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Rigging with wire

Thanks for posting this video, Bob. I learned amazing tip : painting wire black with permanent marker. I painted eye bolts and gun with it. Looks awesome.
 
I don't think it would work with ships in bottles, because once the wire has been bent to fold it down, the only way to make it straight again is to stretch it with pliers. But blacking wire with a marker pen is a lot easier and cheaper than messing about with chemicals. Before using the pen, I roughen up the wire surface with a piece of fine abrasive paper.
Bob
 
I make them one piece at a time through the bottle neck, the old fold down mast builds were to easy for me. I have used a sharpie to blacken brass and other wire over chemicals my whole building career. a neat trick to get the shine off is once it colored roll it between your thumb and index finger it will remove that shine from it and make it look flat.
 
The gun looks very good.
Putting wire rigging on through the bottle neck will no doubt be OK as you will not be folding it down. Have you not rigged in wire before?
I use Sharpie's as well!
 
shipbuilder said:
The gun looks very good.
Putting wire rigging on through the bottle neck will no doubt be OK as you will not be folding it down. Have you not rigged in wire before?
I use Sharpie's as well!
Click to expand...
Nope never tried wire I would always use thread that I stiffen with glue for complete shrouds with rat lines installed, they can be difficult to navigate though and the weight of the assembly can be a pain to keep attached until the glue sets. I could use wire install each shroud line then the rat lines and it should be a little faster. I can cut and dry fit everything outside and install them one at a time in order from the dry fit board. no more tiny clove hitch's under a 10X loop lol
 
Great video. Q What's the best way to straighten brasswire at .5mm to 1.5mm . I can get it mostly straight with pulling but as its wound so tight it difficult. doing it by hand leaves finger bumps. Do you shuggest a nylon beaders plyers.
 
Cut the length you require. Put one end in a bench vice, take hold of the other end with a large pair of pliers and give a firm heave on it. You will feel it stretch slightly as it straightens. This can easily be done with 1.5mm copper wire. I don't know if it will work with 1.5mm brass wire, but it does work with thinner brass wire.
 
I wouldn't dare do that - a spinning wire held at both ends in the lathe, like a skipping rope, I would be scared of it whipping out - sounds horribly dangerous, unless I am not understanding your exact meaning - Bob
 
Nope very safe as its held at both ends My lathe has variable speed so when I start it up its spinning barely turning the Chuck head its also spinning but held by a drill check in the tail stock of the lathe so in essence it would be mounted in the lathe as if I were going to turn it down with tooling except I don't turn it down I give it a gentle stretch to make it perfectly straight. my tail stock will accept any M2 taper tool such as a live center drill chuck and such. the spinning of the wire helps it as the main chuck spins just a little faster then the tail stock chuck giving the wire a gentle twist to help it stretch easier and thus allowing it to pull straight. I do this for 18awg and larger wire.
 
DonRobinson said:
I'm with Shipbuilder thinking that sounds a little scary. I will maybe suit up in some safety gear and try that out. Could you not just "stretch it" without spinning it?
Interesting
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not heavy awg wire in short lengths it would take a lot of force to pull it and a very good chance the pliers will slip off before it does and send you cartwheeling backwards. you can sometimes get away with that on copper wire below 18Awg But anything higher 16, 14, 10, 8 not much chance lol those are stiff in solid wire form. I have made fake cable from multi stranded wire using the lathe to give it a twist till all the strands come together nicely. then just when its about fully twisted I give it a pull to make sure its straight. Paint it with black paint thinned with alcohol so no brush strokes visible and it dries super fast
 
cheers . I have a bunch of 1mm 1.5 & 2mm brass wire for the SA kit. It's all wound into 1" coils byt he supplier and is a pain to straighten. I have to do some stairway rails and i want it neat as possible. A Jig will be used to shape it, but it need to be smooth to start with.
 
The image below shows two lots of wire, before and after straightening. 1 and 2 are thin brass wire. This straightened without any problem. One end in a bench vice, and a firm pull on the other end with a large pair of pliers.
3 and 4 are much thicker wire, but copper. This also straightened fairly easily, although the pull had to be firmer, but was OK even on this short length. With thicker wire, I have found that the longer the length, the easier it is to stretch.
I am not sure it would be all that easy to stretch thick brass wire, but as straight brass rod can be purchased cheaply enough, why would you want to stretch it yourself? But, as you have some, just try it, and see what happens!
As far as I know, you cannot purchase straight copper rod, but it is easy enough to make yourself.
Wire straightening (Large).jpg
 
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