Stuart Grant
Active Member
Building a Legacy RV-12, I struggled for various reasons off and on over a couple of days trying to pull 22 gauge wire through the canopy bow/roll bar. A major problem was the getting everything through the #12 hole at the end.
I have pulled lots of household electrical, telephone, ethernet, alarm, speaker wire and coax for 30+ years using tricks taught me by an electrician and figured out on my own but all those were going through much bigger holes, usually at least half inch. All my knots and tape jobs were too big to work.
I ended up sanding and then scratching up the end of some safety wire with a razor blade and then stripping about half an inch of insulation off the Tefzel wire, twisting the conductor strands around the safety wire and soldering on with a little added flux. Not saying it was attached super strong but it was able to hold on with a few pounds of pull and fit through a hole only a little over 3/16" in size. I did four conductors, two at a time (only three total required) for my cockpit light and canopy safety switch. A little wire lube also helped.
I should add that I used a vacuum cleaner to suck a little wad of paper towel tied to a string to help me get the PTT wires through my control sticks but everybody probably already knows that trick.
Stuart Grant
1953 Cessna 180 - Sold
2013 RV-12 Kit - Finish Kit Underway
N412SG - Reserved
I have pulled lots of household electrical, telephone, ethernet, alarm, speaker wire and coax for 30+ years using tricks taught me by an electrician and figured out on my own but all those were going through much bigger holes, usually at least half inch. All my knots and tape jobs were too big to work.
I ended up sanding and then scratching up the end of some safety wire with a razor blade and then stripping about half an inch of insulation off the Tefzel wire, twisting the conductor strands around the safety wire and soldering on with a little added flux. Not saying it was attached super strong but it was able to hold on with a few pounds of pull and fit through a hole only a little over 3/16" in size. I did four conductors, two at a time (only three total required) for my cockpit light and canopy safety switch. A little wire lube also helped.
I should add that I used a vacuum cleaner to suck a little wad of paper towel tied to a string to help me get the PTT wires through my control sticks but everybody probably already knows that trick.
Stuart Grant
1953 Cessna 180 - Sold
2013 RV-12 Kit - Finish Kit Underway
N412SG - Reserved
