Custom Bowden Cables?

I'm having trouble finding someone simultaneously capable as well as
willing to make a cable for my brake assembly for my ship. Spruce
doesn't have any barrel adjusters, a common motorcycle part.... I
want the fancy swaged eyelet ends on a 3/32 cable (Spruce also only
offers .078 cable or I would probably just send them my own
barrel...), but need the barrel on it too. I've found people that
*could* do it, but won't touch it cause it's an airplane (I may have
them make a cable for my 'gold sluicing machine' or something
though . I've found parts suppliers, but I can't rotary swage... so
I'm looking for someone to just make it for me.

Suggestions?

TIA,
-Paul

On Jun 21, 11:51*am, sisu1a wrote:
I'm having trouble finding someone simultaneously capable as well as
willing to make a cable for my brake assembly for my ship. Spruce
doesn't have any barrel adjusters, a common motorcycle part.... *I
want the fancy swaged eyelet ends on a 3/32 cable (Spruce also only
offers .078 cable or I would probably just send them my own
barrel...), but need the barrel on it too. I've found people that
*could* do it, but won't touch it cause it's an airplane (I may have
them make a cable for my 'gold sluicing machine' or something
though . I've found parts suppliers, but I can't rotary swage... so
I'm looking for someone to just make it for me.

Suggestions?

TIA,
-Paul


The rotary swage equipment is very expensive and wouldn't expect to
find it outside of a large repair station. Unless it is a friend I
would tell them its for an aircraft as that will scare just scare off
just about everyone.
Another suggestion is to silver solder the end on the cable. As long
as there is no in use flex in the section near the fitting it works
well. I have used that method for a long time with zero failures.

On Jun 21, 12:43*pm, RAS wrote:
On Jun 21, 11:51*am, sisu1a wrote:

I'm having trouble finding someone simultaneously capable as well as
willing to make a cable for my brake assembly for my ship. Spruce
doesn't have any barrel adjusters, a common motorcycle part.... *I
want the fancy swaged eyelet ends on a 3/32 cable (Spruce also only
offers .078 cable or I would probably just send them my own
barrel...), but need the barrel on it too. I've found people that
*could* do it, but won't touch it cause it's an airplane (I may have
them make a cable for my 'gold sluicing machine' or something
though . I've found parts suppliers, but I can't rotary swage... so
I'm looking for someone to just make it for me.

Suggestions?

TIA,
-Paul

The rotary swage equipment is very expensive and wouldn't expect to
find it outside of a large repair station. Unless it is a friend I
would tell them its for an aircraft as that will scare just scare off
just about everyone.
Another suggestion is to silver solder the end on the cable. As long
as there is no in use flex in the section near the fitting it works
well. I have used that method for a long time with zero failures.

Try a sailboat shop that does rigging. Also look in EAA mag. for
someone that does fling wires and such for By-planes.

On Jun 21, 12:43*pm, RAS wrote:
On Jun 21, 11:51*am, sisu1a wrote:

I'm having trouble finding someone simultaneously capable as well as
willing to make a cable for my brake assembly for my ship. Spruce
doesn't have any barrel adjusters, a common motorcycle part.... *I
want the fancy swaged eyelet ends on a 3/32 cable (Spruce also only
offers .078 cable or I would probably just send them my own
barrel...), but need the barrel on it too. I've found people that
*could* do it, but won't touch it cause it's an airplane (I may have
them make a cable for my 'gold sluicing machine' or something
though . I've found parts suppliers, but I can't rotary swage... so
I'm looking for someone to just make it for me.

Suggestions?

TIA,
-Paul

The rotary swage equipment is very expensive and wouldn't expect to
find it outside of a large repair station. Unless it is a friend I
would tell them its for an aircraft as that will scare just scare off
just about everyone.
Another suggestion is to silver solder the end on the cable. As long
as there is no in use flex in the section near the fitting it works
well. I have used that method for a long time with zero failures.

Paul,
If there are any 'Old School' motorcycle repair businesses in your
area, try them. For many years, I used to make all my own cables
using parts from: http://www.flandersco.com/FlanCableSearch.html
Sometime in the last couple decades, I loaned my solder pot to
someone, and it never came back, and I subsequently got rid of most of
my bits and pieces.

Paul,
I've made several cables for my sailplanes. The "Bowden" cable is a
bicycle or motorcycle cable. Invented by Mr Bowden of the Raleigh Bicycle
Co. around 1900. You can get cable anchor bolts to fix the ends or silver
braze the end on with hard silver solder with a propane torch. Go to a
bicycle shop or motorcycle shop, get a brake cable and casing with one end
that will work on your sailplane. Buy the best brake cable (do not use gear
cable) housing with plastic lining and a die drawn wire (real smooth). It
looks like flanders cable has all you need. if you cannot find it locally.
Be sure to lube the cable with a cable lube found at bicycle shops when you
install it I use a 50% silver brazing material with silflux for flux. found
at welding shops. Make sure the fitting and wire is free of any oil or dirt
before brazing. Also like was said, the silver will run up the cable and
make it very stiff near the brazed fitting. The cable will come with 2
ends so, cut the end off you don't need and use the other end where you
need the most flex.
A new cable will improve the power of your brakes. Test your job by
squeezing the lever real hard to see if the end will come off. After
testing, you may need to turn the adjusting barrel to tighten the brakes.
Watch out, on the first landing because the brakes may be more powerful
than before.

Ed Gaddy
Cycle Logic

When soldering a cable stop onto a wire, it is good practice to countersink
the end of the cable stop. That way you can flare the end of the cable wire
(untwist and bend ends outward) before soldering. This soldered flare will
add strength to the cable stop, preventing it from pulling through. After
soldering, trim ends of wire with side cutters or Dremel tool.

bumper
MKIV yaw string and Quiet Vent
zz
Minden

I have the small Screw Clamp for brake cable used by many gliders....
this is a small barrel threaded in one end with a small bolt that tightened
onto the cable
these come to me direct from TOST
tim
Please visit the Wings & Wheels website at www.wingsandwheels.com

"sisu1a" wrote in message
...
I'm having trouble finding someone simultaneously capable as well as
willing to make a cable for my brake assembly for my ship. Spruce
doesn't have any barrel adjusters, a common motorcycle part.... I
want the fancy swaged eyelet ends on a 3/32 cable (Spruce also only
offers .078 cable or I would probably just send them my own
barrel...), but need the barrel on it too. I've found people that
*could* do it, but won't touch it cause it's an airplane (I may have
them make a cable for my 'gold sluicing machine' or something
though . I've found parts suppliers, but I can't rotary swage... so
I'm looking for someone to just make it for me.

Suggestions?

TIA,
-Paul

On Jun 21, 11:51*am, sisu1a wrote:
I'm having trouble finding someone simultaneously capable as well as
willing to make a cable for my brake assembly for my ship. Spruce
doesn't have any barrel adjusters, a common motorcycle part.... *I
want the fancy swaged eyelet ends on a 3/32 cable (Spruce also only
offers .078 cable or I would probably just send them my own
barrel...), but need the barrel on it too. I've found people that
*could* do it, but won't touch it cause it's an airplane (I may have
them make a cable for my 'gold sluicing machine' or something
though . I've found parts suppliers, but I can't rotary swage... so
I'm looking for someone to just make it for me.

Suggestions?

TIA,
-Paul


Thanks All, for the suggestions and tips, it's all very useful and
appreciated information. Despite all the good advice though, I'm
having California Push-Pull make my cables (I'm getting 2 made, one
for another owner doing the same conversion...), as it's hard to beat
$30/cable with 3 days lead time for rotary swaged milspec plug-n-play
action.
http://www.push-pull.com/ (I ordered it as 'don't ask don't tell'
this time... I'm not sure if they want to get into aircraft- but they
did have the MS02668-3 eyelet ends my brake system needs as well as
other high quality parts to make the entire cable to my specs... 7x7
wire, plastic lined conduit, the right size/type barrel adjuster
etc...) A local wire rigging shop turned me on to them, but I thought
others here may be able to benefit from this capable and friendly
outlet.

This is for a brake conversion BTW, not a repair or replacement, as my
SZD-59's wheel/brake arrangement (and any other ship with the same
wheel/brake system) is wholly inadequate. This is not due to the ship
coming with a cheap/weak/stretchy under-engineered bicycle cable as
some ships suffer from, but rather from a terribly designed
mechanically actuated floating axle drum/disc/frankenstien proprietary
brake design only found on many Polish ships, which is notorious for

1. not working
2. for self actuating under certain circumstances
3, for not being able to be adjusted right (two adjustments possible:
'annual mode' or flying mode...)
4. for getting stuck while engaged and scraping the nose/slamming the
tail etc, all leading to a whole host of predictable problems

It is hard to describe the anatomy of the brake due to it's
unconventional nature, (I can email pics w/descriptions to anyone
interested if you PM me...) but suffice to say it SUCKS. Any owner of
such a ship (or anyone that has flown one...) will no doubt
wholeheartedly agree. One such owner just described a laborious
process he underwent involving rebuilding his stock system and using
lapping compound to polish the threads that the very odd, 6 point
actuating cam mechanism rides in (one of many major sources of
avoidable friction in the circuit...) and some other tedious mods to
'bring it up to the level of horrible'.

My solution is a complete conversion to a 5.00x5 Cleveland (I heart
5606!) disc and the installation of the related hydraulic parts. I
decided to use my ship's stock brake lever (instead of using the
trombone action of the airbrake travel or an aftermarket lever
solution...), so one of the things I had to do was to design a bracket
for the M aster C ylinder that turned my stock 1" of cable travel into
1.25" of piston travel, reducing the overall mechanical advantage of
the system from 3:1 down to 2.4 to 1 in the process. This necessitated
the actuation lever on the bracket to be longer than I wanted it in
order to avoid mechanical interference while accommodating the cable
pulling from slightly below the MC attach point on the lever, so I
used the smallest eyelet available on the cable to minimize that
length (I didn't want the pull be too far from centerline either...
avoidable friction is the enemy!) . I went with the MS02668-3 eyelet
as it's as small as I could find for a 3/32 cable (the minimum size
cable I'm willing to use...) and hence minimized the extra length
needed on that lever. MC pivot point is on a 1.6" radius on the lever
and the cable pulls from a 1.28" radius measured from the same bottom
pivot point to achieve the mechanical 'disadvantage' needed in minimal
space.

If this was able to be done using a ball or button stop this would
have been relatively easy, as there are many options for those type of
terminations (I live in Oakland with numerous shops nearby, and/or
would be feasible to make myself.), but my conundrum came from needing
motorcycle parts (M8-1.25 barrel adjuster w/2 nuts) on the same
assembly as the milspec eyelets... all the sudden the list of capable
shops got much smaller, and willing shops smaller yet.

The overall conversion is almost done though, and I very much look
forward to flying my ship again, especially with a brake that actually
works! I still won't point at anything I don't want to buy- but
still... Once completed I will set up a site documenting my process
from beginning to end, with pictures and descriptions of the step-by-
step for the conversion in addition to making the drawings/dimensions
of the parts that need to be machined available in case anyone else is
as fed up as I was with what is clearly the Achilles' heel of such a
fine ship and they need some inspiration.

-Paul

PS. I absolutely love my Polish glider, I just hate it's wretched
wheel/brake arrangement... (well, and the inadequate ventilation, but
that problem is already solved