"Lew Hodgett" wrote

wrote:

Swaging... I love it. Wait till I spring that one on the boys! I can
see it now. "Looks like you need to swage them sombitches a little
bit and you'll be fine". I can see the looks of panic when I start to
walk off.


My experience with swaging has been limited to making cable terminations
(i.e.: mechanical distortion of the metal end termination to fill the
spaces around the wires of a cable).


My experience with swaging has been putting in eyes on the end of aircraft
cable for gym equipment. I have the cable cutters and swaging tools in the
garage. You would be amazed of all the things you will use these for when
you have them available. Cost me about a hundred bucks about 25 years ago
and I have used it many times since.

I had to hide the cable cutters from my wife though. She used to steal them
and try to use them as wire cutters and pliers!

One common use for these, that I have done many times, is to make up some
cables for a diagnal brace on a gate. Just buy eyebolts and a turnbuckle
and swage the carefully measured cables to them. Drill holes for the
eyebolts at the corner of the gate. put in the eyebolts and screw the
turnbuckle onto eyebolts in the middle. Tighten the whole thing up and the
gate goes back into a square shape! It doesn't sag any more.

Yeah, I know, if the gate had been built right in the first place, it
shouldn't sag. But it is a quick fix that lasts for years and years. I have
had big gates stay true for 25 years with this fix. Just need to tighten
the turnbuckle a little every few years is all.