Bending Landing Gear Wire

[John G. Jedinak]

Bending the landing gear wire is always a challenge for me. Think P-51 with a right and left. I use a bench vise, pliers and a length of 1/8th" copper tubing. I start at one end...slipping the tubing over the wire in order to bend the whole length of wire at once...then work through to the opposite end. (Constantly checking to pattern for accuracy) Anyone have any tips, ideas or suggestions to more simplify the process???

Also, I usually don't use the plastic wheels supplied in the kit. I purchase at the hobby shop in order to get a more realistic look. Often the axle hole is of improper size.....in which case I drill it out...........or strip the insulation off small guage electrical wire and use it as a bushing to down- size the hole. These small pieces of insulation also make excellent hubs to keep the wheel in place on the axle.

Obviously, I build for display only.

[Xanadu]

I never seem to have a problem, I use a pair of pliers designed for bending wire. It looke similar to a needle nose pair, but the end has a small round pin on one side and a square one the other. This way you can bend a round curve or a tight square one.
The other end of the wire I usually just push/pull by hand. Maybe my fingers are stronger, no idea.
Sliding a small piece of tubing over the longer end would work great, like a lever.

Here is url that gives you basic wire bending directions, with photos.
[url]http://cudental.creighton.edu/htm/P_wb.htm

Here is the url showing the exact pair I have.
[/url]http://canadiantire.ca/browse/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCT%3C%3Eprd_id=845524441899987&FOLDER%3C%3Efolder_id=1408474396672921&bmUID=1163267187032

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[John G. Jedinak]

Xanada...............Creighton wire bending site is great..............Problem with Canadian Tire. All I find there is service station info and nothing re bird beak pliers. I am really interested in these.................any suggestions????? Thanx, John G.

[John G. Jedinak]

Xanada...............Creighton wire bending site is great..............Problem with Canadian Tire. All I find there is service station info and nothing re bird beak pliers. I am really interested in these.................any suggestions????? Thanx, John G.

[Xanadu]

I googled "wire bending pliers" and came up with a few places you can order various ones from.

http://www.ehobbytools.com/index.html?t ... lang=en-us

http://www.aurumgroup.com/english/cerum ... pliers.stm

http://www.silversupplies.com/catalog/t ... ping.shtml

The one I have was purchased from Canadian Tire, listeunder pliers, electrical.

It might be a product made only for them not sure, but they run about $17 Cdn, which is about $15 US.
Worse case scenario if you really want a pair and you cannot order it thru them, I would be willing to purchase and mail them to you listed on the customs papers as a "xmas gift" so you would not have to pay duty, etc.
Talk about that if it ever gets to that point.

[John G. Jedinak]

Xanada...............appreicate the additonal info. I'll pursue those woth probable success.............Thanx for your offer, JohnG.

[John G. Jedinak]

Xanadu............found the bird beak pliers on EBay...at the right price. Just received them today and am looking forward to using the cause they sure look like they will do the trick. Thanx, again....JGJ

[Xanadu]

Super, glad to hear!

[John G. Jedinak]

Xanadu.............just had an opportunity to use those Bird Beak pliers. I was pretty well happy with the results..........Thanx.......JGJ

[John G. Jedinak]

Xanadu.............just had an opportunity to use those Bird Beak pliers. I was pretty well happy with the results..........Thanx.......JGJ

[Xanadu]

Excellent!!!!

[Madman Stephan]

I use a bench vise because the wire is then solidly held in place and you don't screw up the compound angles. Also in order to get the smallest radius in my 90 deg bends, I will slightly hammer it. But, no matter how well I bend and how beautifully it matches the drawing on the plan, there's allways some teaking involved when it comes to final assembly...

[J I]

I substitue 1/16 Welding rod. Bends and cuts a lot easier and easier to adjust. For a static model only, I don't think it would take hard landings.
Whiz

[Greyhound]

Bending landing gear wires has been hard for me too.

[H65 Driver]

Wire bending is definitely one of the main challenges of a Guillow's kit, though I was pleasantly surprised to find that B-24 has pre-bent wires for the main landing gear!