Hand swages from 2013

[Ozzie]

I was going through some old posts I had done for the other place back a few years ago and it reminded me how long ago I had rerigged the 563 . See below


 Post subject: Re: TOOL TIMEPosted: Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:30 am 
Phill, yes it was basically a size comparison. Many swaging tools come with a guage. I made one up and sized it to my original professionally swaged rig. It is consistency that counts apparently . The jaws must close fully on all compressions , otherwise you get a conical swage.

There are two camps on double swage. I have looked on google and can't find my original links to double swaging on yachts but there are a few on ultrlight aircraft, where it's a point of contention due to possible eccentric loading of the two lines between the swages.

As I don't get the 563 above 10, 000 feet too often I ignored this I do it for the redundancy rather than the strength. My original research said that the space between the swages should be at least 5 times the diameter of the wire to stop one swage levering against the other. I'm not sure how this would occurr in stretched tight rigging but I did allow at least two diameters on most of my doubles. With the shorter length and working from the closest end on the backup swage I'm fairly confident that the chance of uneven lengths between the swages that in theory would eccentrically load the thimble is non existent or so minimal to not be an issue.

The distance between is also visual indicator. If your swages were tight against one another one could have let go and you would not know. If I see my swages now hard against each other I will know the inner one has slipped and replace it. Not that im expecting that. My pull test on single swages to test the tool was to swage up a length of about 20cm with a loop on each end , "D" shackle each end to the car and the caravan and drive off. The cable failed well before the shackle . In fact I had to still cut the swage off with an angle grinder to recover the thimble I put on one of the ends . I have the other loop somewhere in the workshop with the frayed broken end somewhere . If I find it I'll take a pic.

I'm sure there will be some reading who will want to shoot down my technique and hand swaging in general as was evidenced by a recent thread on the subject . We had various posters quoting experienced riggers they knew as being in the for and against hand swaging.

The simple answer is they are all right. Or all wrong depending on your perspective. This stuff does not come down on tables from god. If in one persons experience something works sufficiently well , often enough and long enough then it's safe I beleive to recommend it to others. Given I'm not rigging an aircraft ( its only an Investigator 563) and the personal testing I've done i'm going with it for now. My original side stay failure was the cable not the swage.

On experts ....well I listen to a lot of podcasts, as a former musician I can't stand listening to music anymore and one of my favourites is Dr Karl Kruzelnicki on ABC. When asked once why there are scientists who have vehemently opposed views on climate change he recently said..

"Not all scientists like each other .....neither do all plumbers"

...or all riggers ...


Last edited by Ozzie on Sun Jun 02, 2013 9:43 am, edited 2 times in total.

I thought it would be worth mentioning I've had no issues in two and a half years since and I'm rocking on the mooring in the briney 24/7. In all I am happy with my hand swaging rig. I think the secret with my second attempt was I made much more effort in getting all the standing rigging well tensioned and even. It was the cable that snapped on my first DIY rigging job and not the swage.

I'm doing some prep work now for getting sailing again and most of the mods I've made I'm happy with. My LED lights are functional and reliable my new thick hatch in the aluminium channels is still waterproof although the deck oil finish was probably a mistake as it needs fairly regular recoats to maintain appearance as do the timber handrails .

In all, the boat is pretty much set up for our needs other than a bimini we can use while sailing rather than just at rest.

Anyone else done mods that have now stood the test of time?.

[Yara50]

The problem with hand swages for rigging is not the swage, but the diameter of the wire. Beyond a certain size, the 1x19 wire will not go around the thimble without being damaged. Can't remember the size right now, but I opted for professional swaged fittings for the shrouds, and used hand swages for the forestay as the loads are less and the jib is a backup when the loads are high.

[Steve]

I hand swage my own rigging for the 563 Ozzie, haven't had a problem with it at all. For what the wire costs and the swages, its easy to replace standing rigging once a month if you wanted. Some may spend more on lotto or beer than that. My sails would never break the rigging or pull the swages . ( I tried to get a swaged eye to fail pulling it with the car... More pressure than what a sail would ever exert on it).Failure would come from damage to rigging during transportation or corrosion of fastenings. I'm more confident with the rig doing it myself than if someone else did it.