OK, working on trees. Drilled holes in the bottom of the WS armatures to put a pin in. Have a piece of piano wire that I was going to cut up and use for the pins. Know better than to use my track cutters. Tried a pair of cutting pliers, tough going, rough ends.
What is the best way to cut piano wire?
Would a copper or other wire be suitable to hold the trees? What size has worked for you?
While I’m here, how do you hold the drill in the center of the armature to start the hole?
I haven’t used that brnd of tree, but as far as cutting music wire, one of the least expensive ways is to take a 3 corner file and cut a notch around the diameter where you want the cut. Then bend back and forth a few times, holding the wire at the notch with a pair of pliers.
A quicker way is to use a cut-off wheel in a Dremel type motor tool. And there is also the use of cutters with special hardened jaws that are made for cutting hard wire, usually up to about 1/16" One is the Xuron hard wire cutter, listed in the Micro-mark catalog as #80999, $19.95
only way i have been successful at cutting music wire is to hold it tightly with a pair of needle nose pliers and then put a nick in the wire next to the pliers with a triangular file. then grab the wire on the other side of the nick with a second pair of pliers and bend it till it breaks
personally, i would suggest brass instead of copper or steel wire. pick up an assortment of the smaller sizes and you will find it handy for grab irons, ladders, stirrup steps, and a bunch of other things. brass is much kinder to your tools and the end can be smoothed easily with a fine file after you cut it. brass is a bit springier that copper but not so much as steel music wire.
when working with brass wire, it can get hard and stiff if you bend it back and forth too much but heating it will restore the original softness. you can even hammer it out flat to make good looking corner stirrups for your freight cars.
Your neighborhood hardware store or big box (Home Depot/Lowes) should have an equivalent.
I think brass wire will be too soft and prone to bending. As far as centering the drill, you need to put a small starting depression in the bottom of the tree armature using a sharp pointed object designed for that purpose. I would use an awl. The depression gives you a place to put the point of the drill bit and will help keep the bit from wandering.
I use phospor bronze wire. (This is actually the second time tonight that I am recommending it! Hope I,m not boring anyone!![swg]). It will cut with normal wire cutters no problem. It is very stiff but bends easily using pliers. It solders very nicely. Tichy Train Group makes it in .010", .015" and .020" and it sells for $2.50 for 12 x 8" pieces. At 2" per tree one package will do 48 trees. Perhaps not the cheapest way to go but it is good to work with and has lots of other uses. For example I used .010" to make power pickups for my critter so that it actually has power coming from all wheels on the engine and the gondola.
The one suggestion I would make when cutting the wire is to point the end of the piece that will be cut off into your self healing cutting mat (if you haven’t got one yet you should treat yourself). If you try to hold it with your fingers the force from the cutting action may push the wire into your finger or send it flying off to wherever. Ask me how I know!
Thank you for the replies. Looks like I’ll give the file and bend method a try. If I find a pair of the hard wire cutters at a reasonable price, I’ll get them, at the moment $20 is dear, tax season you know.
May also try some different wire, certainly can’t be much harder to cut. Hadn’t concidered brass and I have a couple of other options since the piano wire is such a bear to work with.
Have an awl, will try not to spear my hand too often.
Your post came up after I started on my last one. Where would I look for that type wire? Do have a small self healing pad, will try not to puncture my finger.
I second the hard wire cutters from Micro-Mark. They’re not wire cutters in the traditional sense, they’re actually shears. Don’t even try nicking them with your regular wire cutters; they’ll dull them in short order.
Besides the Cutting wheel and triangular file, I do have a dyke with hardened jaws. Got it a few years ago from either Techni-Tools or Stanley tools. Cost about $25.00. An actual diagonal cutter. Documentation that came with it limits it to 0.072", or slightly over 1/16 hard wire. I did once cut 2/32 wire with them, by lightly clamping the jaws on the line I wanted to cut, the rotating the wire with a pair of pliers, increasing the pressure till I had a deep groove. Then I was able to bend the wire back and forth till the wire snapped in the groove.
Wouldn’t want that to happen. You only need a little dimple. If you want something easier to handle than an awl, you can cut the head off a straight pin and chuck the remainder of the pin in a pin vice. But then, of course, you need a method to cut the head off.
i think you should be able to cut it with a pair of klein side cutters or linesman pliers yrou want the 2000 series. bright blue handes the lineman pliers are about 40 bucs at home depot. that are made to cut acsr aluminum conductor steel reinforced it what most powerlines are made of
I have several sets of wire cutters and pliers with wire cutters with notches in the jawa from trying to cut any piano or music wire over about .042" Recular cutters can handle a bit over 1/16" for a limited number of cuts, but it does wreck the edge eventually.
An article in an English model airplane differentiated between most continental music, or piano wire, used for control rods and landing gear, and the hard wire available in this country from suppliers like KS.
Use a cut-off wheel or get the hardened jaw cutters.
I just grab the piano wire with a pair of pliers and gently bend it back and forth a bit, it fatigues and breaks after 3 or 4 bends. No nicking required.
I used to use the technique of bending the wire back and forth, but way too frequently ended up with a bent over hook or spur on the end.
I still use regular dykes or other heavy cutters for up to maybe 1/32" music wire, but anything heavier does seem to leave knicks in the jaws, at least with the higher strength wire.
But, I would say that piano wire for trees is overkill. Plain copper wire should do the job. If you put a bit of glue on the base of the tree, then the wire is really just there to hold the tree in position while the glue sets. If you don’t use glue, the wire will gradually enlarge the hole in plaster or foam bases, and the tree will become loose and wobbly.
As far as how to hold the drill–I first center punch with an awl.
The larger the cutters, the easier the cutting due to leverage. Holding the wire close to the pliers joint also helps. Sears (CRAFTSMAN only) has free replacement, so that may be nice.
.020" to .030"OD plus works fine–the actual size of wire depends on the size of the trunk and your drilling capability.