A source for music wire

[PCT]

I needed some music wire for making springs for the Kerzel hit-and-miss engine that I am building. The plans called for wire measuring 0.010 inches in diameter for winding the springs on the regulator. The smallest I could find at the hardware store was 0.015 inches. Not wanting to spend $20 plus for a 900 foot roll from McMaster Carr, I found another source. It turns out that the highest string on an acoustic guitar (E) is exactly 0.010 inches. So my old guitar is short a string, but my engine has the proper size spring on it.
I guess that's why it's called music wire.

 

[Blogwitch]

I usually stock up on mandolin strings, you can buy them singly or sets.
Over the years you tend to get a good stock in so you can make almost anything that requires music wire (called piano wire in the UK).

John

 

[blanik]

Most RC Model suppliers stock a wide range of spring steel wire (mostly called "Piano Wire"). The RC Modellers use it for control surface pushrods and pullrods in the smaller wire sizes, and for undercarriage legs in larger wire sizes. You'll find a wide range of spring steel wire listed on this RC Hobby Store link, although you'll possibly need to use a close metric or AWG size to get the 0.010" that you're looking for:



https://hobbyking.com/en_us/catalogsearch/result/?cat=&q=piano+wire&___store=en_us


There's heaps of other suppliers - I've just provided the link to the supplier that I use most often.

Regards,


RoyG

 

[Henry]

I bough mine in Ebay, they are longer rolls and you will find almost any diameter. Like they said look for piano wire.

 

[Longboy]

http://www.ksmetals.com

http://www.ksmetals.com/DomesticDistributors.html

 

[PCT]

Thanks for the tips guys, I goofed up the spring and have to get more wire. The wire was winding up on my .095" mandrel just fine, but I had to touch it as it was winding (duh) which caused the wire to overlap the previous coils which spoiled it.

It's surprising how much wire it takes to make a small diameter spring about .750" long.