Costar 7xWhen 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.