Brass wire for grab iron

Model Railroader General Discussion (Model Railroader)
1

Which diameter should I get for the grab irons on the nose of the Dash 8-40BW?

Also what diameter for the hand rails?

Thanks!

2

.015" wire looks good for the uses you mentioned.

3

10

4

Don’t you find BRASS wire too soft for grabirons or handrails?? I use .039 or .020 wire from K&S Engineering, Chicago, this wire is very stiff, bends well and retains it’s stiff profile and is very durable, it is very reasonable in price and easily worked.

5

I have 032 and 020 one just a tad to big other to small
use 025 trust me

6

So I assume .010" for the grab irons and about .039-.020 for handrails?

thanks for all of your suggestions!

7

is it stainless steel??

K

8

It doesn’t look like stainless steel, It is “music” wire or piano wire, very durable , makes a strange sound when bending almost like it is cast and keeps it’s bend , comes in .015 to 1/4 thickness, and is in 3 foot plastic tubes, plus K & S Engineering supplies all kinds of metal products for modelling, they are in Chicago.

9

here’s how i would look at it. i model in 1/4" scale, and when i extrapolate down to or up from ho scale, i round it to 1:96 for convenience instead of 1:87.

in 1/4" scale .019 equals a 5/8" grab bar. in ho that would be an 1 1/4 diameter.
.013 equals a 3/8" grab bar. in ho it would be 3/4" (more proper).

after we get below the .019 wire, it gets too soft to hold shape if brass, so it is time to go over to the airplane section and start using the piano wire.