Who makes the best flex cable?

[3-UP]

Aeromarine has none available either. Guess I need to learn to make my own. Anyone point me in the right direction on how to do it correctly? I don't trust loctite. I want to solder, braze or weld mine.

Aeromarine has the 3/16 - 3/16 cable you just have to purchase the next longer length.

[kfxguy]

The only problem I see with ALuminum is the torch needed to braze the cable might melt the jig but, now you know that, maybe you can work around it.

I'm getting a piece of bulk H&M .125" (3.2mm) to see if I can make it fail.

so....will silver solder not be strong enough? i can tig weld them but that may be a challenge. heres the process i'm thinking in my head....

process 1....

solder tip of cable about 1/2". chuck in my lathe. turn down a little bit. drill stub shaft in the lathe 1/2" deep for cable to fit. tin the stub shaft with silver solder. put in jig, solder together.

process 2.

procure a square drive stub. drill to fit flex. same process as above but then grind or cut down the larger part of the stub shaft. maybe i'm way off. guess i wont know till i try and test.

[Peter A]

Trav you're on the right track. make sure you mill out enough to give the room needed. If the worry is melting the ali, make a steel jig, it just takes a little longer to machine. I use brass tubes to sleeve the cable and shaft, with electrical solder and this has been fine for the setups I use. I've even got away with .150 flex between a TP 4050 2200kv 4S 2P and 548,447 props without failure! You may like to do some testing on joints with scrap bits to determine the best type of join between flex and stub, see how much force it takes to fail a join.

[ray schrauwen]

Is silver solder strong enough?? No idea but, Ed Hughey uses whatever requires the heat of a Jeweler's torch. More silver= stronger. I'm guessing but, I think they are braised....??? I know the .150- 3/16" Hughey cables are braised as you can see the goldish color of the welding material.

[kfxguy]

Trav you're on the right track. make sure you mill out enough to give the room needed. If the worry is melting the ali, make a steel jig, it just takes a little longer to machine. I use brass tubes to sleeve the cable and shaft, with electrical solder and this has been fine for the setups I use. I've even got away with .150 flex between a TP 4050 2200kv 4S 2P and 548,447 props without failure! You may like to do some testing on joints with scrap bits to determine the best type of join between flex and stub, see how much force it takes to fail a join.

well i have the perfect test bed for seeing if they fail. problem is ill have to come up with a way to not lose my prop should the shaft fail. ugh

although.....i'm pretty sure my drill on the low speed setting has enough tq to break a shaft. I might make a fixture for that to test.

[Doug Smock]

Is silver solder strong enough?? No idea but, Ed Hughey uses whatever requires the heat of a Jeweler's torch. More silver= stronger. I'm guessing but, I think they are braised....??? I know the .150- 3/16" Hughey cables are braised as you can see the goldish color of the welding material.

You're right Ray.
Ed is using 45- 56% silver. It is much stronger than say Stay Brite 80 silver solder.

[olwarbirds]

You're right Ray.
Ed is using 45- 56% silver. It is much stronger than say Stay Brite 80 silver solder.

So what I thought was a weld type adhering, was the heat from using a hotter soldering torch for this type of higher silver content/grade solder discoloring the shaft. It never ceases to amaze me the knowledge thats available here on this forum ! tks Doug... DJ

[Fella1340]

I would be looking at braising with high silver content rod or tig welding Travis. The soft solders and the type of abuse you throw at things may not be a good match:) any thought given to using loctite?They areholding a lot of high power saw cat flexes together.
The flexes I got from kintec were braised and they running almost true coming outcome the shaft. You couldn't get them much closer. If you got a good fit for your flex to slide into the shaft I don't think a complicated jig is needed. Mill a ""V" into a piece of flat aluminum bar that you've taken a skim off each side and then mill a 3/16" bullnose into some smaller bar and cut into pieces for clamps on top...You get the idea...
Lots of ways to do it

[jcald2000]

Ed told me to use 45% silver solder about a decade ago. I found that the local Welding retailers have Harris 45% brazing kits on the shelf which is enough for about 12 shafts. It is a hard wire, not rod with flux.
He was using an electric furnace at that time to get even heating.

[olwarbirds]

I have used the loctite 638 for doing a .150 flex and shaft. I run them on a couple of 4S setups with no probs. I have been curious if it would work on .187 in my 6S setups. I would doubt that it would hold up in my 8-10s .250 setups. I would hate to try it and like Travis mentioned and loose one of my good props. I have heard like previously mentioned that alot of saw guys do it this way. I would like to hear exactly what their process is to keep it all together... DJ

[T.S.Davis]

We tried to weasel Ed's process out of him around a camp fire one night in 2005. He wasn't giving it up.

[kfxguy]

We tried to weasel Ed's process out of him around a camp fire one night in 2005. He wasn't giving it up.

I wish he would at this point, so someone could carry on with it.

[rickwess]

We tried to weasel Ed's process out of him around a camp fire one night in 2005. He wasn't giving it up.

Offer him royalties on every cable you make for sale.

[gsbuickman]

Heya Travis ,

The only flex's I've had trouble with is AQ shafts. I switched to Pro-Boat 3/16" and I haven't had a lick of problems since on 5-6s. have you tried pro boats shafts ?. Compared to AQ their R&D is tits ...

[78MaicoRider]

Let me know. I'm gonna have to figure out how to make them and make them perfect straight. Anything less is not acceptable to me.

Chuck the cable in a lathe and the stub shaft in the tail stock to braze them. If set up properly they will be perfect every time.