To all you old aircraft fitters.

[Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach]

Hi guys. I have a roll of WWII, RAF aircraft tie wire. It measures .020 and I was wondering if instead of buying copper wire to wrap my line ends, could I use this stuff to do it? I'm always looking for ways to cheap out! LOL 

[Will Hinton]

If you're reffering to safety wire, I feel it would be a bit too stiff to make good wraps.  Tell ya what, I still use quite a bit of SS safety wire and I'll be more than happy to swap you some copper for it.
Will

[roger gebhart]

Is that wire copper? It was used for safety wire at one time and I'm not so sure it is illegal now.  rog

[Bill Heher]

The .020 copper wire is known is " break-away" wire, and was usually used to secure switches or levers that are only moved in an emergency situation. You can break the wire and move the control to the emergency position, and during pre-flight you check to make sure the switch / control is positioned correctly and secured with the wire.

Regular 'Safety wire" is .020, .032, .041 high strength stainless steel. It is not really suitable for wrapping line ends- it is fairly hard and requires tools to work it. In aircraft maintenance you always had your " Safety Wire pliers" handy, these are special pliers that have a locking jaw, and a spiral drive handle like a Yankee Screwdriver- that allow you to pull the ends of the wires and twist them together in one motion.

There are pages of specs for proper use and termination of safety wire in the FARs ( Federal Aviation Regulations), and all the old " Aircraft Fitters" you addressed this to have multiple scars on our hands from close encounters with "pigtails".

Bottom line- use copper wire to wrap control lines, you can get a lifetime supply by stripping 6' of a good heavy duty extension cord or appliance plug lead.

[Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach]

Hi Bill....thanks abunch for the great information.  This must be the regular safety wire you spoke of.  It does not look like copper wire at all.  I wished I could find someone who could use this stuff.  I would hate to just throw it away.  Maybe a trip to our small municipal airport is in order!  I will go and get the cordage you spoke of and strip it, that sounds like the best bet.  Many thanks to everyone.

[Randy Ryan]

Hi Bill....thanks abunch for the great information.  This must be the regular safety wire you spoke of.  It does not look like copper wire at all.  I wished I could find someone who could use this stuff.  I would hate to just throw it away.  Maybe a trip to our small municipal airport is in order!  I will go and get the cordage you spoke of and strip it, that sounds like the best bet.  Many thanks to everyone.

Glenn,

Will Hinton offered to swap you some copper with for it!

[Glenn (Gravitywell) Reach]

Oh my goodness!  Thank you so much for pointing that out for me Randy.  When I read the post I thought he was telling me to use copper over the safety wire! LOL

Hello Will....terribly sorry for ignoring your post.  I miss-read it!  I don't know if it would be worth the shipping to send this stuff anywhere.  It would more than likely be more then $10 to ship it anywhere.  I am sorry I can't get it to you, but I just can't afford it.  Otherwise I would just give it to you.  Oh well.....thats what you get for living so far away from me! LOL

[Will Hinton]

Hey Glenn, that's okay, but maybe I could find a good reason to get in some fishing time up your way!  (Probably a few years off, though.  The stripping thing works very well, I stripped some #16THHN the last time I needed to wrap, but whatever you can find as scraps can be used. 

Bill, ya hadda go and remind me of the pigtail scars, didn't ya?  I had a second class PO in the squadron a hundred years ago bet me he could safety wire a set of ASQ gear up with no light - the bet was that if he did it successfully I had to remove it and rewire it myself in the dark.  He won and I bled for a week!!  (I was only an airman at the time.)  Wow, that was so far back!
Blessings,
Will

[Bill Heher]

Don't throw it away!  just because it is not suitable for leadouts and lines doesn't mean it is not useful.  It is strong, doesn't rust, and handles easily enough with pliers, etc.

It is good for hanging stuff, binding things, bundlng sticks, guy wires for plants like tomatoes, slicing cheese, all kinds of stuff. Not to mention that a roll of it is probably $20 now days.