need some advice cutting metal wire

[chato de shamrock]

I'm in the process of mounting some swivel seats on a model and decided to drill a 1/16 hole underneath the seat and on the interior's floor. I want to cut a piece of 1/16 metal wire which will be glued on the hole underneath the seat and just place the other end of the wire on the floor so the seat will be able to spin around. I'm using metal because it's stronger than using a piece of round styrene and wont have to worry about it breaking. The 1/16 drill bit i'm using makes a hole perfect in size for the wire to fit. Now then, my problem begins here. Since i'm using metal wire, when I cut the wire with either my wire cuter pliers or using my dremel tool, the end of the wire gets squashed. I dont know how else to describes it I guess that in other words the wires tips go from being round in shape to being pressed together (by the pliers) and ending up squished together and somewhat bigger. So then now the wire wont fit in the holes anymore. Do any of you know how to cut metal wire and keep the tips round?

Any help would be greatly appreciated and I thank you for spending your time on reading and/or participating in my thread.

[MPWR]

What kind of metal are we talking here? if you're using 1/16 aluminum rod, you should have no trouble cutting it with a razor saw.

However, steel music wire (which is what I'm guessing you're using) is a different story. I cut it with a dremel tool, with cutoff wheels.



They don't cut through the wire so much as grind. You can also (carefully) use the cutoff wheel to grind smooth the ends of the cut wire. But used properly, a cutoff wheel won't 'squash' or deform the ends of the wire you're cutting. Just grind the ends round with the cutoff wheel, and they will easily pass through 1/16 holes

Just what are you using in your dremel tool to cut the wire? And what kind of wire?

[freakray]

If you're just concerned about the distortion of the ends of the wire from cutting, try holding the wire in a pair of pliers and sanding the ends back to round with either sandpaper or with a file.

[chato de shamrock]

I have two rods: K-S, and Plastruct. The K-S rod indicates that it's 1/16x.014 RD. ALUM (im guessing that means aluminum). I'm going to use this one because Plastruct's rod is coated with a white plastic that makes the rod a bit thicker than 1/16.

What kind of sandpaper would be needed to sand back the rod? I've heard you can do this but was confussed because I didnt understand how you can sand aluminum or metal.

[drunken monkey]

it's aluminium.
it's not very thick.
just roll it under a sharp blade.

[mike@af]

I use wire cutters and file the ends down to remove the squashed ends.

[freakray]

Originally Posted by chato de shamrock

What kind of sandpaper would be needed to sand back the rod? I've heard you can do this but was confussed because I didnt understand how you can sand aluminum or metal.

Preferably sandpaper with some sort of abrasive property....

Aluminum or aluminium depending where you are is a relatively soft metal, it's easily polished and sanded with sandpaper. Any sandpaper which you use to remove mold lines will be sufficient to deburr aluminum.

[rsxse240]

yeah, aluminum is ALMOST as soft as plastic, and can be worked the same in many ways. for cutting alum. rod, I (as stated previously) generally just roll the rod under an old hobby blade, then sand off where it has "expanded" with a good quality emery board, not the cheap sand glued to cardboard kind, those suck.

for making a rotating seat, I'd suggest mounting a short length of tubing, weather it be aluminum or brass, to the interior bucket. make the tube long enough so when you set the seat on top of it it has enough clearance to swivel as far as you want it to. then glue a piece of rod to the seat where you want it to swivel. then just insert the rod into the tube. this will yield a higher quality, more durable build than if you were to just stick a rod into the chassis.

[chato de shamrock]

Thanks guys. Last night i cut the rod (a bit long in size) with some pliers and then sanded it down to a suitable size with the dremel and cutoff wheel at the highest speed. Then I glued one end to the seats with some Zap and let it sit overnight. I didnt have a chance to work on anything today but you gave me an idea rsxse240. I'm going to try what you said, using the tub to reinforce the seats. Thanks a lot guys. And another thought just popped in my head this very moment. I was at my sisters place today and was going to ask if i could borrow her camera to take pictures of the models i've made and i'm bearly remembering right now. Damn this head.