Where do you get your wire for your pushrods?

[Steve Rosenbach]

are you crossing your push rods to put a forced - always there bend in the push rod? I do do that and 1 point along the pushrod works for me on the tiny trainer.

the TT has fairly big tail surfaces, so a bit of airflow upset from the servos being there should be ok, I would be most worried about any impact to your CG by putting that weight that far back.

Thanks, JasonK!

Yes, I did cross the pushrod wires per the instructions.

You're right about the CG - I'll have to play with the battery location, and maybe even add some weight in the nose.

I'm sorry I didn't take some photos while the servos were in the recommended location to show the way the pushrod was bowing. The bowing was on the "push" towards the tail, opposite the curvature from the crossovers. This caused the right rudder deflection to almost nil. Left rudder was OK, when the servo pulled.

The stress was so great that it actually broke the glue bond between the servo and the side of the fuselage.

 

[JasonK]

ok, if the stress was that high, then something was probably binding and preventing free movement of the push-rod or control surface.

 

[Ratcheeroo]

Just wondering where you guys go to get your wire for your pushrods? I keep hearing about music/piano wire that gets used but I cant seem to find a place that sells it.

I'm in Canada, but are there places in the US that sells it and will ship up north?

So I bought a 42 foot roll of wire from Amazon( I live in Canada too) that I paid $14 for and I just cut 20 inch lengths adnd use a block of hardwood with a hole about the size of the diameter of the wire drilled into it, pass the wire through the hole, attach an end to a cordless drill and tighten, slowly pull the wire out through the hole while powering the drill (videos on YouTube demonstrate how to do this), after its straight I just cut off whatever length I need , put a Z-bend in one end and away you go. This is what you are looking for on Amazon Canada -"
High Carbon Steel Wire, 2B (Smooth) Finish, Full Hard Temper, ASTM A228, 0.047" Diameter, 42' Length, Precision Tolerance

 

[Ratcheeroo]

So I bought a 42 foot roll of wire from Amazon( I live in Canada too) that I paid $14 for and I just cut 20 inch lengths adnd use a block of hardwood with a hole about the size of the diameter of the wire drilled into it, pass the wire through the hole, attach an end to a cordless drill and tighten, slowly pull the wire out through the hole while powering the drill (videos on YouTube demonstrate how to do this), after its straight I just cut off whatever length I need , put a Z-bend in one end and away you go. This is what you are looking for on Amazon Canada -"
High Carbon Steel Wire, 2B (Smooth) Finish, Full Hard Temper, ASTM A228, 0.047" Diameter, 42' Length, Precision Tolerance

Also I find that this is the same gauge wire as what is sold on Amazon in those 10 packs,

 

[Matthewdupreez]

So I bought a 42 foot roll of wire from Amazon( I live in Canada too) that I paid $14 for and I just cut 20 inch lengths adnd use a block of hardwood with a hole about the size of the diameter of the wire drilled into it, pass the wire through the hole, attach an end to a cordless drill and tighten, slowly pull the wire out through the hole while powering the drill (videos on YouTube demonstrate how to do this), after its straight I just cut off whatever length I need , put a Z-bend in one end and away you go. This is what you are looking for on Amazon Canada -"
High Carbon Steel Wire, 2B (Smooth) Finish, Full Hard Temper, ASTM A228, 0.047" Diameter, 42' Length, Precision Tolerance

could you post a video?

 

[Ratcheeroo]

could you post a video?

This is the video I watched

 

[Ratcheeroo]

This is the video I watched

Works like a charm, with thinner wire you may have to do a couple more passes

 

[Matthewdupreez]

This is the video I watched

awesome i needed that

 

[Merv]

I use the wire form marking flags around construction sites. You can buy 100 marking flags for less than $15 at the big box store or tile flags from the farm supply store

 

[JasonK]

I use the wire form marking flags around construction sites. You can buy 100 marking flags for less than $15 at the big box store or tile flags from the farm supply store

how are those for thickness compared to 'normal' pushrods?
how log are they? will you still need other options for some situations?

 

[Merv]

how are those for thickness compared to 'normal' pushrods?
how log are they? will you still need other options for some situations?

They are much thicker than the FT push rods but don't require nearly as much support. You can easily go twelve inches without any support.

I've not measured the total length, I'm guessing 20-25 inches for the construction flags long. The tile flags from the farm store are 36-40 inches long.

 

[JasonK]

ok... I will have to look at them at some point... most of my builds are in the sub250g range, so the mass of my parts are a big deal.