Where do you get your wire for your pushrods?

eagle4

Member
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?
 

Tritium

Amateur Extra Class K5TWM
If you have a welding supply store then Tig Welding Filler wire will work. I use both aluminum (type 4043) and stainless steel (type 309). Don't bother with the 50XX series aluminum as it is too brittle and will break when trying to bend it. E-Bay is another option. I found Titanium Tig welding filler wire there in a small diameter that works quite well.

Thurmond
 
Last edited:

robschonk

Senior Member
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?

Any hobby shop should have them. Check your Canadian mail order outlets under control, clevis, push pull, Etc. Here are a bunch of rods, clevises, etc from Hobby King:

http://www.hobbyking.com/hobbyking/store/__253__58__Hardware_accessories_-Push_Rods.html

And here's a video on how to use them.

http://flitetest.com/articles/control_linkages?q=Linkage

Rob
 
Last edited:

colorex

Rotor Riot!
Mentor
I killed an old umbrella and got some nice thick steel wire from it. It's not the lightest, but for short distances it is very good!
 

robschonk

Senior Member
Basically, any wire that's stiff enough in compression not to bend under load. Heck, coat hanger wire, old bicycle spokes.....
 

pgerts

Old age member
Mentor
? You do not say to what size of plane you need the pushrods !

If you are building light then you want to use 1 mm carbon rods or sewing thread (if push pull).
0.6 to 0,8 mm steel wire can be used as the end to the servo and control horn if nesessary - only bent shrink tube is often used.

The bicycle spokes are perfect as the thread fits some sullivan clevises for larger planes like 40-size trainers.

All kind of parts are easy to find in canadian hobby stores.
 

lonewolf7717

Senior Member
I am in the landscape irrigation business and have found the marking flags I use on a everyday basis make for great pushrods. Just enough flex to allow for clean crisp z bends without fatigue to the wire but yet strong enough to be used on fairly large control surfaces without concern of failure. Only downside is length is limited to 8-10" depending on type of marking flags used. Can be found at any local "big box" hardware store in bundles of 100.
 

eagle4

Member
I'm building the FT Bloody wonder, and then will be working on perhaps a couple of the other FT swapple series, or some of the planes from Experimental Airlines.

Thanks for the tip Tritium. I know a guy who's a welder, so I should be able to get a bunch of that wire :)

I've ordered some from Ebay, didn't cost too much, and it should start me off on the right track (hopefully)
 
Most common manufacturer I've seen referenced by name is K&S Music Wire, you can get it at hobby shops and at older type hardware stores (like True Value).

Keep forgetting to look into survey flags, I'm in engineering, they should be easily handy.

Getting a few dozen dubro mini ez connectors cheaply is my challenge.
 

lonewolf7717

Senior Member
Most common manufacturer I've seen referenced by name is K&S Music Wire, you can get it at hobby shops and at older type hardware stores (like True Value).

Keep forgetting to look into survey flags, I'm in engineering, they should be easily handy.

Getting a few dozen dubro mini ez connectors cheaply is my challenge.
I have seen dubro ez connectors on ebay in bulk for very reasonable price (not sure if shipping keeps it reasonable), my local hobby shop only sells them in packages of 2 for $2.....WAY too high. If all else fails offer to clean up some of your flying buddies work spaces, amazing how many of those little connectors end up buried and lost......stick em in you pocket and consider it payment for services rendered....they will never know a few connectors are missing lol.
 

CobraII351

Junior Member
My buddy and I do the Marker flag wires as well. But we went to Tractor Supply and got 30 inch tall flags for 10$ for 100 flags. But they can be found at other stores cheaper.

Tim
 

GluedFingers

New member
Found out some things

100, for $10 seems like a good price. I couldn't find them at the local hobby store, Hobby Town USA, only had standard sizes they didn't have control horns either so I went to Hobby Lobby. They had .032 converted to metric is .81mm. However only in foot long lengths. So off to Ace right next door. Low and behold same foot longs, and next to that 3 footers, 4 for $2. Your 100 seems much cheaper. Hobby Town USA did have them after however I didn't do the conversion at the time so I didn't know.
 

PHugger

Church Meal Expert
Home Depot and Lowes are a good source for landscape flags. Under $8 for 100 x 21".
These flags (at least the ones I've found) are a bit heavier than you may need.
The are harder to bend (this can be a positive) and harder to cut (end cutter recommended).

The "piano wire" rods that FT sells are .038"

On my Radian, the control rods are .047"

Home Depot Flags are .060"


Best regards,
PCH
 

FoamyDM

Building Fool-Flying Noob
Moderator
I use the Flags and only regret I have is that every servo arm must be drilled out. Thanks for the Size list BTW it's decent reference.
 

Hai-Lee

Old and Bold RC PILOT
I use large paper clips, (straightened), on tail mounted and wing mounted servos. Have done so for a couple of years now without a problem.

As I do a lot of "What if" designs I find that the ability to bend the pushrod for coarse adjustments on prototypes during the initial flight testing has saved me many hours and lots of heartache especially in flying wing, canard, and other exotic designs.

Just what works for me!

Have fun!
 
Hi everyone! I'm finding that the 0.038" (about 1mm) pushrod wire that comes with FT Speed Build Kits often causes me problems.

For example, I'm now building a Tiny Trainer, and the servos get glued inside the fuselage, with a pushrod wire length of about 13 to 14" between the rudder and elevator control horns and the servo arms. I built everything exactly according to instructions, including the two foamboard-and-coffee-stirrer pushrod wire guides inside the fuse at about 9 or 10 inches. Even so, I'm getting a lot of bowing of the pushrod wire near the servo, which gives me uneven and erratic movement of the control surfaces.

I ended up relocating the servos on the horizontal stabilizer on either side of the rudder, putting cutouts in the stabilizer and gluing the servo flanges to the top surface of the stabilizer. With the pushrod wire now very short, it works OK and gives me even, repeatable control surface throws. I hope it doesn't disturb the flow over the tail too much - we'll see.

I've also built (but not yet flown) another FT design with ailerons -- the aileron pushrods also don't give me much problem, as they are also quite short.

Hasn't anyone else had this problem with tail surface pushrods going well forward into the fuselage? Should I go to a thicker pushrod wire, say 0.047/1.2mm ? Any other ideas?

Thanks!

Steve Rosenbach, Tewksbury MA
"I may be old as dirt, but I'm a newbie RC enthusiast"
 

JasonK

Participation Award Recipient
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.
 
I would either buy the coffee stirrer thing close to the servo or add a loose zip tie near it

Thanks for your quick reply!

Following the video instructions, once I got to the point where you glue the servos into the fuselage, it was "too late" to add additional pushrod guiding. Actually, I cut a hatch in the top of the fuse and added additional guides, but still had the same problem. There were about 2" between the end of my new guides and the servo arms, and it not only still bowed, but it put extra strain on the servos - they were hot after a few cycles.

One issue is that the servo arms were higher in the fuse than the guide tubes. If I had been aware of that earlier in the build, I might have been able to slope a very long guide tube so that the servo end would be at the same elevation as the servo arm.

I just looked at a friend's EFlight Turbo Timber (a $280 plane,) and I see that the rudder pushrod is about the same diameter as the FT pushrods - I measured 1mm or about 0.038" - but the pushrod appears to be guided the entire length down the fuselage.