Anibid Armatures BLOG POST 104 - WIRE ARMATURE KITS – WIRES IN DETAIL

Anibid Armatures BLOG POST 105

ANIBILD WIRE ARMATURE KITS – WIRES IN DETAIL

Q: We we’re recently asked this

I have recently been looking for wire to make armature skeletons and found a cheap option on Amazon but after four twists the wire simply snapped I saw your site and I am interested in both 1mm and 1.5mm varieties. I was wondering if you could tell me if this wire is durable and withstand constant bending? Also is it solderable - could i solder this wire to other metal?

A: The short answer to this is that the wire will always snap - it's just aluminium snaps a lot less than other harder metals (steel and copper) due to its softness! Aluminium my it’s very nature is soft and malleable, some grades more than others. The wire we stock is soft. If you want it to be softer then you can heat it up and let it cool slowly in a process of annealing. The reverse if you want it harder.

Our simple wire armature kits come with 1mm and 1.5mm wire in the pack. Sometimes twisting strands together to form thicker joints such as legs and torso will help them last a lot longer. Some armature/puppet makers experiment and use strands with different thicknesses. Adding a 1mm with 2 lengths of 1.5mm give that little bit of extra support in the legs.

Spools of wire can be bought if you plan to make more than one or know if you may need to replace. Having a supply of extra wire is always recommended as you have spare at hand should something go wrong. The bonus of the basic kits is that you can replace the wires easy and quickly and not have to discard the whole puppet for a new one.

Lastly – Aluminium wire is not solderable to the average enthusiast. It’s quite a specialised brazing technique you would need to bond two parts of wire together. We’d recommend using a 2 part epoxy glue such as Z-Poxy. It’s important that you don’t scrimp on a cheap glue here – sometimes the products stocked in bargain basement stores are not the solution. Generally speaking, the more expensive, the harder, quicker and tougher the product is. If you purchase cheap glue then you’ll end up fixing it twice.

We hope this helps.