STA-LOK Swageless Terminals (Wire Rope Terminals)

[Cynara]

My boat had 13 wires I had to cut hacksaw worked just fine

[Jim Cate]

Thomm, I've done lots of cuts with a 32 tpi hacksaw. Tape tightly, put in the vise with just enough pressure to hold it in place, saw as near to the vise jaw as possible. Clean up with a file. Bolt cutters will distort the shape of the strand bundle and make it very hard to assemble the Sta Lok... bad idea IMO and IME

Jim

[CarinaPDX]

I rigged, and re-rigged, Carina using a hacksaw on 5/16" (8mm) wire. Cable cutters do not do a "clean" cut and are really only useful as an emergency tool. Some tape and a vise, along with a high quality bi-metallic blade, is all you need. A good, sharp blade cuts the stainless steel quite easily. Buy the best blade you can...

Greg

[MicHughV]

as stated before...in lieu of tape, use a small hose clamp either side of the "cut"

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Not sure about your skills with a hacksaw. I have found that I can easily do it with a hacksaw when wrapping some tape tightly around the wire, then cut perpendicular (not difficult imho), then file the circumference to get rid of the burr from the saw.

When you don’t file, you don’t get the wire through the cone.

I may try that first, but I was a tech / maintainer / troubleshooter (of electronics and computer systems) before I became a manager and I'm not much of a builder/installer.

Others installed our systems then we maintained.

I'll take the hacksaw and new blades I bought and get my files off the boat and take those with me also.

Maybe I can line it up properly for a good perpendicular cut

[nofacey]

Any cheap 4-1/2” grinder with a zip disc is faster, easier & likely cleaner than a hacksaw on wire - no tape, vise, clamp required -why fight it?

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Thomm, I've done lots of cuts with a 32 tpi hacksaw. Tape tightly, put in the vise with just enough pressure to hold it in place, saw as near to the vise jaw as possible. Clean up with a file. Bolt cutters will distort the shape of the strand bundle and make it very hard to assemble the Sta Lok... bad idea IMO and IME

Jim

Okay, thanks.

Cutting as close to the vice as possible was the missing link I needed.

That should help with a good perpendicular cut.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by Cynara

My boat had 13 wires I had to cut hacksaw worked just fine

Great. Hopefully I get my backstay and forestay completed before going to the shrouds.

May mast head has two sets of pins so I plan to leave the existing stays in place while I connect the new uppers.

I also may buy a new jib (hank on) then remove my furler just to check it out.

I've never assembled or disassembled a furler and need to know more about them

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by nofacey

Any cheap 4-1/2” grinder with a zip disc is faster, easier & likely cleaner than a hacksaw on wire - no tape, vise, clamp required -why fight it?

May try that. May brother says he has and old angled grinder.

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by MicHughV

as stated before...in lieu of tape, use a small hose clamp either side of the "cut"

I have the tape so I'll try that first.

Thanks though for an alternative

[thomm225]

Originally Posted by betwys1

Bolt cutters spread a cable: cable-cutters have vee shaped blades. It may also help to tape the wire cable at the cutting point to help hold the wires tidy.

Got it.

[thomm225]

I don't have a problem with doing a few experimental cuts. I bought 106' of 1 x 19 wire mainly for my stays and any thing left over will go toward the lowers that are stretch and the turnbuclkes are just about out of adjustment room.

The backstay turnbuckle is already maxed out and is less than 300 psi on my Loos gauge.

In 2012, I set them all to 400 psi except the forward lowers which I set at 500 for some prebend which really didn't help much on this old boat.

On our beach cats that we raced back in the day, we would crank in 700 to 1000 psi prebend on our diamond wires.

This would really help our boats point a lot better in heavy winds.

[IolantheSF]

Hacksaw with a 24 tooth blade will do fine. A little cutting oil or WD-40 will help. Wrap the wire with blue tape before.
Angle grinder with a thin cutoff blade will take seconds instead of a minute. Whatever.
Bypass cable cutter with a v blade should work, but you'll have to beat it back into shape. Bolt cutter will make a smashed mess of it.
Be sure to file or grind off the burr before assembling the Sta-Loc.

[kmacdonald]

Originally Posted by thomm225

So I'm about to build up my new backstay, but to cut the 1 x 19 wire all I have right now is a normal hacksaw with new blades.

Do I really need some sort of wooden "jig/block" to get a good cut on the wire?

And a high tension hacksaw?

The wire is easy to cut with a hacksaw. Use a new blade. No jig required. Im afraid of using a grinder and cutting wheel because of heat.

[kmacdonald]

I replaced all my standing rigging before heading south last fall. Wire, turnbuckles, and chain plates. Its a very easy job. Dont sweat cutting the wire, it's easy. I used swages at the top and Sta-Lok at the bottom. The old rigging was about 18 years old and sailed very hard. It looked OK but the backstay chain plate was cracked. When I found that I decided to replace all the chain plates. I think the chainplates and turnbuckles were original so 42 years old.