Tig welding tips, questions, equipment, applications, instructions, techniques, tig welding machines, troubleshooting tig welding process
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When using stainless steel braided cable usually you end it with an aluminum ferrule stop with a swaging tool. To give extra assurance that the stop will stay in place, would TIGin it with either a tack or a dab or even filler round the ferrule be wise? Or would I more than likely end up damaging the stainless braided cable in the process? Should I focus on aluminum filler rod and the ferrule or stainless rod and the stainless cable? As I think about it more it sounds like stainless to stainless and not worry about the ferrule itself would be the smartest.... Pretend I'm at least a half way decent welder when replying :)

I figure the clipped end would be the safest point since damaging the cable won't be a problem there but the least helpful. The side where the cable goes into the ferrule would be the best place to do this but if damage to the cable is likely then this would be the worst point to try this at. There will be some stops at mid cable too so this is where this question gets more important.

The pull weight will be about 10-20 lbs 1/8 or 3/32 cable with an appropriate stop swage. The material will be exposed to about 440-480 degree fire (White Gas or Kerosene which burns "cooler" than most fuels such as alocohol or gasoline) for roughly 5 minutes or less with cooling in between and rare repeat use.

The build project where this could be used at is coming up soon and googling or searching the forum didn't turn up any luck so I figured I'd ask the experts since perhaps someone's already tried when they did their brake cables last year or something ;) I'm not doin parking brake cables for this project but if it's a viable option I think I might go fix that while I'm at it....
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Kevin_Holbrook
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it's been more then 30 years since the last time i made a custom cable

i used to fray up the end and kind of smash it back down to look like a ball or mushroom

then i would use silver solder to create a ball at the frayed end

with all the frayed wires going in random directions it would make it impossible to pull the ball off the end of the cable
Poland308
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Cable will not hold up in the long run on an application with that much heat stress. But if it's 7 strand cable you can rewrap it to make a loop without a ferrel and still maintain full strength. Is it possible to use small diamiter chain?
I have more questions than answers

Josh
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Hey Kevin! That's a great idea! That might work out for my ends but I'll still have to figure out something for the mid cable stops I'll have to add too.

Hey Josh! I'm not sure I follow the smaller chain unless you mean cable but I think 3/32 is about as small as I can get and I think I'm going to want 1/8 for the strength. I did the looped end for my Bronco's parking brake when I did those since the cable stops were all standard sizes and it seems Ford used a slightly in between size for the cables. The original stops they had on there were solid and appeared to be heat compressed/form around the end but no weld. Those ends would hold up well beyond the cable breaking and was hoping for something similar.

I'll still need to figure out what to do with the centers but hopefully I can just swage it into submission maybe adding a strand or two extra to help the compression.

Either way thanks guys and we'll see how everything fairs out when I go to build this contraption.
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thespian
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There is no way I would even get near cable with heat. I use wire rope all of the time to hang things, and I have never had a swage fitting fail , but I use really good stuff too. You can order this stuff from theatrical supply places, because we fly people , and they test that stuff within an inch of its life.....so they don't get sued.
www.bmisupply.com is where I buy my cable , and get the copper coated swage fittings.

entity-unknown wrote:Hey Kevin! That's a great idea! That might work out for my ends but I'll still have to figure out something for the mid cable stops I'll have to add too.

Hey Josh! I'm not sure I follow the smaller chain unless you mean cable but I think 3/32 is about as small as I can get and I think I'm going to want 1/8 for the strength. I did the looped end for my Bronco's parking brake when I did those since the cable stops were all standard sizes and it seems Ford used a slightly in between size for the cables. The original stops they had on there were solid and appeared to be heat compressed/form around the end but no weld. Those ends would hold up well beyond the cable breaking and was hoping for something similar.

I'll still need to figure out what to do with the centers but hopefully I can just swage it into submission maybe adding a strand or two extra to help the compression.

Either way thanks guys and we'll see how everything fairs out when I go to build this contraption.
Thespian is just an old username I have used forever , my name is Bill
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Hey Thespian! Now that's inspiring help! My girl is a professional fire performer so we know a lot of others too so I understand the necessities and concerns behind flying people. Brake cables in no way come close to the concerns you have with flying people so I'll definitely take that advice to heart :)
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thespian
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Remember 1/8" cable can hold 1760 pounds if stainless, or 2000 pounds if you use galvanized, 1/8th inch gets 3 crimps, and 3/32 gets 2.
entity-unknown wrote:Hey Thespian! Now that's inspiring help! My girl is a professional fire performer so we know a lot of others too so I understand the necessities and concerns behind flying people. Brake cables in no way come close to the concerns you have with flying people so I'll definitely take that advice to heart :)
Thespian is just an old username I have used forever , my name is Bill
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Mr Bill! The cable will be running across fixed aluminum cams and through fixed enclosed aluminum guide blocks so there will be some metal to metal friction. Since there's fire I can't do anything like nylon of teflon. I'm gonna see if I can't bend out some smooth eye loops or find something similar that's already smooth and flat but that'd likely be steel and won't work for the application so might be a wasted thought.

Considering this will be exposed to fire even for a short period of time and with the metal to metal friction, I'm thinking stainless would be the way to go since galvanized would lose the coating pretty quick. Since aluminum is softer I'm hoping it won't be a major issue but why I figure I should stick with 1/8 since 1 strand lost on 1/8 is less of a problem than on 3/32. Does that sound about right?

Your thoughts and advice are highly appreciated! And no I won't stop saying it :)
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Poland308
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Teflon flange gaskets are rated for 500 deg f.
I have more questions than answers

Josh
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Hey Josh! The 500F is cutting it really close and per DuPont who developed Teflon (big surprise there) it will cause toxic fumes once it hits these temps so unfortunately I don't think I can use this. I just learned Teflon is a key ingredient in Gortex too! Great idea though and well worth the research for me :)

The relative science (From Wikipedia):
Pyrolysis of PTFE is detectable at 200 °C (392 °F), and it evolves several fluorocarbon gases and a sublimate. An animal study conducted in 1955 concluded that it is unlikely that these products would be generated in amounts significant to health at temperatures below 250 °C (482 °F).[39]

While PTFE is stable and nontoxic at lower temperatures, it begins to deteriorate after the temperature of cookware reaches about 260 °C (500 °F), and decomposes above 350 °C (662 °F).[40] The degradation by-products can be lethal to birds,[41] and can cause flu-like symptoms[42] in humans—see polymer fume fever.

Meat is usually fried between 204 and 232 °C (399 and 450 °F), and most oils start to smoke before a temperature of 260 °C (500 °F) is reached, but there are at least two cooking oils (refined safflower oil at 265 °C (510 °F) and avocado oil at 271 °C (520 °F)) that have a higher smoke point than 260 °C (500 °F).

DuPont Teflon fact sheet:
http://www.intechservices.com/sw/swchan ... _Guide.pdf
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Well this is fun! Fiberglass shielding looks like it'd hold up pretty well and has amazing continuous heat/molten slash resistance up to 1000C at most minimum ratings. I now know the material used for a popular tool we've all purchased but it's not just this basic stuff :)

Regardless looks like some fiberglass braided shielding will be the way to go and it's actually reasonably priced and I can find a decent inner diameter that should suit my needs.

Thanks Josh for sending me down this road!
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