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Making 7x stabilizer (Costar and Cherry) wire

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phoenix1234:
Costar 7x

When I was waiting for the failed Ali GB, I thought his plate design can support Costar 7x stabilizers so I spend quite sometimes to make the Costar 7x stabilizer wire. Today I would like to share some of my experience so it may save you time and efforts if you attempt to do so.

Material:
16 AWG (1.29mm) stainless steel wire (inox 304)

Tools:
- Combination pliers
- Nose pliers
- Vise
- Heavy side cutter
- 150g hammer and a wooden anvil (to avoid scratching the wire too much)

At first, I think making Costar stabilizer wire is easy. I used the Wire Bender Jig to bend. It doesn't work at all. The 16 AWG inox wire is so hard, it created some damage to the jig bender.

Some people may suggest that we should use the EZ Bender to bend, they even have a clip on youtube :
On the clip, they only support up to 0.047 Music Wire (1.19cm) while I intended to use 1.29cm wire. Plus, when I read the instruction, the manufacturer said "Do not attempt to bend hardened wire (music wire) with this tool." So I'm not sure if EZ Bender is the right choice.

So it turned out in my case, I can only see the steel pliers and vise are really useful.

Design:
This is the design that I made based on the reverse engineering measurement of the original Costar 6.25x:

*it should work, untested on a real plate so it may need to be adjusted a bit.

Steps:
+ Order a roll of 16 AWG (1.29mm) stainless steel wire (inox 304) from the local market
+ Cut into smaller pieces of wire, 200mm each
+ Straighten each piece with the hammer on the wooden anvil

+ Bend the central of the wire to create the trench around the switch
+ Bend the two corner to make it 180 degree

1st prototype on 1mm wire:

2nd prototype on 1.29mm wire:


Implementation problems:
+ 16 AWG Stainless steel 304 is very hard, the Costar manufacturer must have the CNC bending machine to bend it precisely. If we are going to bend the wire manually, the combination pliers, heavy nose pliers, heavy vise should be used carefully and slowly.
+ The precise Z-bend in the middle is the hardest part.
+ Each Costar 7x wire will need at least 190mm material.

phoenix1234:
We may know that the stock Cherry 7x stabilizer wire was not made from stainless steel.
Over the time, the corrosion may appear on the wire more or less depending on storage condition.
So I also changed some of my lovely Cherry 7x stabilizer wire to stainless steel.

Material:
14 AWG (1.63mm) stainless steel wire (inox 304)

Tools:
- Combination pliers
- Nose pliers
- Vise
- Heavy side cutter
- 150g hammer and a wooden anvil (to avoid scratching the wire too much)

14 AWG inox wire is much more harder than the Costar one.
At first, I even tried with the 12 AWG (2mm) one but I gave up on that.
It is not easy to bend the 90 degree. However, after several trials and errors, I can do it successfully with some damage left on my steel pliers  :-X.


*14AWG vs 12AWG


*Unfinished wire before cutting the two ends.


*It is hard to do the razer flush cut on the wire-end without the right tool. In my case, I grind it with a Dremel 3000 bit.

In conclusion, although these are not perfect, it is fun to try because eventually we can have a stainless steel wire to put on our lovely keyboard.

0100010:
I've made a couple 7x costar wires for myself with an EZ Bender.  Had to stop at two, since I also bent the 'lips' of the die.  Haven't gotten around to picking up the next larger size die yet for future use.

phoenix1234:

--- Quote from: 0100010 on Mon, 03 November 2014, 08:53:18 ---I've made a couple 7x costar wires for myself with an EZ Bender.  Had to stop at two, since I also bent the 'lips' of the die.  Haven't gotten around to picking up the next larger size die yet for future use.

--- End quote ---

Thank you for sharing that information.
If you are going to pick up the next large size die, I think you should only use them on soft wire.

EZ Bender has 4 die sizes.
Forming Die #1: .015-.020 (0.38mm-0.51mm)
Forming Die #2: .031-.047 (0.79mm-1.19mm) -> Probably, this is the one that you were using to bend the Costar.

Forming Die #1: .062-.072 (1.45mm-1.82mm) -> This should be suitable for bending 1.63mm Cherry stabilizers wire. Unfortunately, the manufacturer indicated "Note: Do not attempt to bend hardened wire (music wire) with this tool." So I'm afraid it will be broken if we use it to bend 14AWG inox 304 wire.

Forming Die #2: .072-.093 (1.82mm-2.40mm)

phoenix1234:
double posted because of GH error.

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