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One of the most useful tools I have in my arsenal is an R-Geo Products Wire Bender. The reason I say that about this particular tool is that I use it for bending lots of stuff into useful bits and pieces for my slot car projects. I am not a "Pliers Picasso" as some folks are, but my wire bender gives me the ability to put as many bends as I would like to into a bit of wire about as fast as anyone can.

So, as I build something, I will post the process here. Feel free to use it for your own projects or post something that you have made so we can all see what you're doing as well.

Have you ever had your lead wires get caught under the main chassis rails? I have and it’s not a whole lot of fun. So to keep that from happening we do all sorts of things to avoid the lead wires getting loose. Earring holder work, but my wife has put a lock on her jewelry box. Since I like to scratchbuild, I thought I would take some scratch and build a wire holder.

One of the tools I have in my arsenal is Rick’s Wire Bender.

Here’s a photo of my wire bender.

You can make this wire holder on any model of Rick’s Wire Bender.




I admit that I did make a modification to the wire bender for this project. I did cut a piece of axle off to use as a shortened pin. This way you don’t have to life the end of the wire so high while you are bending it. It’s about .250 in length – not very critical, so ‘about’ works very nicely.




You can use any diameter wire that you choose. I find that .025 wire works very nice for this application and it is very easy to work with.

Just to keep it simple, cut a piece of wire the width of the wire bender.




Now place the wire so that the ends are spaced close to evenly from the bending and holding pins on the wire bender.




Using the bending handle, make a bend just over 90 degrees in the wire. And then flip it over.




Now using the bending handle, make a bend of about 135 degrees in the wire then once again, flip the wire over.




Here’s the only ‘trick part’ in the whole process. With the wire that is bent just over 90 degrees on the bending pivot, make sure you swing the loose end of this wire so it is over the wire that has the 135 degree bend in it.

Now once again using the bending handle, make a complete circle in the end of the wire that is resting on the bending pivot. If you slide the bending handle up just a bit, you can slide it right over the wire that is resting on the surface of the wire bender. Once the loop is made in the wire, once again, flip the wire over.




You need to pay attention to this photo as I have the end of the wire that should be on top on the bottom. If your wire looks like this, you need to make sure to get the end that you are going to bend on top so it comes out nice and straight.

You are almost done now. Once again, using the bending handle, make another loop in the wire sliding the bending handle up so the wire rides over the holding pivot.




Now you should have something that looks like the piece in the photo below. Yes, the bends are made in opposite directions, that is why you have to do all the flipping. I’ve tried it with a screw holding the wire in place and only making one move, but this way gives you almost perfect loops. A couple of pieces of wire and you will see that its really pretty simple to do.

Yes, I could use a pair of pliers, but I find it takes me longer and nothing looks straight. More power to those that can use pliers to bend wire. I like my wire bender as I find out that once you figure out how to make something, its really easy to make it again.




After you have your two loops made, then use a pair of pliers to make the 90 degree bends, or whatever style of bend that you want to.

Then run your lead wires through the wire holder and never again worry about having those pesky lead wires give you trouble.




The completed wire holder weighs in at .1 grams.


Thanks for your time.

In the search for "The Perfect Chassis" I have been known to build some wacky, but interesting chassis. This is another example of what cab be done with a wire bender from RGEO Products.

It seems that the West Coast - it's all Bryan Warmack's fault - has launched into something very new and unique. For whatever reason it seems like the slot racers in California keep coming up with new ideas on chassis construction. Right now the craze seems to be what I am going to deem as "Wacky Wire". This is wire that has multiple bends in it.

In my opinion, multiple bends in large diameter wire means one thing and one thing only. It's time for a wire bender so you can easily bend that .078 wire and you can make the 2nd rail exactly like the first rail. So sit back, relax and let's get started.

Okay, now let's grab the tools out and cut a couple of pieces of wire to start this project.



In the photo above, you will see the R-Geo Products HD Wire Bender, bending arm, fence, Champion Tech Tool and a couple of lengths of .078 wire. I did not put the oil in the photo, but I strongly suggest that you have a bottle of lightweight oil out to use. I put a drop on the bending pin on the bending arm every couple of bends. Ever since I started to do that, I have not broken the bending pin on the bending arm. Hey, .078 wire is pretty tough stuff. I have the 'setup' in the wire bender for our first bend. Please note so you won't get confused.




I use the fence as a 'guide' for setting length from the end on the first bend. Hey, it beats measuring. I'm going to cut the end off later on after I solder it to the chassis. I have found this is the best way. I don't have to measure twice or thrice prior to cutting.

We are going to make a 90 degree bend. This bend is going to be made "away from you" - that is the bending arm is going to be pushed to the top of the photo. I have scribed a mark on the wire bender to show me where 90 degrees is. You will also see black marks on my bender. It is well used and loved. I just have marks on there for the parts that I tend to make on a normal basis. If I want to change the marks, a wipe with a piece of ScotchBrite works well.

You are probably wondering why I have the Champion Tech Tool out. It's simple, there is a 90 degree checker built in to the tool. I like to use it after every bend just to make sure the bend I made is 90 degrees. I find it a whole lot easier just to check as I go rather then trying to go back after all the bends are made to find out where the bad bend is at.




Here's the first bend completed. Pretty simple? Well let's move on.




In this photo we're getting ready to make bend #2. Please note that I removed the pin from the 3/4 inch "U" bend hole so I have enough room to put the wire on the bender. I have 'hooked' the wire on the bottom pin and this time I am going to be pulling the handle towards me. This is also going to be a 90 degree bend.

Please note: if you are diligent about making sure the wire is laying nice and flat prior to moving the bending arm, the finished project will need very little 'adjustment'. That's just another reason why I like my wire bender.




Okay, so I did bend the 'model wire' before I started taking photos and writing the process up. Hey, I have to know if it will work! But now you have an idea of what the finished project will look like! Back to bending.

First thing to do is put that pin back into the 3/4 "U" bend hole. We are using this hole to hold the wire in place to properly space the next 90 degree bend. Position your wire as the photo above shows and when you have it all nice and flat, it's time to make another bend, this time you will push the handle away from you and make another 90 degree bend.




Right now would be a great time to put a dab of light oil on the bending pin on your bender. We have a 180 degree bend coming up. But it is NOT hard to do.

Place the wire as shown and the handle is going to be pulled toward. You will need to move the handle all the way to the point slightly past where the wire touches up against the wire on the holding pin. Just take your time, be smooth and it will come out very nicely.




Basically we're over the hump and on the home stretch now. We only have 3 more bends and they are all 90 degree bends. No problem.

Position the wire as shown in the photo above and then pull the handle towards you to make that 90 degree bend. 5 bends down, 2 to go. This really ain't all that hard now, is it?




It's time to put the pin back into the 3/4 inch "U" bend hole again. We have another 90 degree bend coming up, next to the last one. Once you have everything laying nice and flat on the bender, push the handle away from you and make another 90 degree bend.




Okay, now it's time for your favorite bend. That's right, this is the last bend, in this wire. Remember, you still have to make another one. But just follow the directions and it will come out just like the first one.

Once again, remove that pin in the 3/4 inch "U" bend hole and position the wire as shown. Then push the handle away from you making the final 90 degree bend. All the bending for the first wire is now complete. Go back, check all your bends to make sure they are at 90 degrees. Make sure there is no twist in the wire. I like using the wire bender as a straight surface to check it all to make sure it's all nice and straight.




Go back and bend the other wire just like you did with the first one. You should now have a couple of pieces of "Wacky Wire" sitting on your work surface. What will we do with them? Stay tuned

Rather then having y'all waiting around saying, "I wonder when he is going t show us what he built with this wire we all have bent up?", here are some photos of the finished project.





The build itself was very simple. I took one of the new R-Geo Samurai 3 plates, cut the inside brass strip off of the pans, radiused the inside corners of the pans where I cut away the brass strip and then simply soldered the "Wacky Wires" in place. I chose to set the wheelbase on this build based on the length of the pans. What I did was to space the rear of the pans .250 inches in front of the front edge of the rear axle tube. That seems to work nicely. The resulting wheelbase is very close to 4.000 inches. The chassis as you see it in the photos weighs in at 53.4 grams. The front axle adds about 3 grams to the chassis. I'm thinking it will 'dress out' at close to 100 grams ready to race. I will post that once it is complete.

While I would love to go and spend the day playing, err make that testing, this weekend is pretty much spoken for. Once I get the testing in, I'll post the results of that as well. I've seen several versions of this type of construction around, so I thought I might like to give it a try. Will it work? We shall see!

Gentlemen, priceless info posted.

The Formula 1 chassis is slightly easier to describe then 'Nessie'. Basically it is something I was sitting here one day with nothing better to do and had a thought, "I wonder what would happen if I did . . . . .?"

I grabbed my wire bender and started to bend up some .062 wire to make a 'Quad Hump Torsional ISO Plumber Formula 1 Chassis". That is what is shown in the photo. It exists, is real and perhaps one day you can take some laps in it.

You Marty Stanley are a very talented individual. I have both styles of benders by RGeo and can't do some of those bends. Must be my lack of talent holding me back. :lol:

Good to see you're back Marty. Your posts always get me to thinking about how I want to do a project. As a matter of fact I just made a small mandrel bender for the 1/8 brass tubing. I got tired of crimping the bends when ever I tried to bend it. I made it with a 3/4" Tooling and used the 3/32 drill rod for the mandrel.

These posts are super tutorials.

Marty,

Great craftsmanship and great tutorial! Thanks for taking the time to share your skills. Your explanation is so well done and satisfying, I don't even need to go down to the bench to try it myself: that might bring on frustration.. ;)

I love those thin lead wire holders - once I figured out what they were. :clap:

JT

Those two chassis are very special and show a tremendous amount of talent. as well as good engineering. Thanks for posting them; they're inspirational, to say the least.

Allan

Worth repeating. PRICELESS

Strange thing is that Marty influenced me to order an Rgeo wire bender through his posts here
I ordered it through SCC Canada ,about a month ago, Christian had to special order it for me from SCC.
It just arrived by Purolater today.
Thanks Marty.
B