I'm going to make a wire-bending fixture for putting fairly small-radius
bends into 1/8" music wire*. I have some 1/8" oil hardening drill rod
and a slightly undersized 1/8" reamer designed for installing dowel pins
in tooling. I also have some 1-1/4" round bar, made of mystery steel but
there's a good chance that it'll harden at least a bit if encouraged.

So I'm planning on putting a couple of pins made out of the drill rod
into the end of a bar, and bending the music wire around the pins. I'm
_assuming_ that if I don't harden the drill rod that it'll bend, although
I'm in a hurry so I'm going to test that assumption by trying to use the
tool.

After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct? I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization. When I fish it out of the bucket should I try tempering
it? If so, how, and how much?

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. The temperature measurement tools I have
are my own somewhat color blind eyes.

* Music wire is moderately high carbon -- 0.7 to 0.9%, and drawn in a way
that work-hardens it nicely. It's soft enough that you can cut it with
diagonal cutters successfully, but hard enough that you'd better hide the
cutters from their rightful owner when you're done.

--
http://www.wescottdesign.com

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:53:55 -0500, Tim Wescott wrote:


After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct? I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization. When I fish it out of the bucket should I try tempering
it? If so, how, and how much?

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. The temperature measurement tools I have
are my own somewhat color blind eyes.


Ideally, heat it until a magnet (or magnetized screwdriver etc.) doesn't stick
to it. That ensures that you've got it hot enough to harden. as soon as
possible after quenching, put it in the pre-heated kitchen oven at about
220C/430F or a bit higher for an hour. If you don't do that, there is a danger
of the pins shattering :-(

Soap, mixed with water to a creamy consistency works quite well to shield
parts form air. It should come off when quenching.

If you can find them, use a couple or four fire bricks or some mineral wool to
contain the heat. Takes a lot less effort to heat parts up with an
approximation to a forge...


Mark Rand
RTFM

On Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:04:17 +0100, Mark Rand wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:53:55 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:


After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct? I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization. When I fish it out of the bucket should I try
tempering it? If so, how, and how much?

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. The temperature measurement tools I
have are my own somewhat color blind eyes.


Ideally, heat it until a magnet (or magnetized screwdriver etc.) doesn't
stick to it. That ensures that you've got it hot enough to harden. as
soon as possible after quenching, put it in the pre-heated kitchen oven
at about 220C/430F or a bit higher for an hour. If you don't do that,
there is a danger of the pins shattering :-(

Soap, mixed with water to a creamy consistency works quite well to
shield parts form air. It should come off when quenching.

If you can find them, use a couple or four fire bricks or some mineral
wool to contain the heat. Takes a lot less effort to heat parts up with
an approximation to a forge...

Yea, the best approximation I have to a forge is an old forge that needs
some TLC before it can be fired up -- but I'm trying to _reduce_ my
project load, not _increase_ it.

--
http://www.wescottdesign.com

On Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:04:17 +0100, Mark Rand wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:53:55 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:


After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct? I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization. When I fish it out of the bucket should I try
tempering it? If so, how, and how much?

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. The temperature measurement tools I
have are my own somewhat color blind eyes.


Ideally, heat it until a magnet (or magnetized screwdriver etc.) doesn't
stick to it. That ensures that you've got it hot enough to harden. as
soon as possible after quenching, put it in the pre-heated kitchen oven
at about 220C/430F or a bit higher for an hour. If you don't do that,
there is a danger of the pins shattering :-(

Soap, mixed with water to a creamy consistency works quite well to
shield parts form air. It should come off when quenching.

If you can find them, use a couple or four fire bricks or some mineral
wool to contain the heat. Takes a lot less effort to heat parts up with
an approximation to a forge...

So are fire bricks a Home Depot thing? A local welding shop thing? A
"forget about it and get mailorder" thing?

(I want to make a decent forge/furnace that's at least big enough to heat
treat model airplane crankshafts in, and maybe enough to melt aluminum
for a model airplane crankcase, but that's a project for another year).

--
http://www.wescottdesign.com

On Jul 26, 1:17*am, Tim Wescott wrote:

So are fire bricks a Home Depot thing? *A local welding shop thing? *A
"forget about it and get mailorder" thing?

(I want to make a decent forge/furnace that's at least big enough to heat
treat model airplane crankshafts in, and maybe enough to melt aluminum
for a model airplane crankcase, but that's a project for another year).

--http://www.wescottdesign.com

I would harden the pins before pressing them in the jig.

You can probably get firebrick at Home Depot. Better places to try
are places that carry pottery supplies. They will probably have
insulating firebrick. You could also try places that sell woodstoves
or masonry products.

For a decent forge/furnace you probably want castable refractory. You
can make your own using vermiculite or Pearlite from the garden center
and some fire clay.

Dan

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:28:52 -0700 (PDT), "
wrote:


I would harden the pins before pressing them in the jig.

I'd buy the pins already hardened. Small alloy dowel pins are cheap
and will be stronger and tougher than what you're likely to get with
primitive methods without a fair amount of experience. Hardened drill
blanks are stronger still, at the expense of toughness.

--
Ned Simmons

On 2009-07-25, Tim Wescott wrote:
I'm going to make a wire-bending fixture for putting fairly small-radius
bends into 1/8" music wire*. I have some 1/8" oil hardening drill rod
and a slightly undersized 1/8" reamer designed for installing dowel pins
in tooling. I also have some 1-1/4" round bar, made of mystery steel but
there's a good chance that it'll harden at least a bit if encouraged.

You know of dowel pins already -- so why not get some. 1/8"
dowel pins are quite inexpensive, and a *lot* harder than you could get
the drill rod to be without it being too brittle.

As for the mystery steel -- I think that it is as likely as not
to be low carbon enough so you won't get *any* appreciable hardening
with it. But why would you need that? You want it tough, to hold the
dowel pins, not hard, because it is not a wear surface in this
application.

So I'm planning on putting a couple of pins made out of the drill rod
into the end of a bar, and bending the music wire around the pins. I'm
_assuming_ that if I don't harden the drill rod that it'll bend, although
I'm in a hurry so I'm going to test that assumption by trying to use the
tool.

And music wire is hard enough so it will dent the drill rod,
likely even if you've hardened it before use.

After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct?

Water is too extreme a chill for oil-hardening drill rod. Cut
the rod to length and bevel the ends (assuming that you don't get dowel
pins), then wrap them and some paper in some stainless steel foil wrap,
crimp it closed and pack as tight as possible around the pins to exclude
as much air as possible, then heat that to your red heat. The foil
keeps out any air which is not already there, and the paper burns up the
oxygen which is already inside.

Once you reach the red heat, cut off the end of the stainless
steel wrap and let it fall into a container of oil -- engine oil will do
if you don't have anything better. This will quench it at the proper
rate. You might have a flash of flame from the vapor at the top of the
oil's surface, but it will go out very quickly. (Do it outside anyway to
be safe.)

I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization.

The pins are what you need *hard*, and by protecting them from
the oil you will not get nearly as much hardening as you want.

When I fish it out of the bucket should I try tempering
it? If so, how, and how much?

Forget about hardening the body of the fixture, and get dowel
pins which are already very hard and you won't have to worry about this.

But if you harden the drill rod -- read up on the tempering
temperatures of the rod which you have and aim for just a little less
hard than full hard. At a guess, something like 150 F to 200 F for
perhaps a half hour (these are quite small, so the hour per inch of
thickness need not apply).

But I would go for the dowel pins, not the drill rod. (I've got
both on hand.)

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. The temperature measurement tools I have
are my own somewhat color blind eyes.

Do the heating in the shade so you have a better chance of
seeing the red. Or -- you could test them with a magnet. When they are
no longer attracted to the magnet, they are ready to quench.

* Music wire is moderately high carbon -- 0.7 to 0.9%, and drawn in a way
that work-hardens it nicely. It's soft enough that you can cut it with
diagonal cutters successfully, but hard enough that you'd better hide the
cutters from their rightful owner when you're done.

I'm not sure that 1/8" music wire will take the kind of bends
which you would get from 1/8" drill rod or dowel pins. Normally for
cutting music wire I would suggest the Starrett carbide faced compound
leverage nippers -- but I think that 1/8" music wire may be a bit too
much for them.

Good Luck,
DoN.

--
Email: | Voice (all times): (703) 938-4564
(too) near Washington D.C. | http://www.d-and-d.com/dnichols/DoN.html
--- Black Holes are where God is dividing by zero ---

Home heat treating a large lump of mystery metal with some very thin
high carbon drill rod seems like a recipe for odd results.

I don't think I'd bother heat treating the assembly. Instead of using
drill rod, use some straight or tapered dowel pins. These are already
hardened. You mystery metal round bar is likely to be plenty strong to
hold the pins.

www.mcmaster.com page 3275

Tim Wescott wrote:
I'm going to make a wire-bending fixture for putting fairly small-radius
bends into 1/8" music wire*. I have some 1/8" oil hardening drill rod
and a slightly undersized 1/8" reamer designed for installing dowel pins
in tooling. I also have some 1-1/4" round bar, made of mystery steel but
there's a good chance that it'll harden at least a bit if encouraged.

So I'm planning on putting a couple of pins made out of the drill rod
into the end of a bar, and bending the music wire around the pins. I'm
_assuming_ that if I don't harden the drill rod that it'll bend, although
I'm in a hurry so I'm going to test that assumption by trying to use the
tool.

After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct? I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization. When I fish it out of the bucket should I try tempering
it? If so, how, and how much?

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. The temperature measurement tools I have
are my own somewhat color blind eyes.

* Music wire is moderately high carbon -- 0.7 to 0.9%, and drawn in a way
that work-hardens it nicely. It's soft enough that you can cut it with
diagonal cutters successfully, but hard enough that you'd better hide the
cutters from their rightful owner when you're done.

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 18:00:39 -0700, # 42 wrote:

"Tim Wescott" wrote in message
...
On Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:04:17 +0100, Mark Rand wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:53:55 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:


So are fire bricks a Home Depot thing? A local welding shop thing? A
"forget about it and get mailorder" thing?


http://www.wescottdesign.com

They're a place that sells woodstoves thing. There's a woodstove dealer
on hwy 213 near Leland Rd ( at least there used to be) that'll have
them. Paul

Thanks Paul -- I've been in there drooling on their stoves, so I know how
to find it.

--
www.wescottdesign.com

In article ,
Tim Wescott wrote:

On Sun, 26 Jul 2009 01:04:17 +0100, Mark Rand wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:53:55 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:


After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct? I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization. When I fish it out of the bucket should I try
tempering it? If so, how, and how much?

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. The temperature measurement tools I
have are my own somewhat color blind eyes.


Ideally, heat it until a magnet (or magnetized screwdriver etc.) doesn't
stick to it. That ensures that you've got it hot enough to harden. as
soon as possible after quenching, put it in the pre-heated kitchen oven
at about 220C/430F or a bit higher for an hour. If you don't do that,
there is a danger of the pins shattering :-(

Soap, mixed with water to a creamy consistency works quite well to
shield parts form air. It should come off when quenching.

If you can find them, use a couple or four fire bricks or some mineral
wool to contain the heat. Takes a lot less effort to heat parts up with
an approximation to a forge...

So are fire bricks a Home Depot thing? A local welding shop thing? A
"forget about it and get mailorder" thing?

I bought a pile of ordinary firebricks, used to line fireplaces, at the
local brickyard, for something like $1 per brick and no shipping.

When I need to do some hot work, I pile the bricks on top of my wooden
workbench and have at it. The wood does not scorch or even get that
warm.

I use a layer of full bricks on the wood, and half-bricks on top of the
full bricks if I'm making a little forge, usually heated by a big
propane-air torch fed from a 10# picnic bottle.

For quick work with the acyetlene-air plumbers torch, a single
half-brick on the bench works well.

The common 20# picnic bottles are a bit too heavy for portability with a
torch, so I got a half-size bottle for the torch. But I can always
borrow the bottle from the gas grill.

Joe Gwinn

As someone that has bent a lot of music wire springs (I'm a locksmith) I
don't think you need to worry about heat treating the rod. My bending
fixtures were aluminum with dowel pins and the aluminum did just fine.

The trick to bending springs is to figure out how much to bend. If you want
a ninety degree bend you have to bend it further so it stays at 90 when you
relax the spring. Trial and error seems to work here so if you have a bunch
of identical pieces to make, mark your fixture so you know how much to bend.

--

Roger Shoaf

About the time I had mastered getting the toothpaste back in the tube, then
they come up with this striped stuff.


"Tim Wescott" wrote in message
...
I'm going to make a wire-bending fixture for putting fairly small-radius
bends into 1/8" music wire*. I have some 1/8" oil hardening drill rod
and a slightly undersized 1/8" reamer designed for installing dowel pins
in tooling. I also have some 1-1/4" round bar, made of mystery steel but
there's a good chance that it'll harden at least a bit if encouraged.

So I'm planning on putting a couple of pins made out of the drill rod
into the end of a bar, and bending the music wire around the pins. I'm
_assuming_ that if I don't harden the drill rod that it'll bend, although
I'm in a hurry so I'm going to test that assumption by trying to use the
tool.

After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct? I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization. When I fish it out of the bucket should I try tempering
it? If so, how, and how much?

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. The temperature measurement tools I have
are my own somewhat color blind eyes.

* Music wire is moderately high carbon -- 0.7 to 0.9%, and drawn in a way
that work-hardens it nicely. It's soft enough that you can cut it with
diagonal cutters successfully, but hard enough that you'd better hide the
cutters from their rightful owner when you're done.

--
http://www.wescottdesign.com

Mark - what do you use for soap? Most of what is called soap is
actually a detergent of some type.

Hul

Mark Rand wrote:
On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:53:55 -0500, Tim Wescott wrote:


After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct? I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization. When I fish it out of the bucket should I try tempering
it? If so, how, and how much?

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. The temperature measurement tools I have
are my own somewhat color blind eyes.


Ideally, heat it until a magnet (or magnetized screwdriver etc.) doesn't stick
to it. That ensures that you've got it hot enough to harden. as soon as
possible after quenching, put it in the pre-heated kitchen oven at about
220C/430F or a bit higher for an hour. If you don't do that, there is a danger
of the pins shattering :-(

Soap, mixed with water to a creamy consistency works quite well to shield
parts form air. It should come off when quenching.

If you can find them, use a couple or four fire bricks or some mineral wool to
contain the heat. Takes a lot less effort to heat parts up with an
approximation to a forge...


Mark Rand
RTFM

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:53:55 -0500, Tim Wescott wrote:

I'm going to make a wire-bending fixture for putting fairly small-radius
bends into 1/8" music wire*. I have some 1/8" oil hardening drill rod
and a slightly undersized 1/8" reamer designed for installing dowel pins
in tooling. I also have some 1-1/4" round bar, made of mystery steel
but there's a good chance that it'll harden at least a bit if
encouraged.

So I'm planning on putting a couple of pins made out of the drill rod
into the end of a bar, and bending the music wire around the pins. I'm
_assuming_ that if I don't harden the drill rod that it'll bend,
although I'm in a hurry so I'm going to test that assumption by trying
to use the tool.

After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct? I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization. When I fish it out of the bucket should I try
tempering it? If so, how, and how much?

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. The temperature measurement tools I
have are my own somewhat color blind eyes.

* Music wire is moderately high carbon -- 0.7 to 0.9%, and drawn in a
way that work-hardens it nicely. It's soft enough that you can cut it
with diagonal cutters successfully, but hard enough that you'd better
hide the cutters from their rightful owner when you're done.

What consensus there is seems to be to use dowel pins. Initially I'm
going to use 3/16" drill rod ('cause that's what I have on hand, and I
have a 3/16" reamer).

But when I do this "for permanent" I'll use dowel pins (why oh _why_
didn't I think of that?).

--
http://www.wescottdesign.com

On Sun, 26 Jul 2009 12:34:24 -0700, Roger Shoaf wrote:

As someone that has bent a lot of music wire springs (I'm a locksmith) I
don't think you need to worry about heat treating the rod. My bending
fixtures were aluminum with dowel pins and the aluminum did just fine.

The trick to bending springs is to figure out how much to bend. If you
want a ninety degree bend you have to bend it further so it stays at 90
when you relax the spring. Trial and error seems to work here so if you
have a bunch of identical pieces to make, mark your fixture so you know
how much to bend.

Hey, you may know two things that have been bugging me, then:

1: I usually get music wire from the hobby shop; it's K&S brand which is
pretty good, but the better sort of kit has harder wire that's less
likely to permanently deform on a hard landing. D'ya know where to get a
better grade? Or better yet, a nice selection of grades?

2: Any guidance on minimum bend radii? Someone mentioned that a 1/8 pin
for 1/8 wire is probably too tight, and I'm just not sure if he isn't
right.

--
www.wescottdesign.com

On Sun, 26 Jul 2009 23:03:54 +0000 (UTC), wrote:

Mark - what do you use for soap? Most of what is called soap is
actually a detergent of some type.


Common or garden unscented vegetable oil based bar soap. Made into a sloppy
consistency with water.

Any cheap bar soap that doesn't claim to be good for your complexion will
probably do.


Mark Rand
RTFM

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:53:55 -0500, Tim Wescott wrote:

I'm going to make a wire-bending fixture for putting fairly small-radius
bends into 1/8" music wire*. I have some 1/8" oil hardening drill rod
and a slightly undersized 1/8" reamer designed for installing dowel pins
in tooling. I also have some 1-1/4" round bar, made of mystery steel but
there's a good chance that it'll harden at least a bit if encouraged.

So I'm planning on putting a couple of pins made out of the drill rod
into the end of a bar, and bending the music wire around the pins. I'm
_assuming_ that if I don't harden the drill rod that it'll bend, although
I'm in a hurry so I'm going to test that assumption by trying to use the
tool.

Just get one of these:
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v8...1/pic1679a.jpg

Cheers!
Rich

On Jul 25, 4:53*pm, Tim Wescott wrote:
I'm going to make a wire-bending fixture for putting fairly small-radius
bends into 1/8" music wire*. *I have some 1/8" oil hardening drill rod
and a slightly undersized 1/8" reamer designed for installing dowel pins
in tooling. *I also have some 1-1/4" round bar, made of mystery steel but
there's a good chance that it'll harden at least a bit if encouraged.

So I'm planning on putting a couple of pins made out of the drill rod
into the end of a bar, and bending the music wire around the pins. *I'm
_assuming_ that if I don't harden the drill rod that it'll bend, although
I'm in a hurry so I'm going to test that assumption by trying to use the
tool.

After I bend up my first attempt at a fixture I'll want to do it up
right. *It seems like I should just be able to heat up my whole assembly
to a dull red then chuck the thing into a bucket of water -- does this
sound correct? *I have some pottery clay lying around so I'll probably
paint the pins with clay & charcoal in an attempt to protect them from
decarburization. *When I fish it out of the bucket should I try tempering
it? *If so, how, and how much?

The heat-generating tools I have available are pretty much a propane
torch and an O-A cutting torch. *The temperature measurement tools I have
are my own somewhat color blind eyes.

* Music wire is moderately high carbon -- 0.7 to 0.9%, and drawn in a way
that work-hardens it nicely. *It's soft enough that you can cut it with
diagonal cutters successfully, but hard enough that you'd better hide the
cutters from their rightful owner when you're done.

--http://www.wescottdesign.com

Oil-hardening means just that, OIL-hardening. If you use water, it's
going to crack or be brittle. Even old crankcase oil will work.

Piano wire can be cut with piano-wire nippers, I've got a nice set of
Starretts I've inherited. Or just use the ever-popular Dremel cut-off
wheels. I also inherited a number of sets of dikes that had been used
on music wire, they'll never be any good for cutting electrical wire
again...

If you want properly hardened pins, just go get some dowel pins
instead of monkeying around with drill rod. They'll be properly
ground and polished, too. MSC and most of the other industrial
suppliers will have them.

Have you looked up minimum bending radius for that size of wire?
Looks a little sharp to me. I found out long ago that trying to get
too sharp a bend in the stuff just leaves you with two pieces, either
while bending or shortly after putting the part to work. Annealing it
just leaves you with a weak spot and eventually, the two pieces.

There are a number of music wire bending jigs out there that the RC
guys use for landing gear and pushrods, might be a look at those would
be in order.

Stan

On Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:55:48 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:53:55 -0500, Tim Wescott wrote:

I'm going to make a wire-bending fixture for putting fairly small-radius
bends into 1/8" music wire*.


But when I do this "for permanent" I'll use dowel pins (why oh _why_
didn't I think of that?).


I have a similar project in my long term list of things to do. I
spotted a few cheapo wire benders for sale on the net, but would have
liked to have seen drawings or better pictures of what other people
have made. Did you find any places on the net with good photos or
blueprints?

RWL

There are a number of music wire bending jigs out there that the RC
guys use for landing gear and pushrods, might be a look at those would
be in order.

Stan

A couple of months ago I wasn't very successful at finding pix of that
sort of thing. Can you point me toward a useful URL. I'm considering
a similar project to Wes's.

RWL

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:15:30 -0400, GeoLane at PTD dot NET GeoLane at
PTD dot NET wrote:



I have a similar project in my long term list of things to do. I
spotted a few cheapo wire benders for sale on the net, but would have
liked to have seen drawings or better pictures of what other people
have made. Did you find any places on the net with good photos or
blueprints?

This is a bender I made for a job that required a lot of accurate
bends in 1/8" Inconel wire.
http://www.suscom-maine.net/~nsimmon...essBrake01.jpg
http://www.suscom-maine.net/~nsimmon...essBrake02.jpg

--
Ned Simmons

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:15:30 -0400, GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote:

On Sun, 26 Jul 2009 22:55:48 -0500, Tim Wescott
wrote:

On Sat, 25 Jul 2009 17:53:55 -0500, Tim Wescott wrote:

I'm going to make a wire-bending fixture for putting fairly
small-radius bends into 1/8" music wire*.


But when I do this "for permanent" I'll use dowel pins (why oh _why_
didn't I think of that?).


I have a similar project in my long term list of things to do. I
spotted a few cheapo wire benders for sale on the net, but would have
liked to have seen drawings or better pictures of what other people have
made. Did you find any places on the net with good photos or
blueprints?

RWL

Two pins, about half again the diameter of the wire to be bent, spaced
about three wire diameters apart on center.

I.e., for 1/8 wire a pair of 3/16" pins about 3/8" apart (I used .4",
'cause it made the math easier as I cranked my table around).

--
www.wescottdesign.com

On Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:19:10 -0400, GeoLane at PTD dot NET
GeoLane at PTD dot NET wrote:

snip
A couple of months ago I wasn't very successful at finding pix of that
sort of thing. Can you point me toward a useful URL. I'm considering
a similar project to Wes's.

RWL

Here is an elcheapo little jig that can be found for sale in
a lot of places:

http://www.micromark.com/ECONOMICAL-...-JIG,7070.html

Another inexpensive wire bender from same:

http://www.micromark.com/VISE-MOUNTE...NDER,7044.html

This is another one that I like the looks of, WT has about
the cheapest price I've found for it, Micro-Mark has it too:

http://www.wttool.com/product-exec/p...der_WT_Import_

I would like to see some measurements and/or plans for the
latter. Looks decent and shouldn't be too difficult to
build.

--
Leon Fisk
Grand Rapids MI/Zone 5b
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