Making lines...not lead outs. Bring in your favorite methods!

Well, there's 2 methods crimped vs wrapped. I have experimented for years with different crimps and crimp pliers. My favorite set of crimp pliers was a set my father modified for me which did the nicest job out of any pliers I ever purchased. They worked so well that they caught the eye of a fellow editor of PAMPA Stunt News and were featured in the safety column some years ago. I unfortunately lost the pliers at my last Huntersville contest in 2015. Seeking replacements have been a struggle and seeing my father is retired now, it would be a impossible task to replicate exactly what he had done. Those pliers were true works or art. They never let me down.

             I have had many line breaks and hardware failures over the years. Eliminating the X factor is priority. If your looking for a fail safe crimp, look no further because nothing like that exists. Even wrapped lines can and will fail. We as modelers have to do what is necessary to eliminate the stress placed in the critical areas. If your crimping, you absolutely need to chamfer both ends of the crimps. In addition, many people that cut their own crimp tubes, rolling a knife on the tubing, pipe cutter, etc. the edge needs to be filed smooth. After the termination, it's imperative to use QUALITY heat shrink tubing. This is the most important step as this is where the failure is going to occur directly behind the crimp due to flexing. Once the strands start fraying, it's anybody's guess as to when that wire will fail. Shrink tubing stiffens this area in the same manner that wrapping does and eliminates the flex.

               Crimp tubes are not created equal. Copper is always mentioned due to it being soft enough that it doesn't work harden. This is the problem with brass. Brass if not annealed properly will crack and is not always visible therefore it can let go whenever. Obviously this is 1/2A but I use these same methods for much larger and powerful planes. The same theory applies large or small. The days of tying Dacron are far and few and with the newer synthetic lines, it pretty much makes the old Dacron lines very dated. I'll admit it though, I still have Dacron line sets and still use them for very low powered stuff.

        One thing I like to use especially with external controls is slotted bell cranks and button bellcranks. The support these two offer in the end of the termination far excel compared to a traditional line clip. When I use these methods, I double the loops on the end of the termination, therefore my flying wire is now inside the crimp tube 5X's not to mention the safety of a additional loop. This is not required for Cox powered equipment but I thought I would show it for clarification as this could be applied to any external bellcrank.




            here's the double loops using ,012" lines I use this for all high powered equipment. I have a jig that gets used which allows both loops to be the same size.



         Here's a slotted bellcrank which is made of Kydex. I use this same method using a razor saw on Sig bellcranks typically found in most 1/2A kits. It's my go to method and it's incredibly strong and reliable



            Here's a button bellcrank in which I made using a Fox 3" bellcrank I do this with many of the 2" Fox bellcranks which is nice as it eliminates leadouts on exposed bellcrank planes.