Residual Bead Release?

somewhat of a

my beads.

pristine

are

I used to use my Dremel and a diamond bit until I realized that the diamond bit was grinding away the inside of the hole and could even make the hole unsymmetrical. I clean as good as I possibly can and if a bead is transparent I have used clear nail polish to coat the hold which makes a difference but if you don't get it in correctly it can make the bead look messy. One of the more frustrating things is a pretty purple bead I have sitting here on my mouse pad that has some weird residue up on the glass rather than in the hole and although I have cleaned it repeatedly I can't get that bit of bead-poop off it. Argh! It would be a purple one, too!

- Sandy

The Dremel is a lifesaver... I have a regular plug-in Dremel that has a flex-shaft attachment, much, much lighter than using a batter-operated Dremel so if you have to clean a lot of beads it doesn't kill your arm. Less vibrate-y too! I just hang the Dremel on a hook on the side of the cabinet near enough to the sink that the flex-shaft reaches just fine.

-Kalera

In a pipe store or pipe tobacco section of a store, you can buy pipe cleaners with extra tough bits woven in. They get all the sticky tar outta pipe stems (and some last bits of bead release outta beads.)

..Stephanie..

I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time. Anna Freud

You can avoid the asymmetrical-hole problem by rolling the bead very quickly and smoothly against the bit... it's kind of hard to describe, actually, but easy to demonstrate. It does take a bit of practice to pick up the knack, and some people never do... I had to stop having Andrew clean my beads, because he just couldn't keep the bead moving and was always grinding the holes into ovals. (And scratching the outside of the beads with the Dremel bit, and chipping the ends... argh!)

-Kalera

Alright the votes are in. Time to get out the dremel! And I have the flexshaft attachment too. Wheeeeeee

Yes - I use one of those too to get the last bit of dust.