Wire rope / steel cable

[Thor's Hammer]

Recently bought a small cable yarder for doing sensative sites with no machine access. Awsome piece of kit, but it sure sucks when you snap 2000 ft of 3/8s haulback cable right in the middle

My flemish splices are very ugly, and I need to learn how to joint a 6 strand steel cable properly. Any pointers?

 

[No_Bivy]

wear gloves......

are you swaging the eye after the splice?

 

[Thor's Hammer]

No eyes jon. I want to join the two broken ends of the cable neatly.

 

[No_Bivy]

dunno bout that

 

[Altissimus]

I sure don't know how (although I've seen'em do it) , when the haul rope on ski lifts are installed they do a straight end to end splice thats hardly noticeable .... they are subs that specialize in this splice travelling all over the world ....

 

[Reddog]

Its called a long splice.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=296-54-55720

long splice - A splice used to join two rope ends forming one rope the length of the total of the two ropes. The long splice, unlike most splice types, results in a splice that is only very slightly thicker than the rope without the splice, but sacrifices some of the strength of the short splice. It does this by replacing two of the strands of each rope end with those from the other, and cutting off some of the extra strands that result. The long splice allows the spliced rope to still fit through the same pulleys, which is necessary in some applications.

Edit: I was trying to find a good detail showing how its done. No luck.
I helped with splicing years ago and it was a pain to keep everything tight enough to keep the bundle small and passing through the pulleys.

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Its called a long splice.

http://apps.leg.wa.gov/WAC/default.aspx?cite=296-54-55720

long splice - A splice used to join two rope ends forming one rope the length of the total of the two ropes. The long splice, unlike most splice types, results in a splice that is only very slightly thicker than the rope without the splice, but sacrifices some of the strength of the short splice. It does this by replacing two of the strands of each rope end with those from the other, and cutting off some of the extra strands that result. The long splice allows the spliced rope to still fit through the same pulleys, which is necessary in some applications.

Edit: I was trying to find a good detail showing how its done. No luck.
I helped with splicing years ago and it was a pain to keep everything tight enough to keep the bundle small and passing through the pulleys.

Yeah, I know thats what I need.... I just need some instructions on how to do it

 

[Reddog]

Long splicing starts on Page 65 of this pdf, it is the best I could find.

http://www.hnsa.org/doc/nstm/ch613.pdf

Hope this is of some help.

 

[High Scale]

Rather you than me Ed.

 

[Swe#kipp]

Ed any photos of the equipment

 

[Thor's Hammer]

Ed any photos of the equipment

I'll start a thread...

 

[woodworkingboy]

Hook up with an old crane operator, they usually know about splicing wire rope. That's who showed me.

 

[sotc]

I'm gonna try to explain the long splice by memory, hope it makes sense. We used 6 strand and a core. Make clean cuts. Seperate 3 strands from 3 and a core about 20' back each. Cut both cores and "marry the cores" by butting them together. Wind one side into the other (you will need to unwind one as you go)about 6 or 8 feet. Seperate 1 strand from the other 2 at each crossing ( there are 2 crossings so you will have 2 single strands and 2 double strands at each). Marry the single strands and continue wind/unwind the doubles another 6-8 feet. then seperate the doubles, marry single strands. Wind/unwind singles that are remaining and marry them also. Now you need to tuck each of the 12 married strandsinto the lay, Over 1, under 2.
Thats my memories from 8 or 10 years back. I may have missed a detail or 2 in there but if you take pics and ask questions i'm sure I can figure it out for you. I worked for a gypo so we did alot of splicing!
If you dont have a cable cutter, a nice gypo method is to have some one hold a falling axe on the ground with the blade up. Lay the cable across it and then hammer the cable where it crosses, works suprisingly well

 

[squisher]

Sounds about right to me. I could never have described it like that. That cable cutting axe sounds brutal! For the axe!!!

 

[Al Smith]

Wire rope is just rope made of wire .It isn't that big of a deal other than it can hurt you .Short splice ,under over just like three strand .

Long ,belay out ,tuck under over stagered .No difference except the numbers of lays . Oh ,by the way,wear good leather gloves .

 

[squisher]

Yah, big cable is hell on the hands. That's how come I got to be a part of it when we forked something up or got a new skyline or something. Once we kinked a brand new mainline while transferring it from the spool/trailer to the drum. Right in the middle. Oh man I was glad I wasn't responsible for that.


We had a book of some sort for doing the big splices but I sure as hell can't remember the name of it. Sounds like Willie was real familiar with it. Fun, fun.

 

[Al Smith]

You have to have a marlin spike ,not to be confused with a fid which is used on regular fiber rope . 'taint easy by any method but it is doable .

Oh ,by the way ,I was the closest thing a sub ever had to a bo'suns mate

Then on that ,the bo'suns on the tender showed some stuff they didn't share with just anybody .

 

[sotc]

Several of us had our "own" marlin spike that we liked. I was trying to think of the 7 tuck we did on all the eyes except the skyline eye which just got a farmers eye. I just can't even think of where to start with it We did alot of splicing on that cheap korean cable!

 

[NickfromWI]

I've only attempted one wire splice. I'm always amazed when I see great splices out of metal rope.

I wish I knew more about it.

Great pics, willie!

 

[jamie]

for once nick is not the splicing guru

help the world is going to end.

i want to make myself a flip line so i need to learn a wire splice

Jamie

 

[woodworkingboy]

Working with wire is what got me into wearing gloves.

 

[sotc]

Thor, did my babbling make any sense to you?

 

[Thor's Hammer]

sort of... I need a diagram so I can get it right in my head.

 

[sotc]

I'll see if I can scrounge up some cable and try it

 

[wiley_p]

Willies explanation was spot on. Wear thick cotton gloves, and have something hard to work on. If you have any Draggers nearby Thor, one of the Bosuns or deckhands can show you pretty quick.