I have used SWA glands on outside electrical wiring in the past
without any problem, but I had difficulty assembling an SWA gland
today - I just could not get the back nut to start on the thread of
the main body to begin the process of trapping the armoured wires
under the tapered olive. After an hour of struggling, I concluded
that it was the gland assembly itself that was faulty, so I decided to
measure it up accurately using a micrometer and digital vernier
gauge. Sure enough, my conclusion was that the gap between olive and
main body in the fully-released state was just not wide enough to take
all the armoured strands. To make sure, I measured another SWA gland,
and during this process the penny dropped - I had sourced my stock of
glands from two different suppliers and although the individual piece-
parts looked interchangeable, they were not, and I had inadvertently
mixed them up. Matching the correct olive to the main body cured my
problem. Incidentally, a more insidious problem revealed itself in
that with the opposite pairing of olive and main body the gap was too
large, and although the gland assembled easily, the olive was not
gripping the armoured strands properly, giving a loose fit. It
reminds me of my aeronautical engineering days - just because
assemblies are made to the same industry specification, it does not
mean that piece parts are interchangeable.

On 4 Apr 2007 01:51:20 -0700, "crb"
mused:

I have used SWA glands on outside electrical wiring in the past
without any problem, but I had difficulty assembling an SWA gland
today - I just could not get the back nut to start on the thread of
the main body to begin the process of trapping the armoured wires
under the tapered olive. After an hour of struggling, I concluded
that it was the gland assembly itself that was faulty, so I decided to
measure it up accurately using a micrometer and digital vernier
gauge. Sure enough, my conclusion was that the gap between olive and
main body in the fully-released state was just not wide enough to take
all the armoured strands. To make sure, I measured another SWA gland,
and during this process the penny dropped - I had sourced my stock of
glands from two different suppliers and although the individual piece-
parts looked interchangeable, they were not, and I had inadvertently
mixed them up. Matching the correct olive to the main body cured my
problem. Incidentally, a more insidious problem revealed itself in
that with the opposite pairing of olive and main body the gap was too
large, and although the gland assembled easily, the olive was not
gripping the armoured strands properly, giving a loose fit. It
reminds me of my aeronautical engineering days - just because
assemblies are made to the same industry specification, it does not
mean that piece parts are interchangeable.

Generally, I've concluded (after assembling thousands of SWA glands)
that SWA glands are in fact, ****e.
--
Regards,
Stuart.

In message , Lurch
writes
Generally, I've concluded (after assembling thousands of SWA glands)
that SWA glands are in fact, ****e.

Particularly ones marked "proteous".

The original posters issue would not have occurred if all the components
of a pair of glands had been kept together in their bags.

--
Clive Mitchell
http://www.bigclive.com