There's some interest in another thread for music wire, for hand rails ,grab irons, etc. There is a very ready source for music wire AT LEAST in sizes .009" through to 020", in .001" increments. That is in plain guitar strings. Another of my hobbies is guitar. Quite a few of us get our strings in small bulk, rather than in 'sets', so we'll carry with us, maybe 10 of the first and second strings, 6 thirds ,and maybe 3 or 4 of the larger sizes. This is why medium and large music stores that cater to guitar, banjo, steel, & dobro players, carry 'plain' strings as singles, or in boxes of 10 the same size. If the store has steel guitar customers, the sizes carried will often exceed the .020" dia. Get the cheapest strings the store carries. These guitar strings are of good quality for model work, bend cleanly, and solder pretty well if you use a fine tip hot iron, and pre-tin the wire. If you know any pickers, ask them to save their used / broken strings for you. The broken & used ones are 'stretched' but still fine for most model work. The small brass ferrules on the ends of the strings are also very handy for pulleys or similar applications. Merry Christmas & best regards / Mike
I just happend to be christmas shopping in a local "big box" home hardware store. And what should I see but misic wire in variety sorts of sizes to as small as .015. Could be a good place to look.
