Hydraulic Crimper / Rigging

xeitosaphil

xeitosaphil

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I am thinking of replacing my guard rails this coming winter and wondered if I could do it myself.

At present one end of the guard rails have copper crimp type spliced eyes with s/s thimbles and on the other end they have Sta-Lok connectors.

Question is - I have a 16 ton hydraulic crimper which I used for my new electrical cable installation last winter and wondered if I could use this for crimping the copper ferrules on the eye splices.

Only thing is the crimper die is hexagonal, not circular. Would this make any difference?
 
xeitosaphil said:
I am thinking of replacing my guard rails this coming winter and wondered if I could do it myself.

At present one end of the guard rails have copper crimp type spliced eyes with s/s thimbles and on the other end they have Sta-Lok connectors.

Question is - I have a 16 ton hydraulic crimper which I used for my new electrical cable installation last winter and wondered if I could use this for crimping the copper ferrules on the eye splices.

Only thing is the crimper die is hexagonal, not circular. Would this make any difference?
Click to expand...

Theoretically I see no reason not to, but selection of ferrules and dies would be important, well vital actually, as would really good testing of each one.
 
David2452 said:
Theoretically I see no reason not to, but selection of ferrules and dies would be important, well vital actually, as would really good testing of each one.
Click to expand...

I suppose selection of dies to crimp size would be a bit hit and miss and be down to loads of trial runs with a few crimps of different sizes, but how could I test the loading of each joint

any suggestions.
 
pvb said:
If you want to do it yourself, why not just use Sta-Lok at both ends?
Click to expand...

Cost of 4 extra Sta-lok connectors would be more than having the crimps supplied already done when purchasing the wire. My question was in the hope someone may have actually used a similar crimping tool as mine with successful results.

My biggest concern is how to check the soundness of the joint.

Has anybody got any ideas how to check the joints effectiveness other than just pulling it?
 
xeitosaphil said:
Cost of 4 extra Sta-lok connectors would be more than having the crimps supplied already done when purchasing the wire. My question was in the hope someone may have actually used a similar crimping tool as mine with successful results.

My biggest concern is how to check the soundness of the joint.

Has anybody got any ideas how to check the joints effectiveness other than just pulling it?
Click to expand...
I've seen it done before but certainly not best practice, and a bit untidy but suppose you could clean it up with a file. Could you have a play with the old wire? Crimp up a length, tie it tight between 2 strong points and jump up and down on it? Won't tell you much but might give you some confidence in the terminations.
And cut them in half to make sure the copper has squashed right down into the wire.

I've tested 4mm 7x19 galvanised before, crimped with an electric crimper, slipped through the crimp at about 700kg, and not far double that with 2 crimps fitted.
 
I replaced my old rope guardrails with SS wire a couple of years ago.
I have a hydraulic battery terminal crimper... and could not get decent compression on the copper ferrules with the hex dies.
With a borrowed a bench hydraulic crimper with the proper dies from my friendly chandler I did the eight terminals at the boat in minutes.
Plus ten minutes cleaning up the leaked hydraulic fluid.
 
Gordonmc said:
I replaced my old rope guardrails with SS wire a couple of years ago.
I have a hydraulic battery terminal crimper... and could not get decent compression on the copper ferrules with the hex dies.
With a borrowed a bench hydraulic crimper with the proper dies from my friendly chandler I did the eight terminals at the boat in minutes.
Plus ten minutes cleaning up the leaked hydraulic fluid.
Click to expand...

I have ordered a few copper ferrules to give it a try, can I ask what size battery crimper you used to try yours with, only mine is 16 ton and am hoping it might just work?

Other than that I wondered if I could get a set of round dies to fit my crimper, or maybe have one pair of my dies drilled out round.

My crimper details - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300651707466?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
 
xeitosaphil said:
I have ordered a few copper ferrules to give it a try, can I ask what size battery crimper you used to try yours with, only mine is 16 ton and am hoping it might just work?

Other than that I wondered if I could get a set of round dies to fit my crimper, or maybe have one pair of my dies drilled out round.

My crimper details - http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/300651707466?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1438.l2649
Click to expand...
A set of dies for the cordless crimper I used cost twice as much as your Crimper! And it doesn't get you much further forward as they not designed to fit din standard ferrules, they just happen to be close, the end result might be no different from hex dies, apart from looking nicer.
 
Gordonmc said:
That's very much like the crimper I have.
I think the point that is missed here is that the proper bench ferrule rigging press I borrowed doesn't just squeeze the ferrules. It is designed to push the ferrule into the two-piece dies, so compression is along the length as well as width.
Click to expand...

Maybe I better just get Talurit splices put on the ends of plain S/S wire and use my Sta-lok fittings. It just seemed to be silly if my crimper would do it, it was only a thought.
I will play with the ferrules when they come just to see what they are like, but from what has been said it will be better to get them done properly to a set acceptable standard.

Last thing I want is to end up with something that is not reliable especially with something as important as guard rails.

Thanks everybody for their input.

Philip
 
I'm so glad to see someone not only thinking about how a tool can possibly be used for another purpose - and yes, with a purpose built set of dies, it should work - but also checking whether it is feasible and how to test it.

It also saddens me to recall how before the Thatcher era you never lived more than a couple of miles from an engineering shop who would have taken delight in producing a fine, ground set of dies to suit and would have tested a few pieces for you! In fact, as I used to work in a large engineering company, one of my workmates used to make dies for Gillette (pressing a million razor blades before replacement). He would have made the dies in his lunch hour just for the fun of it. Another drinking partner in the test lab had everything you could ask for to do tensile tests on the assembly and could section and inspect a few, too.

Rob.
 
I made a pair of temporary shrouds to test a new rig. I used 4mm stainless, correct copper ferrule and the appropriate electrical die. they are a bit narrow so I had to do 3 crimps down the length. Not a pretty crimp but very strong. I accidentally snagged one whilst raising the mast and stretched the wire by about 5%, the crimp held.
 
rob2 said:
I'm so glad to see someone not only thinking about how a tool can possibly be used for another purpose - and yes, with a purpose built set of dies, it should work - but also checking whether it is feasible and how to test it.

It also saddens me to recall how before the Thatcher era you never lived more than a couple of miles from an engineering shop who would have taken delight in producing a fine, ground set of dies to suit and would have tested a few pieces for you! In fact, as I used to work in a large engineering company, one of my workmates used to make dies for Gillette (pressing a million razor blades before replacement). He would have made the dies in his lunch hour just for the fun of it. Another drinking partner in the test lab had everything you could ask for to do tensile tests on the assembly and could section and inspect a few, too.

Rob.
Click to expand...

The good old days of British Engineering!!

Another idea I had was to drill out the smallest set of dies I have to make a circular set as the Talurit splice finishes 8mm when set and the die former is just the same as an 8mm hole.
It can’t be any different to the hand crimps you can buy which are like tongs, but with the advantage of 16 tons of pressure.

Philip
 
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