braided steel fishing line
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Sooner Boomer
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I've used similar material in Fat Boys. I always ended the cable below the mouth of the tube (easy to reach into a Fat Boy). Other things to try are a kevlar sleeve, or going to a "zipperless" design.
I have it in my Standard ARM. As sooner said above, it ends below the end of the tube. I think mine ends about 2 or 3 inches below the edge, then a quick link added to spread the force enough to prevent a zipper, braided kevlar attached at the quick link. YMMV
MarkII
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Yeap!
I use it and several other size stranded avaition cables as Shockcord anchors.
I use it and several other size stranded avaition cables as Shockcord anchors.
UncleVanya
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I have a Dynacom Black Widow kit and it includes a large braided steel line for anchoring the shock cord - my concern was corrosion over time. How do these hold up?
NAR29996
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I have 3 North Coast kits with the "Gorrila" mount, which used steel line. No problems with them and the oldest is about 25 years old. Don't know how many flights they've had, tho.
Mine has only seen 1 flight due to tangled kevlar (just shoved it in, should have gathered and taped)
MarkII
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Too thin, and WAY too expensive. Also rather stiff compared to the types of wire that I use. I have a few old or broken strings in my case, including EBs. They don't seem to have the right combination of qualities to be a good choice for this particular job. Single-strand solid core cable (like a guitar string) tends to be much less pliable than twisted multi-strand cable. A guitar string would probably work in a pinch, but better, cheaper options are available.
Regarding corrosion, stainless steel leader or micro-cable is quite resistant to corrosion, and especially so if you get the kind that is coated with nylon. (Nylon-coated cable is more resistant to kinking and tangling as well.) I always use cable made of stainless steel and coated with nylon. I haven't had any problems with corrosion, even on the part of the cable that is right down near the top of the motor.
One thing that I would never use is picture-hanging wire. That stuff is evil. Difficult to work with, almost completely devoid of pliability, weakly constructed (unravels easily), has significant memory, not as resistant to corrosion and has significantly less tensile strength than twisted multi-strand cable. You could get away with using it to make short loops for anchoring a shock cord, but you would still have to watch for corrosion. Covering the exposed parts of those loops with heat-shrink tubing would help to delay its onset though. For the type of long motor mount-anchored shock cord anchors that I construct it is totally unsuitable.
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Ditto! Ditto! Ditto to everything Mark posted. Particularly with regard to picture hanging wire. Absolutely useless for our needs.
It is very important to have a multi standed cable made up of exceedingly thin stands of stainless steel. Cables can have Stainless or other core lines that make the cables more or less flexible.
Rex R
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yes I do on occasion use braided ss fishing leaders, for example
the engine mount for my Estes Nike Smoke. I wanted an unobstructed tube to make using a chute hankie easier. otoh I used the oversize tri-fold mount w/ my ventris.
rex
the engine mount for my Estes Nike Smoke. I wanted an unobstructed tube to make using a chute hankie easier. otoh I used the oversize tri-fold mount w/ my ventris.rex
^^-- I definitely disagree with a few popular views here, such as the biases against elastic and thrust rings. After one crash that wouldn't have happened (at least the same way) if I hadn't gone without an elastic piece I originally used, I've gone back to what I consider best. It might be absolutely true in their situation but it's not in mine (cardboard w/ rear-ejection CANNON).
I used a nylon covered steel leader once, it seemed the nylon was important to keeping it from unravelling and once it got some burns I replaced it. Also it really only seemed to have one load-bearing strand, the clip was questionable and the swivel so weak looking I removed it. Harder to work with than Kevlar as well. Was 30 lb. test Eagle Claw. Edit: however it did hold up a few flights, better than no heat resistant section in there at all.
I used a nylon covered steel leader once, it seemed the nylon was important to keeping it from unravelling and once it got some burns I replaced it. Also it really only seemed to have one load-bearing strand, the clip was questionable and the swivel so weak looking I removed it. Harder to work with than Kevlar as well. Was 30 lb. test Eagle Claw. Edit: however it did hold up a few flights, better than no heat resistant section in there at all.
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Depending on the size of the model being built there are any number of multi-Stranded Nylon coated or non-coated Stainless steel beading wires, Fishing leaders and small diameter Avaition cables that lend themselves easily to our hobby needs.
One of the main things to keep in mind when thinking about what material to purchase is the finer the individual strands in the cable and the higher the number of stands the more flexible the cable will be. There are also different "core" strands that can make a huge difference in flexibility. Rope centers or even Nylon centers will tend to be more flexible then solid wire core cables. Personally I would not recommend Hemp or Rope centers as they will degrade over time & ejection heat. Nylon center Stainless avaition cables seem to stand up to the abuse quite well. Most of these cables will need to be attached with Crimp sleeves which may seem like a potential snag problem but they can be reshaped after attaching with a dremel and drum sander bit.
One of the main things to keep in mind when thinking about what material to purchase is the finer the individual strands in the cable and the higher the number of stands the more flexible the cable will be. There are also different "core" strands that can make a huge difference in flexibility. Rope centers or even Nylon centers will tend to be more flexible then solid wire core cables. Personally I would not recommend Hemp or Rope centers as they will degrade over time & ejection heat. Nylon center Stainless avaition cables seem to stand up to the abuse quite well. Most of these cables will need to be attached with Crimp sleeves which may seem like a potential snag problem but they can be reshaped after attaching with a dremel and drum sander bit.
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