Page 235 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

rotating cams. These do the mashing. With most used to form eyes on wire rigging, particularly for
machines, the cylinder is removed after the first small ( ⁄4 inch and less) wire. The fittings, prop-
1
pass, rotated, and then given a second pass. erly applied, are inexpensive, strong, and quick to
In a rotary swage machine, the cylinder is make. But they are also ugly, and have hard corners
placed inside a close-fitting box, and the box is then and a little bit of bristly wire end sticking out. To
hammered on, very quickly and very hard, all the correct these drawbacks, try wrapping some heat-
way around. While both roll and rotary swages, in shrink tape over the finished fitting, or thread on
my experience, can claim good efficiency in theory, some heavy-duty heat-shrink tubing before making
in practice rotary swages are much more likely actu- the eye, then slide the tubing down over the finished
ally to achieve it, because the machinery is much fitting. Apply a little hot air, and you have a sud-
more likely to be kept in good shape, and used cor- denly smoother, nearly attractive terminal. Indus-
rectly. They also tend to be more fatigue-resistant. trial-cute. It’s also good practice to slather the fit-
ting, and any wire that will be shrink-wrapped, with
Sockets A socket, also called a poured socket, is a anhydrous lanolin.
funnel-shaped fitting. The wire is inserted into its nar- Some more tips for these fittings:
row end, then opened up, or “broomed,” and seated
into the funnel. Then some form of dam is applied • Nicopress fittings are wonderfully convenient,
to the narrow end, and a filler of some sort is poured but can involve some wrestling during setup.
into the wide end. This filler used to be molten metal, The end is threaded through one side of the
but nowadays is a specialized two-part glue. A prop- fitting, bent to form an eye, then threaded back
erly made socket is 100 percent efficient, and unlike through on the other side of the fitting. The
a swage, it can be reused; you just melt the glue or wrestling comes when you’re trying to hold the
metal, clean everything off, and re-apply. end so that it projects just slightly beyond the
Sockets are a dominant industrial terminal. For end of the fitting, while you pull on the standing
instance, every elevator you’ve ever ridden in was part to snug the eye down around the thimble.
probably hanging from them. But they are bulky, Further wrestling ensues when you try to hold
heavy, and require a fair bit of skill to apply, so they the entire spring-load assembly still while you
aren’t seen much in sailboats. crimp the fitting. To eliminate both problems,
lightly crimp the corner of the fitting where the
Mechanical Terminals Mechanical fittings are end projects, while the eye is still loose. Use a
reusable screw-together items. The wire is inserted vise, pliers, Vise Grips, etc. With the end locked
into one end, the cover yarns are broomed, a wedge in place, it’s easy to adjust and hold eye size
is fitted to the core, and then a top piece is screwed while pressing.
down, compressing the wire against the wedge. • When setting up, allow for sleeve lengthening by
Efficiency varies widely with mechanical terminals, positioning the sleeve slightly below the thimble,
with the worst being about as good as cable clamps and with the end projecting slightly beyond
(80 percent or so), and the best achieving about the sleeve. If this is not done, the sleeve will be
95%. Hayn Hi-M0d's are my favorite. distorted as it mashes into the thimble, and the
end will slip inside the sleeve, losing bearing
NOTES ON CRIMPED surface and thus strength and security.
WIRE FITTINGS • When crimping sleeves that require three
crimps, crimp the middle first, then the thimble
There is one more terminal that is worth consider- end, then the standing part end. This lets the
ing–barely. These fittings, generally known under sleeve expand away from the middle, preventing
the proprietary term Nicopress, are commonly internal stresses. For sleeves requiring four

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