Precaution

When swaging fittings on to 1 x 19 construction wire rope, remember that there is little or no compression remaining in this construction. The wire rope itself is very solid with little or no “give.”

A combination of a 1 x 19 construction wire rope manufactured on the “high side” of its tolerance and a fitting with a hole running on the “low side” of its tolerance (see dimensions to fittings under specifications) will exaggerate this problem. Remember a swaging machine must have room to “flow” or “move” the steel in the fitting to form around the wire rope. There must be space to accomplish this.

In addition, many manufacturers do not drill the hole in their fittings deep enough. This leaves a space at the base of the fitting of solid steel. This distance can vary from 1/4″ up to over 1″. The Locoloc® Kearney machine simply cannot perform the impossible and swage solid metal, again there must be room for the steel to “flow” or “move”.

When any of the situations above occur, the result can only be broken dies, sprung machines, ruined fittings and perhaps loss of expensive wire rope. The majority of cases could easily be avoided by checking the following before attempting to swage:

1. Diameter of wire rope – is it on high side of tolerance?
2. Inside diameter of fitting – will the wire rope fit with ease?
3. Depth of hole in fitting – do not attempt to swage over solid steel, begin swage at the bottom of the hole.
4. Hardness of steel – check Rockwell Hardness. See above.
5. Do not add leverage to your swaging machine by extending the handle beyond the length of the handle extension we supply. The handle is designed to accomplish the maximum compression for which the machine is designed. Adding to the handle length will result in broken dies, broken gears, and/or sprung frames and large repair costs.