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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: john e. holliday on November 16, 2015, 09:13:45 PM
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In first picture you see the main tool I use. I got mine from Carl Shoupe several years at one of the Denver contests. He makes the pliers. The tubing is brass that is run through a torch until red hot and let cool. I don't use copper because of wall thickness. 1/16 and 3/32 is what use. The 1/16 is what the cable goes through and is bent either in the bell crank or 1/8th rod. The 3/32 is what gets swadged. So far no failures(knock on wood). Lead outs are .027. Flying lines I cut an extra piece to go through the 1/16th. If pictures are not plain enough I will write a dissertation on the job. By the way if the cable slips, you did not squeeze the tubing enough.
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I've never seen them done that way before. Thanks for taking the time to do this....much appreciated. H^^
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If pictures are not plain enough I will write a dissertation on the job.
John,
I am going to be "that guy" that asks for the dissertation. Sorry, but please.
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Always has to be one. LL~ LL~ LL~ Give me time to get the thoughts together.
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John,
Neatest work I've ever seen using a tube. That is a tube, correct?
I loop my lines on the outside, I should stop doing that.
Charles
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See if I can make this sound doable.
Step 1: Need pliers from Carl Shoupe.
Step 2: 1/16 & 3/32 brass tubing(copper walls are too thick) run through torch to red hot, air cool. I sand the black residue off once its cool enough to handle.
Step 3: Cut 1/16 to 1 1/4 or 1 1/2 inches and 3/32 to 1/2 inch.
Step 4 Bell crank drill out holes for tubing and bevel edges. If doing just the cable ends you need 1/8 rod to bend tubing around.
Step 5: Slip lead out or cable through 1/16 tubing far enough to have some to work with, I go about 4 inches. Slide this into the bell crank end, center it and bend. Now you know why I use 1 1/4 inch or longer.
Step 6: Slide 3/32 tubing over the cable. You did put 3/32 over the cable first as I for got to say. Take loose end and feed it back through the 3/32 tubing. Now you know why I leave it long. Once through the tubing pull it up snug. It should push the 3/32 up to 1/16. There should be a little be a little loop showing right at the end of the 3/32, May not show in pics.
Step 7: Now you start swagging the tube with the pliers. With Carl's pliers there will be a little bell at the end of the 3/32 tubing. On lead out cable there should be enough cable that when you have swagged the tube the cable will not move. On flying lines I cut scrap pieces to go into the 1/16 tubing with the line to help fill space in the 3/32. The loose ends of that will also go back through the 3/32. If you don't, with .015 lines or less you will never get the tubing swagged tight enough.
Step 8: Now pull on the cable as hard as you can, If it slips you didn't put enough muscle on the 3/32 tubing. You have to go around and around the tubing. I even turn the pliers over in my hand as some times it seems it doesn't swag evenly. Once done and you are happy, bend the loose ends up where you can cut them off. Yes when you put a line clip on they will stick your fingers, but I haven't drawn blood yet.
As any thing it takes patience and time. What you see in the picture took about 30 minutes. I can make a set of lines in the time it would take me to wrap one line. This has been pull tested to 75 plus pounds in competition and on .018 I would not be afraid of going 100 pound pull. Now Carl is a member on here and is a busy man so if you PM, E-Mail or call have patience.
Okay I've reread this and now wish I had paid more attention to my English teacher.
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Looks / sounds easy enough and thanks for the dissertation. One hopefully last question- what makes the pliers special? Do we need a different pic to show the very tip of them, or? Thanks again Sir !!!
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Back towards the hinge point of the pliers is a hole drilled for going around the tubing and squeezing. I have another set I did my self, but Carl's work better. If look at the pics you may see it.
Edit: Looks like I may have to take a better picture.
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That's the way I do all mine except that I use sleeves and pliers that I bought from Mel Schuette.
Before I started using this termination, I made a couple of test pieces. I cut one open and found grooves in the copper sleeve from the braided cable. Such connections are not going anywhere.
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Would someone please post a close-up of the pliers? They look like regular round nose pliers. Is there something different about them?
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Back towards the hinge point of the pliers is a hole drilled for going around the tubing and squeezing. I have another set I did my self, but Carl's work better. If look at the pics you may see it.
Edit: Looks like I may have to take a better picture.
Would someone please post a close-up of the pliers? They look like regular round nose pliers. Is there something different about them?
I don't see a hole drilled for going around the tubing and squeezing ?? BTW, I just can't get over how well brass tubing bends after the torch treatment... if I only learned one thing from the good Dr. I am very appreciative of that! Going to try this leadout method on the next plane I build.
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RE photo 6 and 7.... I guess you have a really short wing for this lash up..... VD~ S?P
BTW I like this process and have done similar with copper but will do some with annealed brass in the future
Thanks
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Bill and Bill, this is the swaging tool that I use for leadouts. The smallest hole does not swage the smallest sleeves that suit 0.012 and 0.015 control line wire. Hence, I bought a smalleer tool from Mel as I could not find one here in Oz.
Just to explain, the jaws are about 1/16" narrower than the sleeves. All the literature I could find on this termination from the fishing tackle suppliers stressed the importance of centring the jaw on the sleeve so that the ends flare out when the sleeve is compressed. This ensures that the ends of the sleeve do not cut the wire strands.
I've also included a pic of one of my early test pieces.
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For some reason, the pic of the swaging pliers has not posted.
Here is is.
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Thanks for the pictures, Geoff. I got it now.
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Tried to get a decent pic if the pliers that I got from Carl. If you look close there is a hole close to the hinge point of the pliers. He must have out a spacer in the jaws when he drilled them. When they are closed all the way you can't get the 3/32 tubing in the hole. The other plier is for 1/16 tubing. You have to keep squeezing on the tubing until it is round. The ends are flaired out when done right. Before cutting excess cable off makes sure it doesn't move when you put a good pull on it. If it does, the tubing hasn't been swagged down enough. That is why I put extra cable in the tubing to take up the slack on flying lines.
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Doc, there are always three strands through the swaging sleeves in my sestup. The test piece in the pic used nylon covered fishing trace that I would use for a small model but it was a test and I wanted to trial the use of eyelets. I stripped the nylon off for the swage.
The cable goes through the sleeve, twice around the eyelet and back through the sleeve. It's then turned back through the sleeve and I pull everything up tight with a t-pin. You can just see the loop formed by the t-pin to the right of the sleeve in the pic.
I then clip the excess cable off with a pair of nippers that I keep for that specific task.
Bellcrank connections use 1/16 copper tube per the usual practice but the cable still passes through the sleeve three times.
The smallest sleeve available from Mel at MBS is fine for 0.012" cable control lines.