Taylorcraft wire

[Jim Herpst]

Negative. We shipped an example to a wire source company someone referanced located in Missouri. They said no go too thin. I have the example we sent back ready to go to any vendor that bends music wire... I am probably going to carefully remove mine and re use what is in the wings now. I am going to order a little Martin wire and compair to what is in mine just to make sure what is in mine is indeed taylorcraft wire.

We need to find out who makes up the Martin wire !!!!

[Robert Lees]

The Martin wire is cr@p
One of my Oshkosh buddies from Milwaukee (now deceased) worked for a Company that made the trigger springs for airbags...a zillion of them sat on a fingernail, they were so small.

Same company made a batch of trim tension springs for me (the one behind the headliner)

I'm convinced the expertise is there still.

Rob

[Jtemple42000]

Negative. We shipped an example to a wire source company someone referanced located in Missouri. They said no go too thin. I have the example we sent back ready to go to any vendor that bends music wire... I am probably going to carefully remove mine and re use what is in the wings now. I am going to order a little Martin wire and compair to what is in mine just to make sure what is in mine is indeed taylorcraft wire.

We need to find out who makes up the Martin wire !!!!

Bummer.....thanks for the reply.

[Jim Herpst]

The Martin wire is cr@p
One of my Oshkosh buddies from Milwaukee (now deceased) worked for a Company that made the trigger springs for airbags...a zillion of them sat on a fingernail, they were so small.

Same company made a batch of trim tension springs for me (the one behind the headliner)

I'm convinced the expertise is there still.

Rob

Well I am still willing to ship what Hank gave me . I just need to know where to send it. It( An orginal Taylorcraft wire example) is in a tube ready to ship. Please help me to find where.

[Hank Jarrett]

If someone is closer to me I have several small strips of wire in SE Virginia. There are LOTS of wire bending companies. I have to wonder why they aren't interested. One thing Jim and I talked about was to say it is AWNING FABRIC retainer wire. Lots of businesses are scared to death of ANYTHING to do with airplanes. When I take my fuel tank to be stripped, cleaned and repaired (hope it doesn't need it) I will be bringing it straight home afterwards to my "hot rod" or "boat". If the receipt doesn't say airplane it makes a lot of places a lot more comfortable.

[Mark Bowden]

I have a small section of Taylorcraft wire as well, that could also help if needed.

I have also posted a 2D CAD drawing here in the past I had done, and have the electronic .dwg file as well. Can share if needed. Also have a copy of the Aeronca drawing.

As Rob mentioned, Martin wire on a Taylorcraft looks like cr@p. Just looked at an aircraft for a friend as part of a pre-buy assist and it is painfully obvious which wire was used.

[Jim Herpst]

I believe it was Bird on here that suggested one could sit in front of the boob tube for several evenings and with a proper jig made up could bend the straight distance that runs between the "barbs" into a Z to make it fit thus lay down. Seems to make sense.

[3Dreaming]

I tried the Z bends to take up the slack. It looked like crap.

[Jim Herpst]

I tried the Z bends to take up the slack. It looked like crap.

Have any pictures? Yes know what crap looks like...and perhaps smells like. What was the problem? Seems like if it lays flat it would work. I have no dog in this hunt really. Going to re use mine. I would like to get some wire for all who need it (as in Hank and I finding a source..which we are working on) meantime if the Martin wire could work...??? Why did it look like crap?

[3Dreaming]

No pictures. It looked bad enough that I took the fabric back off the wings. The ribs are designed with a little trough for the wire to lay in for a smooth finish. When you Z bend the wire moves outside the trough, and does not lay well.

[Jim Herpst]

Thank you for the explanation. I have not looked at a web on the post war in years. Fabric is still on the wings when dad and his partner recovered it. Wings are my fall project after finishing most everything else pre cover. Lord knows what awaits me in the wings anyway.

[Bigdog]

Negative. We shipped an example to a wire source company someone referanced located in Missouri. They said no go too thin. I have the example we sent back ready to go to any vendor that bends music wire... I am probably going to carefully remove mine and re use what is in the wings now. I am going to order a little Martin wire and compair to what is in mine just to make sure what is in mine is indeed taylorcraft wire.

We need to find out who makes up the Martin wire !!!!

What vendor sells Martin wire? Has anyone asked them for their source or let them know what changes would work for Taylorcraft? I would expect we'd need to commit to several thousand feet. IIRC a shipset needs ~250 ft.

Does someone have a drawing including the wire specs? I have a friend that owns a spring company. I know he can make bends, not just coils, but don't know if he can do a continuous roll. It would help the conversation to have a drawing and know the material spec.

[3Dreaming]

What vendor sells Martin wire? Has anyone asked them for their source or let them know what changes would work for Taylorcraft? I would expect we'd need to commit to several thousand feet. IIRC a shipset needs ~250 ft.

Does someone have a drawing including the wire specs? I have a friend that owns a spring company. I know he can make bends, not just coils, but don't know if he can do a continuous roll. It would help the conversation to have a drawing and know the material spec.

Drawings and samples are available. The Martin wire comes in 25 foot sections according to Aircraft Spruce. They show 32 rolls in stock which is 800 feet. Oddly enough the manufacturer's part number on Spruce is, Model# 80ROLL MIN. This equates to 2000 feet.

On a different note I came up with a slightly different idea to try and make the Martin wire work. Instead of one big Z bend, how about making a shrinker that makes a series of small bends in the whole section between the barbs.

[Robert Lees]

Martin wire has the wrong bends in the barbs...they are too "soft", whereas the original Taylorcraft wire has the proper, sharper bends.

[Hank Jarrett]

One of the group was looking for the diameter of the wire and I took a micrometer out to the hangar today. The wire I measured was from .032" to .035" in diameter. Seems they weren't too strict on the diameter back in he day. This was random pieces of original wire. Would be interesting to see if other guys wire also was different diameters.

Hank