straighten kinked cable with heat?


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Old 06-29-19, 04:11 PM
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straighten kinked cable with heat?

Anybody ever heard of trying to apply heat to a kinked stainless steel cable at the kink(s)/bend(s) to help get out the kinks/bends? I have seven lengths of 50-60 foot 3/16" diameter stainless steel cable ("wire rope") that have several spots that got pinched/kinked and/or bent, not particularly drastically but enough to keep it from lying nice and flat with no tension. I was thinking of stretching out the cable and holding the kink(s) between a vise and and a pair of pliers and applying heat with a propane torch to these kinks/bends to see of that helps to possibly straighten out the kinks/bends. Any comments/advice in that regard would be appreciated!
 
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Old 06-29-19, 05:37 PM
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Just my opinion, but I think you'll compromise the integrity of the steel rope by randomly applying heat. In order remove the kinks you'll need to apply enough heat that it will change the properties of the steel. may not make a big difference for small uses of the rope, but that will be the weakest link and can snap when least expected.

Depending on how you use the cable can't you cut the kinks out and splice the cables together?
 
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Old 06-29-19, 06:28 PM
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That's kind of what I figured, could likely adversely affect the overall integrity/strength so will probably nix the idea of heating like that. I went ahead and tried a trial/practice run on the same type of cable on the workbench to see how it might go. Didn't really work very well and seemed to just kinda make the cable strands more brittle-like.

These cables wind into individual cable-size/spaced channels between plates onto a "pile-wind" design/type hoist so cannot attempt any method of splicing as mentioned, as this would likely increase the diameter at the splice locations; the diameter of the cable has to stay the same/consistent. I think with a couple pairs of pliers and plenty of patience I can work/bend the cable kinks/bends good enough to work out. Even if one of these cables were to eventually break there still is no particular safety issue with this particular situation. So if I can "work out the kinks" (as they say) I think/hope it'll be fine.
 
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Old 06-30-19, 04:29 AM
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Try Googling "Splicing steel cable" Very interesting. Never knew there were so many ways to splice cable.
 
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Old 06-30-19, 04:54 AM
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I think you'll compromise the integrity of the steel rope by randomly applying heat.
The cable is probably compromised already with just the kink, if you have several give one a try but I doubt a propane torch is going to be hot enough to do much!
 
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Old 06-30-19, 10:25 AM
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Try Googling "Splicing steel cable" Very interesting. Never knew there were so many ways to splice cable.
Will do! Maybe it'll be a possibility. Might learn something. thanks.
 
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Old 06-30-19, 12:39 PM
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With aircraft kinking a cable is a big no-no and renders it unusable because of it's affect on strength and fatigue resistance. Galvanized cable is a bit better at accommodating kinks but stainless really doesn't like it.

There are cable splicing methods that do not increase it's diameter. I saw them splicing a ski lift cable once and the splice was over the length of a hundred or more feet. I've done rope splices and I assume wire splicing is similar though you might need some picks or bars to help separate the strands.
 
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Old 06-30-19, 12:58 PM
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Ok no aircraft involved (just a curtain hoist). The cable I happen to be working with is 3/16" diameter. With maybe seven strands I think. Not sure actually if it's galvanized or stainless. Seems kinda small to me try to splice, but then I haven't had a chance to read/learn about it yet. Also, the lengths of cable I'm working with cannot have much length taken out of them at all, so I'd need to be real careful cutting and splicing to make sure I don't end up with cable lengths ultimately too short for my particular use/application with this particular project.
 
 

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