heating landing gear wire

[Rhondas]

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I want to Harden or heat the wire landing gear I have made and bent ,I used the wire from an election sign wire where they stake it into the ground, it is just he right Diameter for the wheel holes, I have tried to heat it to orange , dip it inwater then I tried oil dip still no good then I tried to heat it to cherry red ,still no good it bends so easy in a vise, it just wont get very stiff like spring steel.can any give me some tips.

[Nigelp]

Rhondas,

I'm no metalurgist but I think you are trying to temper soft wire - I believe spring steel is a custom made material which contains some different ingedients - I don't believe you can ever turn wire into spring steel.

How about using a different approach like using carbon fibre rod or bamboo skewer material for the U/C with only a very short length of the original wire as an axle - you might get away with that?

Good luck,

Nigel

[BMatthews]

Nigel's got it. You need a certain carbon content for the steel to be able to harden and then temper back. If you're starting with mild steel there's nothing you can do that'll make it act springy like you need.

This is why landing gears are all made from music wire from the hobby shop. It's high carbon steel hardened and temered back to a springy state.

[Ollie]

Read about music wire:
http://www.djaerotech.com/dj_askjd/dj_questions/musicwire.html

[Ollie]

OOPS!

[KillerWatt]

Rhondas....like they said, you're probably using the wrong (too soft, low carbon content) wire....but.... you could try heating the wire with a very "sooty" type flame heat source, poking it into a hot charcoal pile and try to "beat" some additional hardening carbon into your wire before quenching.....good luck,.... kw

[armindilo]

Rhondas,
I had a class back in high school with a guy who did some of his own metalurgy work. I remember him telling me that the he could increse the carbon content and stiffness of the wire by heating the metal and then setting it in a well insulated box surrounded a lot of old bones (he used cow bones). The metal will absorb the carbon out of the bones. He said he let it 'absorb' for a few hours or overnight in the box of bones. This is a similar idea to what KillerWatt is suggesting.

If you try it and something works for you, let us know!

Armindilo

[Rhondas]

Read about music wire:
http://www.djaerotech.com/dj_askjd/dj_questions/musicwire.html


very interesting article ,but I READ THE ARTICLE ABOUT MUSIC AND PIANO WIRES, FOR LANDING GEAR , I ALWAYS THOUGHT THAT MUSIC WIRE WAS FOR PIANOS, WHAT IS IT USED FOR , THANKS PLEASE WRITE ME BACK AND LET ME KNOW.< :confused:

[Rhondas]

Hi, I Always thought that music wire was for pianos, what is music wire used for if piano wire is for pianos? thanks Rhonda

[malcolm46]

hi there one and all,
when i was at school we carried out a process called CASE HARDENING, which involved heating your low carbon steel part to cherry red then dipping it into a tin of powdered carbon. (see where this is going ) it was used to apply extra durability to wearing parts of a project i.e. teeth of a gear wheel. as its name suggests it aplies a higher level of carbon to the outside few microns of the steel therefore making it more resilient to wear. it could then be heat treated for ductility by tempering. but if you filed or ground the outer surface you would remove the CASE therefore returning to the properties of low carbon steel.
what i am getting at is that this process probably won't help in the case of undercarriage wires.
kind regards
malcolm
first ever post !!!!!

[Jeffery]

Here is an article regarding music wire that some may find interesting:

http://www.sailplanes.com/musicwire.htm