. softening these surfaces will help prevent damage to the cores when clamping.
> post a pic of your framed staple cores (both ends) so i can check that setup. could be doomed from the start  haha
> 
> as you touched on, it is my strong belief that eyesight is less important than feeling for building, and this holds true for any coil type!
> it is important to focus on feeling the wire; understanding/knowing how much tension will tighten a loop, stretch a loop or break a loop, will give you more consistent results.


I have to agree with you my frames are doomed from the start i want to give the braided ones ago Friday night. If I am lucky I can get a vice before then for now I am thinking of a way to soften those two ends a bit...

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## Cor

Hier kom 'n ding

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## Friep

Any chance of some pics of how you set up frames for braiding @smilelykumeenit and Maybe some builds so we can get some color going in this thread?

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## Friep

My curiosity got the better of me so thought i would try and setup the frame so long:
Here everything looks ok:




Here the one piece of border goes underneath




3d support and the end left border is missing:

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## Friep

Friep said:


> My curiosity got the better of me so thought i would try and setup the frame so long:
> Here everything looks ok:
> View attachment 130919
> 
> View attachment 130920
> 
> Here the one piece of border goes underneath
> View attachment 130920
> 
> View attachment 130923
> 
> 3d support and the end left border is missing:
> View attachment 130923


These are 4 x 0.4mm x 1mm ribbon and 28ga borders

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## Friep

Friep said:


> My curiosity got the better of me so thought i would try and setup the frame so long:
> Here everything looks ok:
> View attachment 130919
> 
> View attachment 130920
> 
> Here the one piece of border goes underneath
> View attachment 130920
> 
> View attachment 130923
> 
> 3d support and the end left border is missing:
> View attachment 130923


Ok cool just saw now if I pull the one slider back the border gets pulled into place now just to figure out how to mount it and braid around it lol

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## smilelykumeenit

Friep said:


> My curiosity got the better of me so thought i would try and setup the frame so long:
> Here everything looks ok:
> View attachment 130919
> 
> View attachment 130920
> 
> Here the one piece of border goes underneath
> View attachment 130920
> 
> View attachment 130923
> 
> 3d support and the end left border is missing:
> View attachment 130923



this setup is not good! you need to get rid of gaps between the cores and take out all the slack! use the wrap wire (not ribbon) to tie the ends off. your loop/fold end must be done first, also needs work there and getting it right (or wrong) will carry through to the rest of the core.

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## Friep

smilelykumeenit said:


> this setup is not good! you need to get rid of gaps between the cores and take out all the slack! use the wrap wire (not ribbon) to tie the ends off. your loop/fold end must be done first, also needs work there and getting it right (or wrong) will carry through to the rest of the core.


Re-setup the piece of framed staple:

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## smilelykumeenit

tighten that up!

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## smilelykumeenit

it looks like you tied the wrap wire between the frames and the staples, creating a gap. this is going to cause issues for sure! everything must be sandwiched closely together.

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## Friep

smilelykumeenit said:


> it looks like you tied the wrap wire between the frames and the staples, creating a gap. this is going to cause issues for sure! everything must be sandwiched closely together.


This time I took out the wire around the ribbon will check shortly how i can tighten it a bit more. On the loop side can I pinch it a bit more feels like the wire wants to overlap if i pinch it more there or should I just try and get the 38ga tighter?

thanks in advance

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## Friep

Doesn't feel like I am getting them tighter do not understand why the wire warps like that.

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## Friep

No vice yet but wondering if this might be better then to cousin the cores a bit I thought of wraping them with the type of cloth that you use to clean glasses...

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## smilelykumeenit

Friep said:


> No vice yet but wondering if this might be better then to cousin the cores a bit I thought of wraping them with the type of cloth that you ise to clean glasses...
> View attachment 131021



this looks more promising, and is why i asked if you have 2 clamps! you could also use insulation tape or that sponge/foam tape to soften the jaws, if the cloth moves too much.

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## Friep

smilelykumeenit said:


> this looks more promising, and is why i asked if you have 2 clamps! you could also use insulation tape or that sponge/foam tape to soften the jaws, if the cloth moves too much.


This idea came to light because you asked about the two clamps thanks for that. 
I don't have any of those two, I have some silicon maybe cover the clamps in that lol

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## smilelykumeenit

haha not the silicon! wouldn’t want it to get in the coil... 

layers and layers of insulation tape would be better IMO

Reactions: Like 1 | Useful 1


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## Friep

smilelykumeenit said:


> haha not the silicon! wouldn’t want it to get in the coil...
> 
> layers and layers of insulation tape would be better IMO


Really need to invest in some insolation tape and masking tape. Forgot about the smell of silicon will not be nice to vape.

Reactions: Funny 2


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## vicTor

I'll just leave this type of thing to you guys !

Reactions: Agree 1 | Funny 3 | Can relate 1


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## Steyn777

smilelykumeenit said:


> tighten that up!


Hehehe....militant. Time to host weekly building classes @smilelykumeenit

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 1 | Optimistic 1


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## Friep

Give or take 1 and a half hour of braiding:
4 x 0.4mm ribbon bordered with 28ga braided with 5 loops 38ga. Still getting the hang of the 38ga need to find the right tension so there is inconsistencies:

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## Friep



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## Friep



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## Adephi

These coils make me think back to this



You really got a lot of patience and determination @Friep. Will pay off I'm sure of it.

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## Silver

Congrats on your efforts @Friep - 
Your perseverance and persistence is amazing

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## Alex

@Friep

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## Alex



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