Best wire for seizing / mousing shackles ?

[sarabande]

The majority of shackles on board are stainless for e.g. deck blocks, but there are some galvanised ones on various anchor and winter mooring chains.

There seem to be several varieties of stainless wire

https://www.bsstainless.com/stainless-steel-wire

and also many alloy ones, inc various grades of monel

https://www.alloywire.com/alloy-wir...fic+Applications&search=Search+Alloys#results

Is there just one type/specification of wire that can be used for both areas of application please ? t would be handy to have just one reel on the spares box.

TIA

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

Customarily, monel wire is used for both applications. Obtainable in most chandelries.

 

[Poignard]

I use monel wire for s/s shackles and galvanised steel wire for galvanised shackles.

 

[sarabande]

It looks, therefore as if Monel is the choice if I go for one single product, but the 500 series talks abut 'hardening' with age.

https://www.alloywire.com/?s=monel

I equate hardening with brittleness, or do they mean just less ductile ? Perhaps an email to the makers will reveal the whole story.

 

[Ladybirdgaffcutter]

Monel. It's mega corrosion-resistant. It work-hardens if you bend it back and forth, so getting the twists right first time is a good idea..
Have a look at the 'ingredients' of the alloy, their prices per ton as commodities, then work out the price per ton of monel seizing wire. Make sure you're sitting down with a stiff drink first.
Then, if you are like me, try other sorts of wire: galv fencing wire (goes rusty), stainless MIG wire (horrible to use), tie-wraps (UV eats them), aluminium MIG wire, turns to salt.
The best seizing wire is usually loctite

edited to add, I don't believe in that age-hardening tale

 

[CPD]

I take it that standing rigging screws would be seized in the same way using the same monel wire ?

 

[Boathook]

I take it that standing rigging screws would be seized in the same way using the same monel wire ?

My rigging screws were seized with monel by the riggers before Christmas. I've been also using it for many years.

 

[noelex]

I have always used monel and it seems to hold up well.

 

[prv]

Then, if you are like me, try other sorts of wire: galv fencing wire (goes rusty), stainless MIG wire (horrible to use), tie-wraps (UV eats them), aluminium MIG wire, turns to salt.

On Stavros we used strands of galvanised wire unravelled from offcuts of rigging. Shackles not intended to be regularly undone were also dipped in seawater to promote a little rusting of the threads, which is an interesting approach. Those expected to be undone got a dab of grease instead.

When we got Kindred Spirit (plastic gaffer with wooden spars but stainless rigging) I used the same approach by default, unravelling an offcut of 1x19 to mouse the stainless shackles. Seemed to work ok. One year I forgot to bring any to the yard, so bought a reel of monel from the chandlery, and I used that thereafter since I had it. It was a bit more malleable and easier to work with than the stainless, but either was fine.

Pete

 

[Ladybirdgaffcutter]

Yes rust is cheaper than loctite

 

[reeac]

It looks, therefore as if Monel is the choice if I go for one single product, but the 500 series talks abut 'hardening' with age.

https://www.alloywire.com/?s=monel

The literature that I found mentioned an increased susceptibility to stress corrosion cracking, not to hardening with age. The latter would seem most unlikely at room temperature whereas the former is quite believable. Either way it's something to beware of.





I equate hardening with brittleness, or do they mean just less ductile ? Perhaps an email to the makers will reveal the whole story.

 

[prv]

Yes rust is cheaper than loctite

Costs the same as a bit of cast-off rigging wire

A relief third officer we had one time was disappointed to see a burst fender (like a yachtie ball fender but about 4' diameter; we also had a couple of much larger yokos on board that needed to be handled with the RIB davits) being taken ashore and dumped in a skip. She thought our bosun was missing a trick - on her usual ship the split fender would have been cut up and turned into chafing mats to protect the warps passing through the panamas. We only used leather for that, but they wore through reasonably quickly so I can see the advantage of a free source of material

Pete

 

[vyv_cox]

It looks, therefore as if Monel is the choice if I go for one single product, but the 500 series talks abut 'hardening' with age.

https://www.alloywire.com/?s=monel

I equate hardening with brittleness, or do they mean just less ductile ? Perhaps an email to the makers will reveal the whole story.

Age hardening is an alternative description of solution heat treatment. It functions by the development of precipitates in a double treatment technique typically at around 200C. It does not mean it becomes harder over time.

 

[LadyInBed]

I use strands of SS rigging wire. Very stiff to work with but does a job.

 

[Boo2]

Customarily, monel wire is used for both applications. Obtainable in most chandelries.

The stuff I've seen in chandleries is very thin and I ended up on the putty once when a shackle moused with it came undone. I'd much rather something thicker but couldn't find anything.

Boo2

 

[longjohnsilver]

I have always used monel and it seems to hold up well.

+ 1

 

[Kukri]

When I were a lad, in the late Sixties, and buying number one Manila rope by weight, seizing wire was soft 6x7 galvanised and about 3/16" in diameter, or 5/8", as we measured rope by circumference in those days. This stuff disappeared in the early seventies and since then, if you ask for seizing wire, you are shown a little plastic reel of monel wire, which you may buy in exchange for the price of several pints. You need to use two or three turns of it to be sure of a shackle, because whilst it is soft is is rather easy to make it fail due to fatigue.

 

[SAMYL]

If you use black cable ties they will not degrade in UV light - well not for many years.

 

[Elemental]

I use high-quality (well, they feel tough) black cable ties on the few SS shackles I have left on the boat - mostly I use soft shackles tho. I generally replace them annually and I've not had one fail yet.

 

[macd]

Despite all the proponents of Monel, I can't see any reason not to use aircraft-quality stainless steel wire in any application where galvanic effects are not an issue. Much cheaper than Monel, and rather well-proven.