Bending wire

[Gary Dowler]

Ok, I've done this many times in the past, but having difficulty now. Need to make a 90 deg bend in 1/8" music wire. UnTreated, It cracked. Marked another spot and lightly annealed it. This cracked. Tried again with a more throurough application of heat in the bend area. Got about 80deg and it cracked.
Is this common these days? Is the wire cheap import crap from china? 

My method is clamp in a vise, apply pressure to the wire above the bend by hand, and lightly tap at the top of the bend point with a hammer and slowly work it down.

Gary

[Dan McEntee]

Ok, I've done this many times in the past, but having difficulty now. Need to make a 90 deg bend in 1/8" music wire. UnTreated, It cracked. Marked another spot and lightly annealed it. This cracked. Tried again with a more throurough application of heat in the bend area. Got about 80deg and it cracked.
Is this common these days? Is the wire cheap import crap from china? 

My method is clamp in a vise, apply pressure to the wire above the bend by hand, and lightly tap at the top of the bend point with a hammer and slowly work it down.

Gary

    The music wire we get these days is not the same, but your method is why it's cracking. The corner of the vise has no radius and it acts like a cutting tool more or less. I use a Harry Higley bending tool that is a hex shaped piece of metal with two pins in it. Clamp that in your vice and make your bend by hand. It comes with some good instruction. Takes some practice but it's all I use. There are a couple of other benders on the market that cost much more. The biggest problem I find with the Higley unit is its so small I loose track of it sometimes! Do a search on here on the subject and there is a ton of info here on different methods.
   Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

[Gary Dowler]

Thanks Dan. I'll look that tool up! 

Gary

[Gary Dowler]

    The music wire we get these days is not the same, but your method is why it's cracking. The corner of the vise has no radius and it acts like a cutting tool more or less. I use a Harry Higley bending tool that is a hex shaped piece of metal with two pins in it. Clamp that in your vice and make your bend by hand. It comes with some good instruction. Takes some practice but it's all I use. There are a couple of other benders on the market that cost much more. The biggest problem I find with the Higley unit is its so small I loose track of it sometimes! Do a search on here on the subject and there is a ton of info here on different methods.
   Type at you later,
    Dan McEntee

I looked up this tool. In a few seconds I understood the principle and made one for the immediate use.  I had some hard 1/8" pins. I secured two of them 1/8" apart in my vise, then used a vice grip to hold the tops from spreading apart with my left hand, stuck my marked wire in between the pins to the marked point, and bent.  Worked wonderfully.
Thanks to your timely post I was able to get parts made to help ensure a critical part gets done by tomorrow. The proper tool will be ordered asap.
Thanks Dan

Gary

[Gerald Arana]

[quote author=Gary

My method is clamp in a vise, apply pressure to the wire above the bend by hand, and lightly tap at the top of the bend point with a hammer and slowly work it down.

Gary
[/quote]

And that's why it's cracking. You need a wire bender that gives you a radius of 1/4" or so.

Good luck, Jerry

[Bob Heywood]

Check out the K&S Mighty Wire Bender. Works great...

[Paul Walker]

Go see Brian at B&B. He does not stock the cheap Chinese crap.

I have used the wire from there with no issues.

[Tim Wescott]

I looked up this tool. In a few seconds I understood the principle and made one for the immediate use.  I had some hard 1/8" pins. I secured two of them 1/8" apart in my vise, then used a vice grip to hold the tops from spreading apart with my left hand, stuck my marked wire in between the pins to the marked point, and bent.  Worked wonderfully.
Thanks to your timely post I was able to get parts made to help ensure a critical part gets done by tomorrow. The proper tool will be ordered asap.
Thanks Dan

Gary

The day I decided to make a tool like that I lucked out, because the music wire I had on hand was just a bit more oversize than the amount that drill bits typically drill oversize, so I got a nice tight press fit.

[Peter in Fairfax, VA]

I may have not only a wire bender available for sale, but also a coil maker.  Not sure that many PA planes call for a coiled nose gear, though.

Peter

[Ken Culbertson]

Ok, I've done this many times in the past, but having difficulty now. Need to make a 90 deg bend in 1/8" music wire. UnTreated, It cracked. Marked another spot and lightly annealed it. This cracked. Tried again with a more throurough application of heat in the bend area. Got about 80deg and it cracked.
Is this common these days? Is the wire cheap import crap from china? 

My method is clamp in a vise, apply pressure to the wire above the bend by hand, and lightly tap at the top of the bend point with a hammer and slowly work it down.

Gary

I use your method with one exception, I have ground a 1/8" radius into a part of the vise.  Never had a crack.

Ken

[Bob Reeves]

You can also file a notch in one side of your vice jaws with a round file for the inside radius of the bend.

[Shawn Lenci]

PW....Who is B&B?

Shawn

[Gary Dowler]

PW....Who is B&B?

Shawn

B&B is the name of our local hobby shop. It's a real life, genuine, old school hobby shop. And I'm very grateful for it.

Gary

[Gary Dowler]

I use your method with one exception, I have ground a 1/8" radius into a part of the vise.  Never had a crack.

Ken

Ken, I thought of doing that. Or get a piece of 1" steel angle iron, cut it into a pair of jaw pads with a radius cut into one of them. Same effect, just removable.

Gary

[Dave Hull]

And then get a scrap piece of 1x2 hardwood about 12" long. Hold it lengthwise against the jaws and use it for leverage to fold down the wire. Saves you hands and focuses the bend where you want it, not introducing some long arc in the wire. And if you still feel the need to whack the job with a hammer, lay the wood over the bend and whack the wood "to tighten it up."

If you fully annealed the end of the wire, you can actually bend a sharp 90 degree in 1/8". I do this for Clown landing gear going into a 3/8" fuselage. Not the best design approach, but works good enough if the fuse has an aluminum or maple insert where the wire goes thru.

Dave

[Ken Culbertson]

Ken, I thought of doing that. Or get a piece of 1" steel angle iron, cut it into a pair of jaw pads with a radius cut into one of them. Same effect, just removable.

Gary

Good idea.  I just got a new table vise and I haven't needed to bend any wire with it yet so I will do that.

Ken

[Jim Kraft]

I have several notches in my vise for different size wire. Works for me. 5/32 is about as big as I go and only use that on really big planes like the Taurus. I had 1/8 inch to start and it folded back and punched a hole in the wing covering on one not so gentle landing. It has rather long gear anyway and really needs the extra stiffness. On most I only use 1/8 sometimes with a spreader bar.

[Steve Helmick]

My experience with K&S wire is that it's too soft. If you can find out what brand B&B Hobby sells, don't hesitate to post the 411. AFAIK, Sullivan and SIG would be the only other possibilities.  I bought some recently from Hobby Town in Parkland, just before they folded their tent, but I don't know what brand it is.    Steve