I've been known to bend a gear leg or two with a hard landing. I came across landing gear reinforcement standoffs online and I thought I'd give them a try.

I ordered a set for my 50cc SBach (on the left in the photo below) and, with my Uncle's machine tools and experience, made a set for my 32cc Pulse 125 (on the right). The former takes 1/4" music wire; the latter, 3/16".



More pictures of the production are here.


Knowing I'd have to bend some heavy music wire with a reasonable degree of precision, I picked up the K&S Mighty Wire Bender and Coiler.

Out of the box.




Assembled and clamped. Note that it's between rubber jaws - I found out when bending the 1/4" wire that this is a bad idea - the bender popped out of the jaws when I was exerting a lot of force on it... luckily, no injuries or damage - just a big surprise.




Here's a sample spring I coiled from coathanger wire. Not much use as a spring but a good test of the bender.

On to the actual bending; I started with the Pulse 125.

The first step is to measure the angle of the gear.




Mark the wire where the bend needs to be and place it in the bender. Some initial test bends showed me that the bending point needs to be past the apex of the base pin by about the same distance as the wire diameter.




Bend the wire to the desired angle, repeat for the second bend and cut to length.




Lay the wire on the gear for a test fit.

Choose a location for the standoffs - I decided on one inch from either end of each leg. Measure, mark and drill the holes, slide the standoffs onto the wire and bolt everything in place.

The approach for the SBach was similar.










So, both are structurally complete, but they don't look very nice. The next phase is about appearance - cleaning, priming and painting. More to come soon.

I'll leave the SBach part for now - it doesn't stand out so much as the wire on the Pulse does.

First step is to prep a painting area. I paint indoors during the cold weather so it's important to have good ventilation. I use an old box fan to blow across the painted parts (I shut it off when applying paint); the furnace air filter on the intake side keeps dust from blowing across fresh paint.




I put a second fan on a shelf by an open window to move the fumes outside.




Some cardboard to protect the bench.

With the paint area ready I set about cleaning up the part.

A vigorous scrub with acetone.




A good scouring with steel wool.




Sanding with 400 grit.




Another wipe down with acetone and we're good to go.

I used Pro Form self etching primer, sourced from my local CarQuest store.




The primer dries in five minutes.






I chose Tremclad Gloss Real Orange - looks like it'll be a good match.

Paint shot.






I'll give it a second coat in a couple of days.

Nice craftsmanship

How much weight did you add to each plane?

B&B came out with those standoffs 20 years ago. Nice job on your install!

Originally Posted by 2walla

B&B came out with those standoffs 20 years ago. Nice job on your install!

Thanks - making the standoffs was a lot of fun. Bending such large wire was cool too.

Originally Posted by pawnshopmike

Nice craftsmanship

How much weight did you add to each plane?

Thanks... as for the weight, I'll post it when I weigh the parts.

Originally Posted by 2walla

B&B came out with those standoffs 20 years ago. Nice job on your install!

Thanks - making the standoffs was a lot of fun. Bending such large wire was cool too.

Originally Posted by pawnshopmike

Nice craftsmanship

How much weight did you add to each plane?

Thanks... when I weigh the parts I'll post the numbers.

Great looking job Grosbeak. Just a few words of caution though . I have found that in rc flight and especially rc racing of cars and trucks the stronger you make a particular part ,the part it is attached to fails next usually doing more damage .Sorta like the old song .the knee bones connected to the thy bone ect. ect.A little flex and bend in the gear can save a lot of fuse damage.

Originally Posted by henry b

Great looking job Grosbeak. Just a few words of caution though . I have found that in rc flight and especially rc racing of cars and trucks the stronger you make a particular part ,the part it is attached to fails next usually doing more damage .Sorta like the old song .the knee bones connected to the thy bone ect. ect.A little flex and bend in the gear can save a lot of fuse damage.

Understood, Henry. I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for the props.

As I was working on this project I happened to check the prop clearance. It's never been great (hence the riser block between the gear and the mount) and the RCGF 32 installation with its 18 x 8 break-in prop doesn't help. I needed to bend the gear for more ground clearance.

Off with the gear and into the vise, making sure the center section is vertical.






One leg bent.




Both legs bent. Gear back on, reinforcement installed. I think the colour match is really good!