STA-LOK Swageless Terminals (Wire Rope Terminals)

[Brioche]

Did some fittings a few years back. Easiest way to hacksaw the cables was to drill hole in piece of hard wood, insert cable, and cut through slot in wood, so as to keep cable end neat.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Hi-MOD fittings are different:

Nice.

I like that little wire separator.

I was already worrying about getting impatient with a Sta-Lok and not getting each wire against the cone properly.

[Sailor Sailor]

I re-rigged my boat with swaged upper eyes from Defender custom rigging and Sta-lok lower pin terminals I installed on the boat. I like them quite a bit. I saw the YouTube videos cheapo method with the woodblock drilled holes and grinder cuts and decided to spend the extra several hundred bucks for a ratcheting wire rope cutter. It worked well, did not subject the wire rope to excess heat or deform the wire. Yes, you should not reuse the wedges/cones. They are readily available and relatively inexpensive.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by GILow

I did my standing rigging a couple.of years ago using the Searig fittings from NZ. A fellow yachtie had some stalok fittings and side by side, dismantled, we couldn't see much difference.

Side by side the prices were planets apart.

Did the whole rerig at the dock with a couple of large spanners, a bench vice on a plank, a battery powered angle grinder, some electrical tape and an awful lot of climbing up and down the mast.

I'm taking the mast down to rerig the new boat, but the tools will remain the same.

Yeah I might have the yard take the mast off when I put it on the hard next Fall to do the bottom and do the rigging then.

It would be hard to do the upper shrouds also that go on the ends of the spreaders with my webbing ladder plus much safe doing it on deck. My rigging is at least 20 years old.

I'll go up and inspect though to see if it looks decent enough to go for one more season.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

We've used Sta-Lok, Norseman, and Sea Rig diy swages. Hard to get parts for Norseman any more. Sta-Lok and Sea Rig both good products. We do use a vise for holding the fitting. We built a platform for the vice, and installed teak rails for it, so it could be upside down in the V of the v-berth, and put a cushion on top. They are hard to find a place for on a small boat, but useful for many jobs.

The first time we tried with the Sta-Loks was just after they had changed the cones, and we had the wrong ones for our fittings. Once that was solved, we had no more trouble with them.

Ann

I might use the Hi-Mod fittings and as far as the vice, my son took down our old out building while he was on the mend and bought another so need to get some use out of it.

Had quite the fire in the back yard burning what was left of that old building

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by thomm225

Has anyone used / installed these with new rigging on their boat?

If so how did it go with the assembly.

I figure I'll have to go home to my shed etc where my vise is to do the job properly.

I'm thinking forestay and backstay first then go from there as I have two lowers and one upper for shrouds which would probably last many more years.

This to be done with rig on the boat and I'll secure the mast with halyard and an extra old halyard that I'll tie to the top when up there

They are excellent fittings. Roxy has them in many places including lifelines. Largest aboard is 3/4 inch for the main stays.

Use a grinder with a thin cut off wheel to cut. Any other method will make it very difficult to slide the Ferrell and cone on.

Most riggers fill the cone with 3M 5200 or other sealant to keep water out. Consider retaining a rigger to help you.

[OS2Dude]

We did a major refit this summer, including all the standing rigging. I used the 'Trim-2-Fit' rigging kit from Catalina Direct. (Plus the backstay which is ordered separately.) This has a machine swagged end at the masthead and uses the Hi-Mod compression fittings at the deck.

Marked OEM rigging in the turnbuckles before removing mast. Once on the ground, removed OEM rigging one piece at a time. Put turn buckles back to their normal position and cut new stays to match. (Remember to take into account the length that will be inside the cone.)

Assembly was surprisingly easy. Wire rope untwists with little effort and retwists just as easily. Getting the strands to line up in the toothed piece of the cone was a little tricky at first, but after a couple it became routine. Just make sure no strand crosses over another.

[Bill O]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Most riggers fill the cone with 3M 5200 or other sealant to keep water out. Consider retaining a rigger to help you.

Specifically on the Hi-MODS, they tell you not to use any adhesive/sealant with their fittings.

[smacksman]

Talking to a rigger in the Stay-Lok factory, he said most people tightened them up way too hard. He demonstrated by tightening one up by hand and then putting it in a tensile test machine and it took an amazing load.

[nofacey]

Used StaLok & Haydn - both worked fine, Haydn is easier.
Done at dock/on deck without a vise, not required.
All the pros I’ve seen use grinders with zip discs, very fast, easy, no related failures, for sure I never had issues.

Would use top & bottom on next rig…..the only terminations I’ve seen fail in past 10 years are swaged, typically see wire strands break at entrance

[IolantheSF]

Sta-Locs are easy. You need two wrenches, blue tape, 5200, a fine tooth hack saw, a cone, and a few minutes. I suppose having a vise would be nice, but I’ve always just done it sitting on deck with it all in my lap. Yes, the cones do deform with use: that’s how they grip the wire so well. Making sure a wire strand doesn’t get into a slot on the cone is a bit fiddly the first time, but after that it’s a cake-walk.

[sinnerman]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1qDgI5fyWtk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2vZjtEN39RY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7wKT8de7Dw

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Bill O

Specifically on the Hi-MODS, they tell you not to use any adhesive/sealant with their fittings.

Can you point to that info? I have not found this in the instructions so I guess it’s somewhere else…

[sailorladd]

I have used Sta-Lok and Norseman terminals as long as I have had my boat, over 45 years, and have sailed around the world and have been in some terrible weather lol, and I have NEVER had any failures.

All the fittings were done on board, obviously at a calm anchorage or slip. Note that once you have completed each fitting, take a tube of polysulphide or exterior flexible sealant and create a waterproof seal around the top where the cable enters the fitting, to keep the salty water from penetrating....

[Cynara]

I did stay lock with boat in slip. One wire at a time. Easy. I bought all the parts from a rigger. When I was done he inspected my work and tuned the rig.. i cut the wires with a hack saw