Wire Straightener Roller Improvement

 I was working on the loop bender and had an idea on how to improve the concentricity of the roller grooves.  I took my piece of 3/16" rod, that I used to assemble the upper rollers, and rubber banded it to one of the rollers.  It rests on the roller I'm checking.  While turning the roller I watch the end of the rod move up and down.  I used a binder clip as my mark for the low spot.  Then just file the groove to get rid of the high spots as before.

The spacing of the rollers is 2 3/4".  So if you have the rod stick out 8 1/4" past the roller you get a 4:1 magnification of the high spot.  It really worked well.  High spots make the rod end go up.

 I left the rod on the roller while filing the other one, so it was easy to recheck how I was doing.  I found it convenient to rest it on something so it was more out of my way while filing.

 To leave a smooth finish I used a 3/16" chain saw grinder, in the Dremel Tool, while spinning the wheel as fast as I could.  Very easy.

 To do the center roller on the bottom I rubber banded the rod to an outer roller.  You have to hold it to the center roller while turning it.  Also it reads backwards for this roller.  High spots make the bar go down.

I was able to make a noticeable improvement and it was so easy.

Here are some added thoughts, now that I've used this to make all the wires for one wing.
For one thing the wires are long and can get bent fairly easily.  As long as it's a gentile bend it can be straightened easily enough, although I made things worse before I figured out what I was doing.

 I found a 4 ft. straight edge helped see what was happening.  The wires are about 5 ft. long so this worked well.  A yard stick might work.  I don't have one to try.

You can see the slight bend in this wire.  I found that if I held it vertical in my fingers I could look down it and locate the bend, like looking at bent boards at the lumber yard only vertical.

By putting my thumbs on the high side of the curve and gripping tightly with my finger tips I could work out most small bends.  It did take some practice and I was sure for a while that wire was going in the trash, but it didn't.  The wire wants to rotate  to where it makes the bend worse.  A slight bend in the last 6 inches is going to get wiped out in the loop bender.

 I did find it much easier to fix minor bends while the wire is still gripped in the rollers, because it can't rotate.  The picture on the right shows how a good wire looks.  The one below had a slight bend sideways, not sure what I did feeding the wire to cause it.

Back to making drag wires.