Supporting wires

[trebor]

Has any one got a few tips at running wires down the inside of the fuselage for rear mounted servos. Only asking as I can't get my hand in there as its too big and I don't fancy having the wires jangling about.

[Keith Berriman]

How about tyerap or tape to a snake outer or inner what ever is in spares box ?

[The Wright Stuff]

Drinking straws? Glued in place?

[trebor]

Straws would be a bit small unless I popped the wires out of the plugs, there is 5" of wire hanging off the servo too. I could cut the plug off and join to a long wire so I could pull it through. It's the first time I've mounted servos in the tail.

[Max Z]

Roll some paper tubes with the dia. large enough to pass the plug, hold them together with sticky tape and spot glue them in your fuselage.

[trebor]

I had thought of making a foam board box to slide them into but that sounds better.

Edited By trebor on 02/08/2016 14:45:26

[Mowerman]

I have used rolled paper tubes built into wings to enable aileron servo leads to be inserted and make it easy to change servos if required.

[Bob Cotsford]

For the WotsWot XL I'm putting together I rolled a tube from lining paper around a broomstick. That extends from the rear of the radio bay to just in front of the servos. Don't forget to remove the broomstick before insertion or it may affect your CofG! You can just make out the front of the tube under the servo tay.

[trebor]

I just had a go making one from newspaper not very happy with it so its in the bin. I can't find any paper good enough yet. I dug out an old fishing landing net handle to roll it on, I'll see what paper I can find in the other half's drawers

[Simon Chaddock]

As long as they are retained where you can get at them Is there a problem with the rest of the wire "jangling about"?

I usually glue little brackets every couple of inches down the fuselage using a pair of long surgical forceps.

This is using Depron but the principle works just a well using balsa or ply.

Edited By Simon Chaddock on 02/08/2016 18:44:06

[Keith Berriman]

Have you got any (old) Birthday Cards ??

[trebor]

I found some brown wrapping paper, done it but it's stuck to the tube. I used to be good at school with paper machete but that was a long time ago.

[Bob Cotsford]

Got any old wallpaper rolls? I find that to be about perfect for rolling paper tubes.

[john stones 1 - Moderator]

No Blue Peter badge for you Robert tie wrap em somewhere in the fuzz it'll be right

John

[trebor]

No Bob, all the walls in our house are just painted. I can't remember the last time I used wall paper.

[Geoff S]

I just use A4 sheets that come through the post with writing on one side - I think they may be bills but I'm not sure . If you need long tubes just join several together with Sellotape. There's always magazine pages, too. I only bother with wings where access is difficult to impossible - I just feed them down a fuselage free and use a long surgical retractor like Simon. There used to be loads sold on the tool stalls at shows and they're very useful.

Geoff

[Ian Jones]

Posted by trebor on 02/08/2016 13:32:24:

Straws would be a bit small unless I popped the wires out of the plugs, there is 5" of wire hanging off the servo too. I could cut the plug off and join to a long wire so I could pull it through. It's the first time I've mounted servos in the tail.

I've used straws, straight or those that have a corrugated section that can be set to an angle. The wide bore plastic ones can be squashed sufficiently flat to allow servos connectors to be pushed through, or pulled through with a piano wire hook (round the connector body, not the wires).

Edited By Ian Jones on 02/08/2016 22:16:44

[KiwiKid]

I have found that straws make a nice neat job, particularly when routing wires through translucent wing covering. The wires are just soldered together and can be pulled through and desoldered if a servo needs to be replaced.

[Peter Jenkins]

I use the expanded foam tubes used to insulate water pipes. Cheap, can be cut to the size required, and has a slit that allows you to slot the wires in place and then slide the tube down the fuselage. Not much use for wings of course. This has the advantage of not causing any noise as the wires flop around inside the tube while the foam is friendly to any sudden sagging of the wires.

[trebor]

I must admit to using pipe insulation round the neck of my fuel tanks to stop vibration and any sticky vapours getting in the fuselage,

[NormB]

To make servo wire tubes, I've used gummed brown paper strip. Comes on a roll, about 50 mm wide. Find a piece of dowel or similar as a former, wrap with a strip of cling film. Wind the tape sticky (shiny) side OUT with a 5 mm or so overlap. Keep it tight with masking tape at both ends. Get a small brush and run a little water over the join - just enough to wet it. Leave until fully dry, remove from former. It's surprisingly strong. I've used them for wing servo wires in a 1/6 scale Piper Cub.

Norm

[Mowerman]

I have just made a set of tubes for a Ballerina wing using brown wrapping paper. Each tube was made from a 17" x 3" piece of paper wrapped round a length of 10mm gf tube (B+Q) This produced a 17" tube which can be cut to cut to fit when the wing is assembled.

Not having a suitable 11mm drill I used a 7mm and made 2 adjoining holes then trimmed to make elongated holes that the tube could be made to fit by slightly squashing'

[Ady Hayward]

I have bought a strip of ribbon cable from RS Components and strip of 3 wires at a time to run the length of the fuselage and then soldered each end of a short extension cable to the ends to make a permanent extender. If more than one servo is required then I add an extra wire off the ribbon for each servo signal wire and solder the extra connector to the common + and - then solder the connector signal wire to the spare wire.

Adrian