Floral Wire - Cheap push rod material.

[phunkodelic]

This stuff can be found at any craft store. I ran into it as my wife suggested trying it after I though about using the wire found in marking flags that the electric company, gas company, and landscapers use but its a bit thick. If you google it you will see it and its very cheap.

 

[Anthemius]

thx for the tip

 

[lonewolf7717]

Man I don't know, if its anything like the floral wire I am used to seeing. The stuff I know of would bend at the slightest sneeze and being annealed as it is has no memory to return to original shape....perhaps if you would post a link to the stuff you are talking about cause I would be interested if its not what I am thinking of.

 

[Deanoseadog]

I used it for my aileron pushrods on my vision ep. Works fine. It's ok if you keep it short over unsupported lengths. It's usually only available in 450mm lengths (18") which is ok for the smaller planes but if you need something longer I use TIG filler rods but they certainly cost more than florists wire.

 

[lonewolf7717]

I used it for my aileron pushrods on my vision ep. Works fine. It's ok if you keep it short over unsupported lengths. It's usually only available in 450mm lengths (18") which is ok for the smaller planes but if you need something longer I use TIG filler rods but they certainly cost more than florists wire.

have used TIG fillers and they do work great but fortunately for me my dad is a welding guru with a mig and tig gun repair business so filler rods are free plus I get to keep any and all mig wire pulled out of guns being repaired for fpv antennas.....but i digress....i will do some more hunting around for this floral wire....currently using marking flags but will admit they are a bit heavy and large for some applications.

 

[Anthemius]

yeah TIG/MIG fillers Works perfect..

 

[jhitesma]

I tried floral wire on my nutball and wasn't impressed with it at all. Admittedly it was also pretty much my first powered RC plane but it was basically unflyable for me with floral wire for control rods. I upgraded to some machinists wire I found that was a little thicker and a lot stiffer...and it was better. But control was still REALLY mushy. We finally got a LHS here in town and I got some .032 music wire and have finally been able to keep the plane airborne for a full battery.

Maybe on a super light plane and/or with really short control rods floral wire could work. But even something the size of the FT swappables I wouldn't try floral wire again. Maybe with a stiffener like the new FT 3D demonstrates. The floral wire did seem strong enough as a z bend just the long straight section didn't have any rigidity...but I think I'll stick with actual wire now that I can get it locally.

 

[pgerts]

Is there any specifications of FLORAL WIRE?
I searched and found everything from "Angel Hair" and soft "painted" aluminum wire to thick sticks.

1,5 mm carbon rod is my choice with Z bent 0,8-1 mm music wire in the servo end for medium sized foamies.

 

[FlyingMonkey]

I've used marking flags. I strip the flag portion off, and it makes a pretty good push rod.

You just need to make sure not to get the really heavy gauge ones.