Seizing wire: cheaper alternative to Monel?

Here in Spain any ferretaria sells little coils of different sized galvanized wire that would be the best thing,checking it now and then will give you something bosuny to do!
 
Hello
I have used mig wire it works find but is quite hard and difficult to get the ends tucked away so they dont cut your hands.

I have also used cable ties and wouldent used them on anything important, the plastic degraded in the sun and becomes brittle in the cold they Ihad them fall of/fracture several times!
 
Here in Spain any ferretaria sells little coils of different sized galvanized wire that would be the best thing,checking it now and then will give you something bosuny to do!

You can get that from toolstation in the UK.
Around Portsmouth, the mooring pro's all weld shackles.
Mousing is not reliable enough.
If you must DIY, then I have found replacing the shackle pin with a bolt and adding an extra locknut to work acceptably. I loctite the threads. Do it up with big spanners. Drill the locknut and wire through that. Only thing that's gone wrong is some git lassooing the mooring and ripping the lock wire off.
The loctited nut and bolt could be undone after a year in the water, threads looked like new.
 
You can get that from toolstation in the UK.
Around Portsmouth, the mooring pro's all weld shackles.
Mousing is not reliable enough.
If you must DIY, then I have found replacing the shackle pin with a bolt and adding an extra locknut to work acceptably. I loctite the threads. Do it up with big spanners. Drill the locknut and wire through that. Only thing that's gone wrong is some git lassooing the mooring and ripping the lock wire off.
The loctited nut and bolt could be undone after a year in the water, threads looked like new.

Yes, welding is the best answer. On Menai Strait the professionals don't (didn't) use shackles at all, they use rebar formed into paper clip shapes, which gives plenty of overlap for a long fillet weld. Despite that my mooring failed at the riser/ground chain join many years ago.
 
Another vote for Loctite.

I once used the type that needs heat to release and was generous with application. Some, long, time later I needed to remove the shackle pin - as it says in the instructions - it needed heat.

I don't use mousing wire anymore.

But buy, or use, decent, gal, shackles - something with a recognisable brand name. Van Beest (Green Pin), Campbell, Crosby (Platinum).

Jonathan
 
I have Monel wire and am very thoughtful of my spending, its just that when I consider how much I have spent on my boat in the last 5 months refurbishing and tidying her up, the monel seemed like small fry but the cost of failure could be epic. ;)
 
On the River Blackwater in Essex we use Stockholm Tar on the threads & mouse the mooring shackles with thick cable ties. Works perfectly OK. We find the pins of shackles may wear but the threads stay fully formed
 
Aviation certified stainless lock wire here. It takes a LOT of working to harden it. You can twist it very tightly.

British spec https://www.lasaero.com/products/article/T04IR671X
US spec https://www.lasaero.com/products/article/L00UG6FJP

Just for a bit of thread drift........... We use stainless wire in orthopaedics. When twisting it is important to get both strands to twist equally and not have one straight strand with other twisting around it.
You can tell when you have overdone the twisting as the wire loses its shine just before it breaks!
I use a surgical equivalent of twisting pliers to make nice twists
ken5583920k.jpg

TudorSailor
 
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