The Work Room: Make Your Own Toggle Clasp : Part II

Part I here.

Tips here.

Guess what? I'm not too tired for the day yet and so shall continue with Part II of the DIY toggle. ;)

Alright, on with the T-bar! Erm, pretty straightforward, if you ask me.

I cut out about 12" long of wire. Well, this is of course no hard and fast rule, it's just my suggested length for now. :)

You'll need to measure the width of your ring to determine the length of the T-bar you will be making. Like here, I'll need to make it approximately slightly longer than half an inch.

I leave about 1" tail + slightly more than 1/2" for the T-bar length. So at the point of 1 1/2 " + .........

Make this. For a recap of how this is done, look here.

Measure about 1/2" from the loop for you to make the other loop on the other end. Remember that the loop on both ends sorta add to the final length as well. So, you'll need to take that into consideration

Make a right angle bend.

To make the loop on the other end of the T-bar.

You'll now have the two wires parallel and overlapping each other with the shorter end on one side and the longer one on the other.

This will be the frame of your T-bar.

You're going to wrap the longer end of wire around this frame to make the T-bar.

Grip onto the side with the shorter end with your pliers.

And start wrapping around. You will begin wrapping from the neck of the loop.

So, yeah, you basically have two loops at the two ends of the T-bar.

You would want to make the coils wrap as closely to each other as possible and to help with this, you can always make do with the help of the chain nose pliers to push to coils closer.

Wrap until you're half way through and stop.

Why?

Well, to form the loop for you to attach the T-bar to your pieces, of course!

Use the chain nose pliers to make a right angle bend here.

Now, if you have been following my blog, you may have read how I always prefer the chain nose pliers over the round nose pliers when making a right angle bend due to the precision factor.

I find round nose pliers always leaves a longer 'neck' compared to a chain nose due to the latter sharper's jaw, it gets closer to the base.

And then, switch to the round nose pliers to make a loop.

Alright, some may find the switch between pliers a bit troublesome but oh well, that's my habit already..... :P

This is what you'll get. You can also loop it the other way and have the longer wire end pointing to the other direction,

It doesn't matter as long as it's a loop. :P

Grip on to the loop.....

And wrap the wire around the loop.

Yes, it's ultimately a wrapped loop. Depending on your preference, you may prefer a longer or shorter 'neck'. Longer neck would mean that you'll need to leave more space at the 'neck' for you to wrap more times around it or to get as close to the base as possible so you'll need to wrap less times around.

Either way, you'll need to have sufficient amount of wraps for a strong 'neck' and I reckon 3 times around should be good.

Once you're done with that loop, continue wrapping the bar.

Just bring your wire up and around the bar again.

Now, you may find that there are gaps between the two halves of the bar due to the interruption at the center.

Fret not. All you need to do is to use the trusty (it never fails you! LOL..... ) chain nose pliers to press the coils closer together.