Not sure if this is the best place to ask this question, but here goes. I did a search on here but could not find an answer.
I am bending my first set of struts ( K & S 3/16 wire) for retracts with the ( http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin...?&I=LXGFW4&P=0 ) Mighty wire bender. I have seen pictures of wire struts, some with one coil and some with two coils. But I am not sure which is the better way two go. Also, not 100 % sure that I can even bed two coils. Have only tried the one coil. Seemed to be ok, although I had to tweek it a little in the vise. I have extra material, so I can experiment a little. I am hoping maybe somebody has some experience that they could share on this.
Thanks

I'll try to give you an answer, although it's just my speculation from being in the hobby for several (19+) years. I've never tried to bend my own gear. My way of thinking says the number of coils would depend on the weight of the model. Look through some of the online retailers and compare available gear sets to determine a pattern to the number of coils. Another thought I'm having (and yes it sometimes hurts), is whether or not the metal would need to be heat treated after the coil is formed to make it less brittle?

I've had good results with one coil with 4 loops using 3/16" wire. It has held up well on 60 size aircraft.

TJR1,
Yea, that's kind of what I was doing, trying too see who has what. Couldn't really come up with a good conclusion. About heating, most everything (but not all) I have read says to bend it cold and don't heat it. It would mess up the temper of the steel, so I am going to give that a try.

Knight,
Not quite sure what you mean by "one coil with 4 loops". The struts are going on a 60 size Top Flight Sea Fury.
On Robarts web site, it only has one loop around, but it is a drawing, not a picture of the product. I see in some pictures of some planes that have Robarts, they are only one loop. I guess I will try that and see how it turns out.
Thanks

If you can get one coil to bed, the additional ones are a piece of cake. Additional turns actually follow each other.

One turn works well on my 60 size. I've bent a number of replacement struts. The wire I found was slightly stiffer and appeared higher quality than the original wire that came in the ARFs. One turn gave very good flex. Never had reason to consider more turns. And I'm not sure there would be room for more on the planes I've done so far.

Thanks daRock. I am going to use Lado retracts, which don't come with any struts. I suppose that I could have bought some replacement Robart struts, but figured that I should be able to bend my own. Also, if I ever need any in the future, I can just make them. I figured that one loop around would be enough, but just wasn't sure. Thanks for your help.

You don't really NEED any coils but one is fine.

BTW, I've also bent a number of replacement nose gear for buddies. It got them back flying quicker (and cheaper, I can't remember any one of them paying me for them...) and it gave me testbeds to see what different numbers of coils did.

I never really saw a great difference between 1 coil and 2 in how they flexed on impact. But 3 actually showed obvious flex on impact. Now....... I'd like to have more flex on the retract struts. They all came with one coil. But coils on a retract strut will cause the strut to lie deeper or shallower in the wing. So there isn't always a choice.

whatever.........

Glad to help.