Wire Drawing and Annealing

Well, the recommended procedure, if possible, is to interrupt the wire in the point it's broken and start a new spool from there on.

Because 1020 is a low carbon steel, soft and with low yeld strengh, and because it's properties are so modified when cold drawn to a wire, makes no sense at all to anneal it. If you really need to weld it, be sure that the weld HAZ will be heavilly affected by the weld, and forget about your wire resistance. It should be annealed, just if you're in the cold draw limit and needs to reduce even more the diameter.

The recommended microstructure for 1020 is it's natural occurrence of perlite, with, in the case of wire, the smaller and most elongated grain boundary, for better mechanical characteristics.

bhrescobar: Congrats -you are such a good, honest, to-the-point teacher!