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1/32" Cable

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mstull

R.I.P.
Joined
Jun 23, 2005
Messages
1,263
Location
West Texas
In the course of putting my biplane on a drag and weight reduction diet, I wanted to decrease the size of cables that don't take much load. So I found 1/32" diameter cable at:
http://www.mcmaster.com/
I chose the 1 x19 stainless steel Strand for its high strength (185# or 150#) and very round, aerodynamic shape. It's about 1/4 to 1/3 of the strength, weight, and drag, compared with 1/16" 7 x 7.

I mostly wanted to use it for the exposed cables that are in the prop wash, since they have extra drag. But I like the look, lower weight, and drag. So I downgraded other cables that don't take much load.

Don't downgrade cables on your plane without knowing the forces and wear involved on each cable. The cable I bought came unlubricated. So if you use it around a pulley, you should at least spray WD-40 on the cable to give it some lubrication. (Aircraft cable comes well oiled.) And since it has much less reserve strength, it should be inspected very often. So it's only really suitable for exposed cables.

Also be aware that the smaller the cable, the more it stretches under a given load. So don't use it in places where you can't have stretch.

Other recent changes I made to my biplane: I eliminated 4 flying (actually landing) wires between the wings. And decreased the diameter of the exposed aileron pushrods.

I reworked the Culver, wood propeller, thinning the airfoil and sharpening the trailing edges. I left the diameter, chord, and pitch unchanged. I removed a significant amount of wood from the outer 2/3 of the blades. But full power RPM only came up about 20 RPM or so (to 3,740 RPM direct drive)... very incremental.

The prop is noticeably quieter. It seems like there's a little more thrust, slightly better climb, less vibration, and it might take slightly less throttle in cruise to turn the same RPM. Although my fuel consumption seems unchanged.

Prop manufacturers say you have to remove a lot of material to make a noticeable change.

With all the recent changes, cruise speed increased from 49 mph to 54 mph.

Here's a couple photos of the 1/32" cable. They don't make 1/32" nicos. So I used 1/16" nicos, putting Two 1/16 cables through, plus the One 1/32 cable. The copper nicos still compressed fully to the usual spec.
 

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