Using the Battery Operated Bead Reamer

Wyatt White featured the many uses of the Beadalon Battery Operated Bead Reamer in last week's Facebook Live Video. Did you know that the BOBR is a quick and easy way to enlarge the holes of beads to fit over thicker stringing material? It won't make a hole, you need a drill and a different technique for that, but the BOBR will make short work of making an existing hole bigger.

Always ream underwater! That means that the tip of the BOBR and the bead that you are reaming are under water. This keeps the bead and the tip from overheating. Hold the bead either with your fingers or a fiber tipped tweezers. Put it into the water and depress the button. Push and pull up and down until the hole is the right size on one side. Then, flip the bead over and repeat on the other side. Take it nice and slow.

Pro Tip from Wyatt: When you cut crystal, the hole will frost because of the vibrations of the reaming. You can restore some of the shininess by putting a bit of GS Hypo Cement down into the hole of the bead.

There are also 3 Wire Rounder Tips that you can insert into the hasp of the BOBR to use to round out the ends of sharp wires. One is calibrated for 12 and 14 gauge wires, one is for 16 and 18 gauge wires, and one is for 20 gauge and smaller wires. Wyatt demonstrated how to make a nice, rounded ball end on a 14 Gauge Wire. He started with the Cup Burr for 12 and 14 gauge wires to make it nice and smooth, then he used the 16 and 18 gauge wire to make the ball. Using one size smaller will yield that nice, clean ball on the end of the Wire.

Wyatt is such an amazing resource for tips, tricks and techniques for working with Wire. I know that every time that I watch his Facebook Live Videos I learn something new, and we hope that you do to!



Until next week, happy beading!

Meredith