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Wire bundles - aftermarket?


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After making wire bundles for my 1/32 OV-10 project I thought there has to be a better way.  Has anyone given consideration to mass-producing these?  It would have to be made of a bendable material that would hold its shape, like a soft metal would.  It could perhaps be extruded like pasta.  If made this way the clips/ties positioned every 20cm (at 1:1 scale)  or so would be hard to add.

 

I can 3D print a straight piece fairly easily, and given a circuitous run I can print a piece to match the run.  The problem here is the resulting part will be rigid, and I don't know of any resins that will behave like a soft metal so that one could bend it to fit any path.

 

I can print a variety of straight pieces, elbows, offsets, etc. that could be joined to make any path.  The problem here is that even at 1/32 scale the pieces will be very small and hard to handle.

 

Any ideas?

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I think the word I was looking for is "malleable".  The material would need to be malleable to behave like a soft metal.

 

I've started designing rigid pieces for 3D printing, and I've asked a flexible resin producer whether malleable resins exist.  I'll experiment with the rigid printed parts, assuming I can print them.  supporting them during printing will be tricky.

 

Another option is to print them in rigid form and use that part to make a silicone mold.  Maybe there exists a malleable, pourable resin?

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Have a look at our Oxygen hoses you can tie them in knots it's a poly-elastomer we've been using the stuff for years cable bundles would be no problem in fact I have a few in the "masters to finish" box.

If you let me know the actual dia of wire to be used I can try and get some finished.

Also colour no problem I was looking at yellow for some Luftwaffe projects.

https://www.modeldesignconstruction.co.uk/accessories/138-oxygen-hose-15mm-2mm.html

 

 

Bob

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  • 2 weeks later...

I've always had an idea that if you could make a special nozzle to put on the end of a filament 3D printer that had the cross section of a wire bundle (i think you would have to EDM it due to its size, and have several nozzles for different wire bundle sizes) then you simply extrude miles of them as ABS/PLA (much like a never ending piping bag for a cake). They would be flexible enough to go around curves etc too. I've always wanted to try it, but couldn't figure out a way to make a custom nozzle for my 3D printer.

 

Craig

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