I have a restoration project going on a 1/3 scale bi-plane. It uses flying wires and turnbuckles by Dubro. As you can see in the pic the flying wire/turnbuckle assembly is very nice. I pretty sure the wire attachment was done with a Dubro Kwik Twist. I've ordered one. But have no idea how this thing works and what size wire the wrap, if it's a separate piece or if the music wire is wrapped around itself. Can someone give a short primer. thanks.

Steve

Check out this site on the reproduction work being carried out by Fokker Team Schorndorf:

http://www.theaerodrome.com/forum/sh...&page=15&pp=10

You could easily spend hours and hours looking through this stuff.

Wow. what a cool technique! Don, thanks for finding it..

Thanks a bunch. That anwered a lot of my questions. Made me feel so indadequate []

Question #2: Does anyone have an idea of what kind of tool will make those beautiful full circle loops in the end of the music wire. Needlenose pliers won't do it, I think.

I doubt you'll have much luck trying to bend regular music wire into such tight loops unless you anneal it first. It might be worth heading over to the hardware store to pick up a bundle of those soft wire twists the construction guys use to hold stuff in place. It would be a simple matter to wrap that around a nail or something even smaller.

Making the barrel wraps is not the problem. Single strand fishing leader will work good. It's the loop in the end of the music wire that will be hard. I had not thought about heating it. That may be the solution. Does anyone know. Guess I will have to do a test when the wire gets here.

Another question: maybe music sire is not the best thing to use? don't know, this stuff is all so new to me. So much to learn, so little time.[&o]

splais, if you heat music wire until red it will bend pretty well. After it's bent let it cool slowly. Music wire is the wire of choice here unless your flying wires are flat , airfoil shaped or cables.

BobH, thanks. I have also found that single strand SS fishing leader will be an excellent flying wire. A lot like music wire (stiff) but can be bent farely easily and comes in a gob of sizes just like music wire.

I'll be using SS fishing leader to rig the Nieuports I'm building. But then they are only 1/6 scale. If I were doing a large scale I might want to use music wire. The advantage of using music wire, as you say, is that it stays stiff. And by selectively heating only the parts you want to soften for tight/small bends you can have your cake and eat it too.

Yes, you may be correct because the SS leader can be bend. So on longer flying wires you could have an accident and put a kink in it. The SS leader does seem like a good alternative for places like the tail or for shorter runs. Now that I have both coming I will probably experiment. IF I put the turnbuckles in the middle of the wire were they are now the pieces are only about 15" long. I'm thinking about changing them because on the real plane (Pitts) the turnbuckles are at the ends.

Actually, I don't know jack about fishing, so I might not be using the right term. I'm thinking of that cable-like stuff. But then I've also bought music wire like thin rods at fishing shops too. I'll be using the cable stuff.

PS. Not knowing jack about fishing didn't stop me from catching a 1.5m sailfish with just a block of foam wrapped with line off the coast of Oman or from snagging 3 enormous, fat trout the very first time I ever cast with a fly rod (no bait needed) in Kamchatka!

Single strand leader is very stiff, "almost" like music wire, but it can be bent into small circles pretty easily.

Well my flying wire tool came today. The Dubro Kwik Twist. It is very easy to use, works on music wire up to .032" (.8mm) and makes incredible flying wire ends. I made a perfect end on my first attempt in just a couple of minutes.