What Thickness of Brass Wire Do I Need?

[Kisatchie]

I have about 20 Intermountain reefer kits to assemble, and I want to replace the fragile grabirons with brass wire ones. Since I don't have a caliper to measure the Intermountain grabs, I was wondering if anyone here could tell me which size brass wire I can use. I'm looking at Details Associates brass wire, if that helps.


Hmm... I think the
situation is hopeless...

[victor miranda]

use ph-bz if you can get it.

0.010 is a good number 
and as I recall, I think 32 guage is good.

luck.

victor

[mmagliaro]

+1 on phosphor bronze wire.
Get it from Tichy Train Group

.010 would be good.  I don't know what the original size was, but .010 will look in scale.  That's still 1.6" across, so it
is oversized, but I think it still looks good and it probably thinner than what was in there.

Phosphor bronze is MUCH better.  It is much more springy, so that after you bend the two ends and put it in the hole, it will stay nice and straight.
Brass wire is more like a wet noodle, and can easily be bent into a wavy looking grabiron.

[Kisatchie]

Thanks for the replies. I just found some Tichy phosphor bronze wire on eBay and ordered some.


Hmm... I just ordered
a plate of spaghetti and
termites...

[Cajonpassfan]

Kiz, if you haven't yet spent all your mony on wire, you could also buy preformed grabs from BLMA. They come in multiple sizes...
Otto K.

[Kisatchie]

Kiz, if you haven't yet spent all your mony on wire, you could also buy preformed grabs from BLMA. They come in multiple sizes...

Sorry, I done spent all my money 


Hmm... Kiz didn't spend
his money on me...

[nkalanaga]

I also use 0.010 inch, 30 gauge, but soft steel.  I bought a bunch years ago, at the "Coast-to-Coast" hardware store in Pasco, WA, and haven't seen it or the company for over 30 years.  It's softer than phosphor-bronze, but holds its shape well, and if the paint gets chipped, it's steel colored.  Left alone it tends to turn black, which can be sanded off to get it shiny again, but makes chips even less visible after a while.

[djconway]

I used Techy 0.008 phosphor bronze won mine, works out to 1.28" -- 0.005 works out to 0.8", but I didn't have any handy when I built my kits.
But too late, you spent all your money.

What are you using as a bending jig? Are you using a bending jig?

[Altoona]

Go out online and lookfor 0.007 stainless. It what I've been using
Judd Barton

[Kisatchie]

What are you using as a bending jig? Are you using a bending jig?

I'm going to make a jig to bend the wire. I'll figure out something.


Hmm... this is gonna be
a fiasco...

[nkalanaga]

I made a jig for grab irons years ago, although I don't remember what the project was.  Something that needed a bunch of identical ones.  It was very simple:

Take a piece of brass strip, I used 1/16 by 1/2, of a handy length, mine was about an inch long.

Glue it to a board, I think I used a piece of 1x3, so one long edge overhangs the edge of the board very slightly.

Drill a hole to fit the wire, the right distance from the edge.  Mine was #80, because that's the smallest drill I could find.

Cut a bunch of wires longer than you need,

Bend one end 90 degrees.  I used flat-end tweezers, use whatever you have handy.

Put the bent end in the hole.

Bend the other end over the edge of the strip, making sure the wire is square to the edge, so all the pieces are the same length.

If you want to be a little fancier, cut a small notch in the edge, so you make sure the wire is bent at the same place every time.

Quick and dirty, but cheap enough that you can make a new one for every project, and will fit any grab iron length.  If you have several sizes, and use them regularly, you can put more than one hole in a strip.