DBono99

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Hi All
Got a question how do you guys/girls manage to bend landing gear.. I will be working with 5/32 wire for the the mains that go under the wing...The plane they are being made for is a scratch built Cloud Dancer 40.
Or can I just go out an purchase some thing like that from the kit makers?
Thanks Dan

Dsegal

5/32" wire is tough to bend. You can use a large size K and S wire bender if you have a study vise to hold it. Go to http://www.ksmetals.com/Accessories/....asp#wireform/

Dave Segal

vtol_guy

we have different measuring thingy for U/C wire but i usually put it in a vise and heat it up with a soldering iron then it usually softens it up so its much easier to bend

r1morris

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Bending landing gear is not all that difficult . For small piano wire bending it cold is not all that bad , however bending heavy Piano wire cold does not give you those nice bends needed to make the gear look good.
I'm sure there are other methods then the one I use but the following works well for me.
I recently purchased a small Butane and held torch that delivers a nice blue flame where needed. I had used a standard size Butane torch for years I just like the new smaller one as its handy and easy to hold. Beside that it came with a solder tip.

I mark the location where to start each bend with a marking pen .
I heat the area with the torch till the wire glows red at that pot it is soft enough to bend with a pair of pliers. I just try and get the bend some place near close. I let the wire cool down to room temperature, this only takes a few minutes. Now I can lay the gear over the pattern and finish bending. The wire at this point is softer and can be worked easily. Once all the bends have been made and I'm happy with the result I use a Dermal with a cut off wheel to cut the wire were needed.
Now comes the important part. When I heated the wire I took out the annealing in the wire that made it tough and springy.
To put the annealing back and prevent the wire from bending when I don't want it to. I do the following.
I get a bowl of White Sugar just the common kind nothing special. Put the sugar in a container large enough to press the wire bends into.
Know carefully heat the area of each bend I made using heat from the torch. When the bend gets red hot press the bend into the container of sugar and let cool make sure to use a pair of pliers when doing this the wire gets hot fast.
There will be a coating on the wire of burnt sugar around the heated bend. clean the residue off with a wire brush and soap and water. Now do the next bend. All this does not take long so j I take my time and let the wire cool to room temperature.
This process does not put all the annealing back into the piano wire but its good enough for about any landing gear I have made this way.
Please be careful doing wire this way there is open flame and a great deal of heat involved.

BMatthews

R1morris, your terms are a little mixed up.

When you heat the wire you remove the TEMPER by ANNEALLING the wire. In the annealed state the steel has a lower yield point for deformation and we percieve that as being soft.

Your bit with the sugar is "somehow" re-heat treating the steel to restore the spring temper.

I quoted the "somehow" because this is not how it's normally done in the classic sense. To temper steel there are usually two operations involved. The first is to heat the steel above the critical temperature which is somewhere around a bright cherry red but before it goes to orange. Then it needs to be quenched quickly in something that takes the heat away fast, like water or light oil. This leaves it glass hard and brittle. So the next step is to reheat it gently to around 400 to 500 degrees. At that point the oxidation colors show up on the polished metal as the temperature goes through the heat range. For spring temper it's normal to run the color up through straw and yellow and into the blue range.

Your sugar trick is either somehow duplicating this procedure or perhaps it's case hardening the wire. Either way you seem to be happy with the method. I'll have to try this one day.

r1morris

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I have no idea why the Sugar works but it does. I learned this trick years ago and never thought about it much. As you can tell I am not into metallurgy. I guess its like a lot of tips and tricks we pick along the way.

CafeenMan

DBono - Get a wire bender. Don't mess around with heating the wire. It's not necessary at all and unless you're a trained metal worker there's a good chance you'll ruin the wire. It takes about 10 seconds to bend a wire using the right tool.

The K & S wire benders are awesome. I have the Mini and the Mighty and love both of them. They work great.

Here's a better picture of them than on the site that Dsegal linked to.

http://www.airfieldmodels.com/tools_miscellaneous.htm

phayd

In regards to what you are saying about 400-500 degrees-

Could this be done in the oven? Set the oven to 475 and cook for 15 minutes?

I like the idea of putting the spring back into wire, as I've been through 3 1/8" rods trying to get some wires right.

My other question is what would this do to bronze parts and silver solder? I'm thinking that I'll probably bend the wire before attaching these parts, but I would like to know my options.

Thanks