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Building Tips and technical articles. => Building techniques => Topic started by: Rob Killick on April 28, 2008, 06:49:19 PM
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Hi ,
I was reading Bob Zambelli's article , in CLW , concerning crimping/swaging , lead-out cables .
He mentioned in his article , plastic coated cable ...
Can you see theplastic coating , or do you have to give it a "scrape test" to see if it has a coating ?
What's the best way of removing the plastic coating ?
Thanks in advance ,
Rob Killick
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You can see the coating on the stuff I have; salt water fishing leaders. I have never bothered removing it and have had no problem. However, I either wrap or crimp, no hi-tech swaging.
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When I was running back and forth from Houston to San Luis Pass on the Gulf almost as often as driving to the circles on Canino Road (one of the native Houstonians may want to chip in with the name of that park - does "Tidwell" sound right?), I was making up various terminal rigs that often included coated cables. It's a staple in a Salt Water fisherman's tackle box. We used black crimping sleeves and dedicated crimping tools.
The coating is moderately thick, easily discernible, and I never had any reason to scrape any of it off.
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My #7 Easy which I built in either 2001 or 2002 finally met its demise after, I am sure, well over 1000 flights. The outside wing blew off. I salvaged the useful parts. The bellcrank is 4-inch white plastic (Sig?) The leadouts are coated leader cables. The leadouts have the Teflon tubing for CyA glue (large size from Hotstuff), rather than metal tubing, as bushing in the bellcrank holes. There is no sign of wear on the bellcrank, the Teflon tubing, or the leadouts. So I would say the Teflon tubing works fine as bushing on plastic bellcranks.
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I've been using Teflon coated leadout cable since the late 80's and never had a failure. And in that time I've used almost every type of termination there is. I now only wrap my line per AMA with copper on up line and silver on down. As I get older I find the more idiot proof I can make it the better. HB~> Of course at first I was concerned about the Teflon and tried to strip it off the ends but it was in the cable groves and wouldn't come off completely.
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I recall seeing Don McClave's PT-19 Stunter bite the asphalt at Clover Park in Tacoma, when his bellcrank sawed through "green nylon coated aircraft cable". Actually, I'm not sure this stuff is made for aircraft, but it is certainly used for tethering tooling pins and doodads to jigs and fixtures for a large local aircraft corporation. I don't remember what sort of bellcrank it was. Maybe one of the Fireballs would remember or could call Don and ask?
Jim T's experience is interesting, with the teflon tubing bushing. FWIW, Sig 4" BC's are black...those self-neutralizing jobbies. Very sturdy, thick and kinda heavy. All the coated cable I've seen (fishing leader and tooling tethers or lanyards) are very obviously coated, and they are not likely to be coated with Teflon, but Nylon of some sort (about 60 varieties of Nylon).
Personally, I'd use bare cable. I think the friction would be less, and any damage easier to look for. H^^ Steve
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Coated cable might work for leadouts as there is very little bending stress. It is lethal to use it for handle cable because if the cable starts to fray at the handle exit point, the coating traps the loose strands. The usual inspection and replacement is thus frustrated and failure occurs. Its not whether its when. Tom H.