What metal wire is this?

[Chriznak]

Anyone know what metal wire this is on the end of the barrel? I want to use that stuff to tie a piece of rail for attaching a light to my rifle barrel or reinforcing the RS products BM-1 . Thank you

Edited December 3, 2013 by Chriznak

[Sarge]

I don't see a picture

[Chills1994]

That is stainless steel wire. I have used it in industrial applications where those swimming pool (salt/chlorine) tablets are made. Any other carbon steel wire would get eaten up by the chlorine and rust out quickly.

You might be able to find it at Home Depot/Lowe's/Menards. I have bought some there before to hang bird feeders from.

[Jack T]

Stainless Safety Wire in diameters of .032 to .041, you will need the tool that properly twists the wire. I use it on the motocross bikes. Check out the tools in Motosport.com. That is where I got mine.

Jack

[Chriznak]

Thanks for your help guys. I'll be going with these and hopefully have a universal rifle-light-mounting option I can share.

http://www.amazon.com/MSR-Twisting-Pliers-SAFETY-PLIER/dp/B000WJIJ66/ref=lh_ni_t_mi?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3TGC5XRRCX4P2

[Flexmoney]

You can properly twist safety wire by hand. Hold both legs of wire out at about 45d angles (where the 2 wires meet will for a 90d), hold tight and twist, keeping the angle.

The ends will be sharp and they will cut you. So, leave the tail extra long, then use a pair of needle nose to curl it back into a safe direction.

[Sarge]

Ah yes, lacing pliers. We used those to keep our M60 MG's together. And to put dog tags on out M2 Barrels.

[Guest]

As chills and jack already stated that is most likely Stainless Steel Safety wire (Mil Spec: MS20995-C).

And, as Flex said you don’t need to have the twister pliers to do a good job of safety wiring, it can easily be done by hand and is actually easier for a small job that has good access.

Other tools that work well is an easily home-made screwdriver looking tool that has two small holes drilled in the end (sometimes called a hog nose or pig nose twister), or you can use smooth jawed duck bill pliers.

The number of twists per inch is critical so you don’t weaken the wire, and the number of twists per inch is dependent on the diameter of the wire you are using.There is also some technique in how you lay out the wire and what direction you will twist to make it all come out right. The A&P guys have some good guidance on proper safety wiring techniques in section 7-122 of AC43.13 : http://rgl.faa.gov/Regulatory_and_Guidance_Library/rgAdvisoryCircular.nsf/list/AC%2043.13-1B/$FILE/Chapter%2007.pdf

Skygeek has decent prices on 1 lb rolls of safety wire, and you can look at the different tools they offer.

http://www.skygeek.com/safety-wire.html?gclid=CJeBm4_TlLsCFfJxOgod02YAOg

Hardly worth buying a whole pound just for a small job, though. If you only need a few feet of .020 or .032 and don’t have any other local sources feel free to PM me and I’ll mail you some.

BTW – harbor freight sells some crappy plier twisters for about 10 bucks, but they work.

Good luck with your project!

[GuildSF4]

Ah yes, lacing pliers. We used those to keep our M60 MG's together. And to put dog tags on out M2 Barrels.

We call them Lockwire pliers... We lockwire many things to keep them from backing out due to vibration, especially inside the bearing housings.

[Biloxi23]

I have a pair of lockwire pliers left over from when I was doing overhaul pipe-fitting on nuke subs. I think I also have some NiCu lock wire around someplace.