Author Topic: Landing Gear Question (Read 2599 times)

Joe Messinger · « **on:** February 15, 2007, 01:20:59 PM »

Hello,

I've made several attempts at forming landing gear with 1/8" music wire and the results have not been good.

Tried making the bends in the tempered wire cold. Nearly impossible. I heated the section to be bent. Formed the bend easily but lost the temper and the wire is too soft. Heated the wire, bent it, reheated and quenched it in oil. Wire too brittle and broke at the bends.

Someone suggested heating with a torch to make the bends then placing it in an oven to heat the gear then let it cool slowly. What temperature? How long at that temp? How can I convince my wife to let me do that?

Anyway, I would appreciate any advice/suggestions.

Thanks,

Joe

Leester · « **Reply #1 on:** February 15, 2007, 02:04:44 PM »

I use the K&S wire bender and it takes some grunt but it gets the job done. I don't heat the wire.

minnesotamodeler · « **Reply #2 on:** February 15, 2007, 02:15:36 PM »

I'm not sure de-tempering and then re-tempering can be done with any consistency. May end up too soft, may end up too brittle, may end up close to right. Kinda like Goldilocks. I bend mine (cold) with a bench vise and hammer.

--Ray

James Lee · « **Reply #3 on:** February 15, 2007, 02:58:11 PM »

The K&S bender is far and away the best solution in my shop! I've done the hammer and vise thing, but with the newer junk wire I am a bit concerned about it fracturing. The newer stuff seems more inconsistant and brittle.
FWIW

Jim

Joe Messinger · « **Reply #4 on:** February 15, 2007, 03:31:20 PM »

Can you point me to a source for the K&S bender? Sound like that mike make things allot simpler.

Thanks,

Joe

Leester · « **Reply #5 on:** February 15, 2007, 03:41:56 PM »

Tower is where I got mine.

Joe Messinger · « **Reply #6 on:** February 15, 2007, 09:02:29 PM »

Well, I figured out where I went wrong in heating and bending wire for landing gear. I got the wire too hot when I attempted to heat treat it for the correct temper.

After heating the wire to a cherry red I bent it as needed. I then let it cool and removed the scale with a wire wheel on my bench grinder. I reheated the landing gear to a "straw" color rather than cherry. Quenched the gear in oil. It had just the right temper. Good spring without being brittle.

Though someone might be interested should they have the need to bend music wire and don't have a tool like the K&S bender.

Joe

Rudy Taube · « **Reply #7 on:** February 15, 2007, 10:15:52 PM »

Hi Joe, and other modelers,

You may be interested in this great "Strip and Wire Bending Jig" from Micro-Mark at:

www.micromark.com

It is part #60401 and is only $9.80

I have been using one for more than 25 years. It is very versatile, and will hold and bend many sizes of MW and small strips of metal. I have never felt the need for anything else to bend wire for our planes. You can mount it to your bench with large screws or bolts. I mount mine vertically, to my sturdy wooden shelving units. After bending the wire I just use a few light taps with a hammer to lesson the radius of the bend and it is done.

I agree with the post that cautioned against messing around with heat and the temper. Unless you are using 1/4" steel rod, I don't see any need for heat.

Our wire is so inexpensive that we can always have a long end for leverage. I just start at one end and keep bending until the entire LG is complete. If I only have less than 2' left, I throw it away and use another long piece to bend the next gear.

I just made new LG for my CL plane, so I could use 12" props, and it only took a few minutes to bend both wing mounted gears using this jig. ..... It's nice to have a tool that gets the job done perfectly, costs almost nothing, and lasts for decades! :-)

Paul Smith · « **Reply #8 on:** February 16, 2007, 06:17:29 AM »

I saw how they do it in the Sig Factory.

The put the wire into a special fixture and trigger a cylinder (I'm not sure whether it was pneumatic or hydraulic). Either way, the part was made with a single, very quick, application of force - at ambient temperture.

I don't have that piece of equipment in my basement, but I do have a hammer & vise that does the same job, although not as pretty.

I plan my bends so the nice, pretty, straight one show and the ugly ones are hidden. Beating out parts with a hammer helps me live up to the family name.

Joe Messinger · « **Reply #9 on:** February 16, 2007, 09:09:46 AM »

Hello,

Thanks for the info on the wire bender from Micro Mark. I'll check it out. The K&S Bender is $24.95 from Tower. At $9.80, Micro Mark's bender sounds pretty good!

Regards,

Joe

don Burke · « **Reply #10 on:** February 16, 2007, 10:19:31 AM »

I think the key is to bend the wire over a radius, a sharp corner like a vise leaves a stress riser. The junk wire we can now get is nowhere near what "music wire" used to be. I've found I've had to go up on 1/32" in dia from what I used to use in order to get anywhere near the relisience of the "old" wire.

I made my own K&S type bender with steel strap and aircraft bolt shanks for the pins.

Randy Powell · « **Reply #11 on:** February 16, 2007, 10:54:16 AM »

I made my own and it's pretty simple. A chunk of plate steel (about 12" x 12" x 2"). I drilled two 1/8" holes the width of a piece of 1/8" music wire apart. Used a hammer to knock in two piece of the very same 1/8" music wire that stick up above the surface of the plate about an inch. I just mark the landing gear wire and bend it around the posts. Works pretty well.

Author Topic: Landing Gear Question (Read 2599 times)

Joe Messinger

Landing Gear Question

Leester

Re: Landing Gear Question

minnesotamodeler

Re: Landing Gear Question

James Lee

Re: Landing Gear Question

Joe Messinger

Re: Landing Gear Question

Leester

Re: Landing Gear Question

Joe Messinger

Re: Landing Gear Question

Rudy Taube

Re: Landing Gear Question

Paul Smith

Re: Landing Gear Question

Joe Messinger

Re: Landing Gear Question

don Burke

Re: Landing Gear Question

Randy Powell

Re: Landing Gear Question