Nicopress for guardrails / jackstays

[shamrock]

I need to replace the guardrails and fit some jackstays to my boat. There's quite a lot of ends to do, with gates halfway down each side etc. I can reuse some of the swageless fittings and pelican hooks too.

One possibility is to do it myself using Nicopress style fittings. Anyone got experience of this - is it a pretty simple job? Other question would be whether anyone on the east coast has a swaging tool I could hire as they are obviously pretty pricey.


thanks

Nick

 

[Roberto]

Using nicopress/talurit fittings is quite easy, I made quite a few of them on my boat for jackstays, wheel rudder steering cables, lifelines, etc

I bought a swaging tool (look for ormiston swaging tool at most chandleries, or the one sold by osculati.co.uk) and used it quite a lot, some advice:

when you slide the fitting on the wire, leave a few millimetres between the end of the ferrule and the thimble (if you use one), I would say just a bit less than the wire diameter, so when the ferrule is compressed it will not get in contact with the thimble

1x19 wire, especially 5mm, is best handled if you use a vise to keep it steady, a bit of pre-forming it before putting the ferrule on is useful too, otherwise it may slip away every few seconds

when you are done and you have to cut the exceeding wire, especially when splicing the wire directly on pushpits, try to protect the hull from the tiny steel particles, or else prepare a bottle of phosphoric acid to use against the thousands microscopic rust spots...

 

[TimStewart]

I wouldn't use a nicopress or talurit press on 1x19 wire to form an eye ( whether with a thimble or a plain soft eye ) because when you turn the wire back on itself to form the eye, the individual wire yarns open up at the crown of the eye, and when you actually press the ferrule the wire yarns also open up at the throat of the eye - weakening the wire rope. This is why 1x19 stays and shrouds have roll swaged terminals, which keep the wire in a straight line. However,you can nicopress or talurit 7x7 or 7x19 wire constructions because they are designed to be more flexible.