I mis-spoke; I checked the adverts and the wingrod material is listed as
"hardened". Which means it's not soft, I guess.
I made up a bending jig and did some test bends. I turned a pair of
"semi-circular" v-blocks to place the wingrod on, and made a small-radius
anvil to press with, and fit this to a hydraulic press.
Seems to work well enough.
Thanks for the feedback!
--Bill
>From: Eddie Smith <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: Re: [RCSE] Bending music wire
>Date: Mon, 06 Aug 2001 13:51:58 +0930
>
>At 10:58 30/07/2001 -0500, you wrote:
>>On a related topic--
>>
>>I have some commercial wingrod I'd like to bend for a couple of projects
>>I'll be working on. The 1/4" wingrod material is "case-hardened" (North
>>East Sailplanes, I think) and the 5/16" is "Ultrarod" from DreamCatcher.
>>What I want to do is bend these wingrods (12-14" length) with a central
>>bend of 10-15 degrees.
>>
>>Would it be do-able to bend the hardened wingrod?
>>
>>Otherwise, I have some 1/4" music wire I can use instead.
>>
>>--Bill
>
>
>Bill I don't think that you would have case hardened material supplied as a
>wind joiner
>as it wouldn't work. Case hardening is just that ... the internal material
>is still soft and
>only made out of S1214 or similar. You can use a higher carbon content
>material such
>as K1045 and harden it to use as a wing joiner but I would bend it before
>hardening.
>
>Spring steel or music wire that is usually used and is available from model
>shops is
>normally bent cold. but don't over bend it as suggested below or very
>quickly it will over
>bend in use again.
>
>What happens when you bend material is that the molecular structure gets
>distorted (work
>hardening) and tends to move on bending into a locking position .... if you
>over bend and
>straighten it back again the molecular structure unlocks and it becomes
>weaker.
>
>This is the reason that they no longer reform coil springs in cars.
>
>Bend it only to the angle you need.
>
>Now this is the way to bend material.... I use a piece of 1" thick hard
>rubber sheet, placing
>the rod to be bent flat on it. On top of the rod place another say ...
>1/2' dia rod and press it
>down until the joiner reaches the correct angle.
>This method produces a very localized bend (good for wing joiners) in the
>material.
>
>I use a small press but if you have a 4 to 5" vice you can use that with
>the rubber sheet vertical.
>
>>>4) Bend about 5-10 deg PAST the intended angle. Then bend back
>>>to the intended angle.
>>>
>>>
>>>Note 1: The reason for going "too far" and then returning is to relieve
>>>the huge residual stresses (about 1/2 of yield stress!) in the steel
>>>which
>>>would otherwise remain. The bend will be much stronger then.
>
>
>Eddie the Eagle
>
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