Make control rods from 16 gauge wire purchased from Home Depot. $6.29 for 200 foot. This straightening and hardening process will work for about any gauge of wire. A 1/16" hole in a block of wood will straighten 16 gauge wire (1.5 mm)
I'm an older modeller and precision engineer - and sir - this is one of the rest demonstrations I've seen. Never say it's too late to learn something new.
Also works great for creating antenna elements for wifi / 4g. Never liked the drill method where wire is twisted, this way is SO MUCH better! Thank you...
I received a few hate emails from people stating the hazards of heating galvanized metal and not warning people who view my video. Maybe that's why my windows are open in my shop which they can't see in the video.
@@MrDabrudda I think he might be laughing about the actual "hardening" of the wire. I don't think that wire can really be hardened. It's mild steel. However, if it can be hardened, you would have to get the whole wire orange hot and quench it while it's still orange. Then it would have to be tempered. I think it's the act of straightening the wire that leaves it a bit work hardened. ...like wrought iron. I think heating it up after its wrought out straight might actually make it softer, not harder. ...anyway, great technique on straightening the wire. Thanks for posting Side note: if it wasn't for California, there would be no RU-vid to troll from
I used this technique on .055 in spring steel music wire. It works great! My controls rods were about 30 in. I imagine the shorter the pushrods the easier it is. The 30 in pushrod was a two person job.
You can get similar wire but stainless at harbor freight. I like this method better than twisting the wire which does straighten the wire but I think it weakens it also. I appreciate you
Leave the wire chucked in the drill and just move the torch along the wire. This should help keep the wire from bending while heat treating. I haven't tried it, but it should work.
I've started to use carbon rods in place of wire inside Sullivan-style plastic tubing. Lighter and stiffer, and short wire Z-bends at the ends can be glued with CA inside a heatshring tube. This final gluing can be done as the last step, to get exactly the right position. CF rods are sufficient stiff to not need long wire rods at the ends, but sufficiently bendable to go up T-tail fins, for example.
Very nice! Would this work on a 2.5mm wire for the landing gear? Would it prevent the bending or it is still bendable and I shouldn't try? Also alternative ways for heating? I don't have this tool...
Thanks for your help to show us this video clip of how can make the spring and in Mumbai from where can buy this type of16 Gauge this type of the wires in a different type of Gauge
The hardening process you recommend is applied to medium/high carbon steels. As far as I know, the carbon content in such steel wires is small, so I don't think that this would make a big difference. It's worth a try though
Yea I think you're right, I've tried this on regular wire not galvanized and it doesn't seem to do much, maybe slightly springier but not actually harder or less prone to bending, will just deflect more without permanently bending.
Use jumper cables and a 12 volt car battery to watch the whole length of the wire heat up instantly to red hot. Hold it over a bowl of water and release the wire from the clips at the same time. MUCH faster and uniformly.
I am sure you are long gone but you can simply stretch the wire if you want to do a lot at once. pulling straight between 2 cars works well. if it snaps then you pulled a bit to hard, go back in time and try again.
Can the wire still be cut after heat treating? Looking to make pins for linking pieces of an RC tank track, they will be roughly 5/8 inch long, not trying to do this process for all 50 pieces, not to mention the nightmare of working with pieces that small
Hmm .. sorry for that .. but no need to be smart .. 99.999 percent of the food u r eating from the markets have poison and 99.999 percent of the water and air u r drinking and breathing have poison .. so plz stop
@@phoenixcreations94 Do you know what you're talking about. Goat was simply talking about the galvanized metal releasing the oxide. Not general pollution.
I dont think that amount of heat would do squat! Plus its all cooled off by the time you got it in the water! I was just in my shop doing some 9 guage and tried several different heats and dipping it in oil verses water and what did the trick was getting the whole wire glowing red like almost melting and throw it in the water. Thats when I got the wire hard. You can't just get it orange and let it cool b4 you quench it or itll just be softer actually.
Nice one....Hope it works with 22 gauge Full Hard Steel wire that I will use for model bridge building. Thanks. Phil Update: I tried it with the 22 gauge Full Hard wire and unfortunately it does not work. I know this method you used for the thicker 16 gauge works very well according to many videos I watched however. If you have any ideas how I can get the bend out of the thinner 22 gauge I'd appreciate your input. Thanks.
@@jamescole3152 Yes for sure. That's why I said I was hoping and did update my original comment....This was over a year ago and solved the issue another way, but I appreciate your comment...Be well...
Thank you ilikec! And thank you MrDabrudda ! Three minutes after watching this video and reading this comment, I had the push rods done for my foam chuck glider RC conversion. What a fantastic world we live in, with fantastic people!
It's better to pull the wire without winding it, you can also put it instead in the drill chuck on a thick rod piece withe a loop and pull it without compromiseing the strength to much, or put somewhere a hook in the ceiling or something strong and put on the other end a weight and lett it hang for a little while 😊
Yeah I usually pull the wire a couple of times angled down over a wood work bench, works good on shorter lengths as a 2-3 foot piece will still have a little curve in it.
Is there really enough carbon in that steel to harden it? Wouldn't it need to be cherry red across the entire rod if there was a high enough carbon content?
Actually the carbon content has everything to do with hardening steel. Without a high enough carbon content it won't harden at all. Without tempering the wire should be glass hard and resist a file if it was actually hardened. I'm not saying your wrong I'm just surprised the wire has a high enough carbon content and that you were able to get such a skinny piece up to a high enough and even temperature to form metastable martensite?
On a safety note, galvanized coatings release zinc oxide fumes, inhaling these fumes can lead to metal fume fever. Probably not fatal but very unpleasant all the same.
The block and drill method will work but you have to spin the drill very slow or the wire will flap around. You could also try putting one end of the wire in a vise and the other end in a visegrips and twisting the wire.
Matthew Perry, that is exactly the recommendation I was going to make. For a 3' piece of wire I set my arc welder to about 50A, clamp it between stinger and ground, and flip on the switch. In about 5 secs it is orange hot. Flip off switch, drop in water, and cut to convenient lengths for straightening using the brilliant method shown here.
