BEST WIRE BENDER?

[Doug Moisuk]

BEST WIRE BENDER?

I have used this one for decades but never been totally happy with it. Don't remember what make it is. What do you use? Please include a pic and brand.

[Eric Viglione]

I've always used one of these... got it at the local model railroad hobby place, but back when I got mine they came in a box, not shrink wrapped to a card:



The bender works great with less chance of snapping the wire than just winging it with a vise or pliers, which is a bigger problem than some might realize with modern brittle imported cheapo music wire.

EricV

[jfv]

I also use the K&S.  Works fine for up to 1/8" music wire.  Just make sure you have a solid vise to clamp it in.  I wore out my first one and bought a new one several months ago.

[Avaiojet]

Doug,

I have the same one as you. I have it secured to the corner of my bench. I've never had issues with it, but, in some cases, depending on bends or loops, the sequence must be thought out.

I use a clothing hanger for the test.

No matter the brand, they all have to do the job.

CB

[Larry Renger]

I haven't got the hang of getting the bends exactly where I want them. Anyone got the clue?  I also use the KS bender and it works fine on 1/8" wire or less.

[RogerGreene]

Larry,

I use the same method as Avaiojet, using clothing hanger wire for getting the "bends" in the right way. I have also, used 14ga house wire when I rewired part of my house.

I also have both K&S wire benders. One for up to 1/8'" and one from 1/8" and larger. Both work great!

Roger

[Gary Dowler]

Doug,

I have the same one as you. I have it secured to the corner of my bench. I've never had issues with it, but, in some cases, depending on bends or loops, the sequence must be thought out.

I use a clothing hanger for the test.

No matter the brand, they all have to do the job.

CB
Ok, I'm buying the K&S bender and I'm sticking that coat hanger prototype method in my bag of tricks!

[Curt D Contrata]

I haven't got the hang of getting the bends exactly where I want them. Anyone got the clue?  I also use the KS bender and it works fine on 1/8" wire or less.

Larry, do some you-tube searches for that. Is it that when you bend the wire, it gets pulled from the spot where you want the bend? If so, you need to clamp the other end so it does not move. I'm sure some can eyeball it, but that's what I learned from the videos.

Curt

[Avaiojet]

I drew this nose gear on paper full size before I bent it. I also made one from clothing hanger wire for the test.

Ruined one in the process not paying attention to the order of bends. One ruined isn't all that bad considering it's not your normal landing gear.

CB

[Norm Furutani]

I have K&S benders but I usually end up using a homemade version of the Higley bender: https://www.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=HIGR2105&P=FR&atrkid=V3ADW3A24148B_45992359586_aud-366993099056:pla-359027475805__221282308788_g_t_pla__1o1&gclid=Cj0KCQiA_5_QBRC9ARIsADVww17zRZfQrSZzxyFW5BEiQHveKLyzJYzTBjKUQoc8H7PihyrJTDEMWgkaAgQqEALw_wcB

Mine is a block of steel with a bunch of holes and a couple dowel pins.

Norm

[Steve Helmick]

Allen Brickhaus promoted using two pairs of modified ViseGrips. I haven't tried it yet, but if Allen said it'd work, I'm sure it would. I got as far as buying two 10" ViseGrips and grinding the 45 deg. chamfers on adjoining corners. I was a bit surprised how soft the jaws were, and how easily I could grind the corners on my little belt sander.    Steve

[Scott Hinckley]

I just bought the K&S Mini Wire Bender for some 3/32" music wire landing gear. I got about 6 bends on it before it became unusable. Hole in handle was deforming and sloppy, which caused the pin to slip off the wire, marring it. Never got a landing gear. K&S acknowledged that the hole was probably at fault and to return to the store for exchange. Neither that store or any in the Salt Lake City area stocks this, though I could wait a few months or buy online. From my experience I can't recommend this, but I have yet to find an alternate for the smaller wire sizes.

[Curare]

Mine is a bastardised Harry Higley Biso Bender I made in shop class 20 years ago.

It's fine for single stuff, but when doing landing gear I like to tape two wires together to get a matching pair, anyone know how do to that without a vise and a hammer?

[Dave Hull]

I have bent most of my stuff using a good vise with some radiused soft-jaw inserts. I generally used a hardwood board to focus the bend at the corner, but held free-hand. It gets difficult when you need sharp 90's in 1/8" MW such as for a Flying Clown gear which only has a 3/8" thick fuselage.

So I recently built a bender out of 3/8" hot roll from the Home Depot. Drilled a variety of holes and sizes, but expect to mostly be bending 1/8".  It will bend 5/32" but is working hard. Sorry I can't post a picture--but it looks pretty typical. I used it to make some gear for an I-beamer and it worked fine. Easy to make both sides match up with a solid, stationary tool.

A friend knew I was looking for a good setup--aren't we all?--and gifted me two different K&S benders. He said they were ordered under the same part number. They are both somewhat like the Mighty Bender, but neither is exactly like the other. I suspect that one is the Mighty Bender, and the other is the Mighty Bender and Coiler. That is a bit odd in that the handles are the same (other than one appears to be nickel plated and the other is black oxide finished). They share an offset pivot hole that would allow the coiler to work, but is not needed for a bender although it probably doesn't hurt the operation. The  base plates are different. One has a grooved stationary guide (machined from a socket head cap screw) and the other one has a dowel pin. If you wanted to use the one with the pin for coils, it would have to be shortened. There is no wire "clamp" on either one.

I have no doubt that these would bend 5/32" MW. K&S rates them for MW up to 3/16". The bend radius would be 3/16" for either one. Neither would work well for profile gear with that large of a radius. Since the handle pivots on this pin, it would take a bit of machine work to alter it. You could either groove the pin just above the plate or turn down the pin and drill another, smaller hole in the other end of the handle. While you are at it, you could drill it square, without the coiler angle. All you would give up would be bending the biggest MW. I haven't seen a stunt plane with 3/16 MW gear--yet. But if my landings don't improve....well, enough said.

I will probably modify one of the tools to allow bending 1/8" MW to the minimum radius, since that is mostly what I need. I have not personally used the K&S Mini Bender to compare these with.

I was very tempted to buy the ubiquitous "bend anything tool" sold by many, including MicroMark as their Universal Bender. I finally boiled it down by looking at whether it would be good for 1/8" music wire with simple setup. It just didn't seem to meet that criteria. If someone has one, I'd love to know if that assessment is correct.

     https://www.micromark.com/Universal-Bender

Hope this info helps you in your choice.

Dave

[Gary Dowler]

This idea can't be used in ever case of course, but I found a way around the cracking of brittle wire on some sharp bends. Anneal that one spot just slightly with a propane torch before you bend it just the spot that must be bent.
Thus far it was worked well.

Gary

[TigreST]

I've used one of these with success:

T.

[Dave Hull]

Tony,
What are the different bend radii possible with you Universal Bender?

How close together can you make two different bends?

Dave

[TigreST]

Tony,
What are the different bend radii possible with you Universal Bender?

How close together can you make two different bends?

Dave

Dave,
I use this unit of bending landing gear legs and control horn/flap connector type pieces.  I've not tried to do a "z-bend" if this is what your asking.  There a few more pictures at this link:

https://www.amazon.ca/MUB-1-Universal-Bender-Forms-Metal/dp/B079LXJX49/ref=sr_1_19?ie=UTF8&qid=1537464787&sr=8-19&keywords=metal+bender


I did not spend 108.00can for mine..but mine is also about 20years old.  If there is a down side to it's use it may be that I tend to use a little more wire stock to make a single piece. The piano wire, for example, needs to be long enough to reach the bending force points.  Typically this is not a problem using a long piece of wire,...I just use a cut-off wheel to shorten the arms to the piece to the desired length,..if you follow my meaning.  You can also bend two pieces at the same time if you wish which makes things easier.  That said, you also can error twice as fast      The design lends itself to be bolted/screwed to the work bench but I clamp in in a portable wood vise I have or use a Black N Decker "Workmate" as a mounting device to hold the unit steady while I work.

Tony


 

[Dave Harmon]

Just yesterday I had a need to bend a new set of MW gear for a profile I am working on.
I used 1/8" K&S MW.

First, I laid out the shape of the gear on a red oak plank.
Then I pressed in 3/32" MW studs to use as radius points.
Clamped the board down and used a hand held propane torch to anneal the wire cherry red at the bend point , then inserted into the fixture and easily bent it to shape.
I bent all the points and got the gear leg(s) adjusted to their final shape.
Next, I heated each bend point cherry red and quenched in water or oil....oil in my case.
Next, sand the wire to get it clean.
Next, reheat each bend point separately to light blue and let air cool.
This gets the wire back to about the correct temper.
Sand the wire again and they look perfect.

[George Albo]

Found this a week or so ago. Looks like a great project in and of itself.