Cast of Wire

The cast is the size of the circular shape of an individual convolution of wire. The cast is created by offsetting the die so the wire exits at an angle to the die to go to the drawing capstan. When wire is wound around a block, the coil diameter must be that of the block, but when a sample is cut, it is free to take its cast diameter, which could be larger or smaller than the block diameter. The measurement is usually accompanied by a measurement of the helix, which is the amount of spiral that the individual convolution makes.