Quick And Easy Tool To Measure Wire For Cutting

[JBlaze]

 

   Some of my favorite lures to make involve lengths of wire, so I have to measure and cut multiple pieces of wire. For instance, the Flex Arm Spinnerbait uses a 3 inch length of Titanium wire arm and so does the Dive Bomb swim bait head. 

   Repetitive measuring and cutting each piece is tedious. I would like to have one of the commercial wire cutting and measuring tools available but, they are not within my budget.

   So, using some pieces of stuff I had laying around, I came up with this. Cheap and Simple way of gettun'er done.

   I used a 12 inch ruler.

   A 9 inch piece of 1/16 inch hollow brass tubing which I had purchased at Hobby Lobby years ago. The hollow brass tubing will allow .026 wire to pass through it and keeps the wire aimed straight at the lexan stop. Should I need to cut a larger diameter wire, all I would have to do is buy a larger piece of brass tubing. 

   A spring loaded clip which I use to clamp the tube at whatever length that I want the wire to be cut.

   Also something to back the tool with so as to get it high enough to get the jaw of the wire cutter unde the wire. I used two strips of lexan super gluded to the underside, a length of wood would work as well.

   The cutter is a hook cutter, something I purchased after a lively smallmouth drove a treble hook into my index finger. I think it was around $20.00 side cutters will work also but the hook cutter does a much cleaner job on the wire as it cuts it square.

   This tool is light and moves/slides around easily. I am going to add a piece of velcro to the underside to keep it stationary.  

   This is easy to use and quiet accurate. I set the brass rod to the length of the wire + the thickness of the lower jaw of the cutter then pust the wire through the tube until it contacts the lexan stop, next I slide the jaw across the wire until it makes contact with the brass tube and cut. 

   Push, slide and cut. I can probably cut around 50 pieces in 15 minutes. I have included two pics because the one of them doesn't show the stop the other pic shows the wire extending from the tube.

   Hope someone finds this useful.

John

Edited June 18, 2015 by JBlaze

[dlaery]

thanks!

I like the ruler.

I have to cut a lot of teflon rod and that is perfect.

I will be making one of those. 

 

This is what I had use for wire.

[JSC]

Real Neat set up John   ..  David that looks good as well.

 

Thanx Guys

[smalljaw]

That is pretty nifty, a like it a lot!!!! Where did you find those cutters and will they cut like .031 wire?

[JBlaze]

Thanks Guys, proves the old saying is true, "Need is the mother of invention".

 

Small Jaw. yes, they will cut 031 and larger. I ordered them from LPO. I have had them for a few years now and have never had to use them for what they were designed for but I keep them i the boat just in case. 

http://lurepartsonline.com/Online-Store/Miscellaneous-Tools/Hook-Cutting-Tool.html

[Kasilofchrisn]

I think your idea is a good one for small batches of wire.

If I had a large volume to do a guillotine cutter such as in this video would be easy to make and would be much faster. Using a threaded stop and mounting that on a piece of all thread would make it easy to change length.

 

[Vodkaman]

Great video, quite an engineering character.

 

DAve

[Painter1]

Ingenious