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[howie55]

Hi Its me again, still working on this Schooner
the rigging holding the mast is my next problem, and I have read on the forum someone used S/Steel  plastic coated wire, where can I purchase this in this country ? what lengths is it sold in ?,how strong is it ?, and what method is used to secure it to the deck
fittings, ie masthead,bottlescrews, eyelets ect.
I have tried to buy this in the model shops in bristol and the only reply I received was try a cycle shop, but cycle wire is to thick.
can anyone help please 

[Bunkerbarge]

Having just done some standing rigging I've just been looking at suppliers of suitable materials.  The best options commercially availabe seem to be the nylon coated stainless steel wire that is used for making jewelery.

This is a typical supplier:

http://www.mailorder-beads.co.uk/

However the thickest size seems to be just under 0.5mm, which is a bit fine for a lot of larger scales so I had a play with picture hanging wire, which proved to be too stiff and finally settled on pulling bits of cable apart to see what i could find.

In the end I found that the best look for 1/32nd scale was the core of servo control cables.  The multi-core copper ones look perfect when stripped and then twisted up in a battery drill.  I used heat-shrink to represent the thimbles over a spot of cyano, painted the wire with a gunmetal paint and the thimbles with a matt grey paint and they came up really good.  I also attached them to small shackles and 12mm working bottle screws to not only look very effective but to also allow me to retension the cables as required in the future.

[tigertiger]

The first thing you need to do is consider the breaking strain of the wire.
Anything nylon coated and it will get thicker very fast. If you use stainless steel wire there is no need for nylon.
Nylon coated wire I have seen in hardware stores and places like B&Q, but it is thick. You can also get the cleats there as well.


You can use fishing steel trace wire from a fishing tackle shop. But the strongest I could find was 27kg b.s.
I would tend to use steel where the original boat used steel. I have not done it yet.
You can get single strand stainless steel wire from sailsetc.com

On one of my boats I have used 60kg Dacron (1.2mm dia), dyed black with shoe polish. After several seasons they are still very black.
Dacron is also perfect classic rigging with blocks and deadeyes etc and it can be whipped with regular thread.

I have also recently purchased some 110 kg Dyneema (1.0mm dia), which is stronger, but I really want a bit of diameter as well. I have yet to see if it dyes.
I get my Dacron and Dyneema from sailsetc.com (no connection, just a happy customer).


If anybody knows where I can get bigger breaking strain Dacron cord please let me know.

[Welsh_Druid]

I use nylon covered fishing trace wire.  This is available from fishing tackle shops, usually in 10 metre lengths in various thickness expressed in breaking strain - normally up to 250lbs.

I use 80/100 lb for  all my sailing boats and find it strong enough for me to lift my boats out of the water by holding the mast.

Fix it to your shroud plates or other fittings with " crimps" - short pieces of metal tube which are squeezed (Crimped) onto the doubled back wire. It makes for a neater join if the join is covered with plastic heat shrink tube.

If you cannot get heavy enough wire locally a google search for "steel fishing trace "

[howie55]

Hi Welsh Druid
What a guy, spot on mate,I went to the local fishing shop and there on the wall was nylon covered wire, 8m lengths,in various strengths, I purchased 75 lb, but they do range from 50- 200 lbs, they also supply in the pack the tubing you need for crimping the ends.
What can I say, what a  great forum this is, asked the question late last night and this afternoon I have the product.
Thanks Welsh Druid 
Have attached photo of the wire