seam roller

[jgraham]

I found a useful tool for getting the wire flush with the surface of the track. I tried various tools for pressing the wire in the Dremel groove, but this seam roller worked best for me. The roller is 2" wide and made of steel (used by roofers for rolling seams). It presses the wire into the groove without dragging on the wire. I've been using piano wire sold here in Canada and it seems to work just fine. It is very close in size to the wire from Wes, but it is not straightened.

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[Ned]

I'm building a test track. Instead of cutting a groove to press the wire into, I'm trying to glue it on top of the baseboard. I bought a 300' coil of .035" diameter steel piano wire from McMaster-Carr in the U.S. for $15 delivered. When a section of wire is cut from the coil it naturally forms a 12" diameter circle. That works fine when gluing wire around a curve but it's troublesome on straights. Do you know of any way to straighten sections of the wire prior to gluing it down?
Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

[jgraham]

12" diameter is quite the curve! My wire bends naturally to about a 32" diameter once a segment is cut from the coil. It seems there are different types of piano wire with different characteristics. For example, the wire from Wes resists kinking and bending better than the wire I bought here. Perhaps this is because of how the wire was straightened, but I suspect the wire itself is different. I searched the Internet for steel/music/piano wire straightening techniques a few months back, but never tried them. The most credible sounding technique was holding one end of the wire in a desk vice, the other end in an electric drill, pulling the wire tight, and twisting the wire using the drill. I just tried it on my wire and it didn't work for me (perhaps I didn't pull or twist enough).

My first track used straight wire glued to MDF using wire and recommendations from Wes. I used small finishing nails to hold the wire in place while the glue dried and held the wire down using small cans with nails inside for weight. I used the same technique on straights and on curves, with more nails near the end of each wire segment. I also used wrenches as weights to hold down the end of each segment to make sure it was flat until the glue dried. It seems this should work to glue a curved wire to a straight line, but I haven't tried it.

Sorry I wasn't more helpful.

[Ned]

Thanks for the info.
Ned

[Lasp]

I undulat cut the lenght of tread i need for a sextionde.
Then i drag the wire betten My fingers so i reduse the curves .
I have th make that several Times' to get it all straight.
Hops tha you Will understand and bee helpension with this.
Good luck from Lasp

[Ned]

Thank you Lasp.
I tried a variation of your suggestion. I put one end of the wire in a bench vise to hold it securely. Then I pulled it between my thumb and index finger so as to bend it in the opposite direction that the wire naturally followed. After several times the natural, relaxed diameter of a 4 foot section of .035" diameter music wire increased from 9" to 16". Now the wire goes around all of my curves easily. I also use needle-nose pliers to straighten the last couple of inches. I ordered 200 12" long straight pieces of the same wire from McMaster.com to use for the straight sections of my track. Including shipping of $7.22, it cost less than $24. I don't know if they ship outside of USA.
Ned

[tsmra]

Thanks for the tip jgraham. Got back to working on the track that i started over a year ago and was having trouble getting the wire to stay in the slot. Seam roller did the trick.

Brion.