Need to cut 7/8 steel wire cable, seeking suggestions on how to do it. Cutting off worn end pieces on several cables.
The correct method is to wrap the end of the rope that will stay on the machine with several (say 20-30) tight wraps of some about 2mm diameter soft iron wire. The length of rope covered by the wire must be at least equal to the rope diameter, preferably 1.5 times. So your length will be about 1" to 1-1/4". When the wire is in place if you want to do it like a real pro soft solder the whole assembly so that your 20 wraps of wire all become as one. After that have at the end of the rope with a disc grinder. Guaranteed that your rope will NOT unravel itself. The process is called seizing. See page 2 on this link. http://www.stren-flex.com/wire-rope-handling.aspx
Yair . . . lake side bob. As usual Nige is absolutely right . . . thats the correct way . . . or you could lay it across a piece of cutting edge welded to the machine and give it a decent old whack with a fourteen pound hammer, or you could cut it with a gas axe and make a real neat job by backing off the heat and fusing all the strands together on the end. On the cable 'dozers for cutting the half inch I used to have the anvil base of a cable cutter welded to the "C" frame . . . kept the cutter part you hit in the toolboxes. Cheers.
http://www.lifting.com/literature/Interactive/Morse-Starrett/#/1/
i just use a cut off wheel and some tape? the becket and wedge dosent need a surgically prepared end to seat.
use a cutting torch and melt so it stays together while cutting
I use stainless steel hose clamps on each side of the cut to hold all the strands and little wires in place then use the grinding wheel cutter.
I ran a pile driver for a while,(something that I don't normally admit to) so I have cut a few cables... Have probably used every one of these ideas depending on the circumstance, but never even thought of using hose clamps. That would work slick as snot on a door knob in spots where the clamp won't be in the way!
Yair . . . Being seven eighth I realise the original poster is not talking cable controlled equipment. It may be of interest for folks on here who have not had the "joy" of running a cable dozer or scraper to know that the technique of fusing the ends of the cable together with the oxy is of particular significance. Broken cables should not happen. But, due to various reasons they did. There is no relief valve on a well adjusted PCU and a tad too much pressure lifting out a stump ot a moments inattention and the blocks get slammed together and it breaks. they could even break from too much slack allowing the blade to bouce when the machine teeter tottered over logs and rocks. The rope travelled from the PCU to the front of the machine through various tubes, and around several guides and pulleys. Invariably the tubes became full of crud and dust which mixed with the graphite grease from the pulleys congealed into a sort of sticky paste that often defied all attempts to feed the new rope through . . . it would be impossible without a fused end on the rope. At times, particularly in winter we would heat the fused section again to try and "burn" the rope through all the crud. Under normal circumstances replacing a worn rope the ropes were teased apart at the ends and welded or brased together and the joint shaped and tidied while hot with a hammer and the rope was pulled in with a truck. Same thing on the scrapers. Breaking a cable was a no no particularly on the Wooldrige. It was an absolute PITA and I recall having to dismantle sheaves. Scrapers always carried a complete roll of cable on a drum, every week or so about twenty or thirty feet would be advanced through the pulley system so it wasn't subjected to excessive wear. When the drum was empty, same deal as the dozers . . . weld on a new one and pull the sucker through. Cheers.
I've used duck tape and a disc cutter, but the hose clamp idea seems a much better bet - really smart!
They are quick, cheap, hold up to the heat of a grinding wheel and a torch and easy to get on and off.
Braze a 2" section of cable and cut with a cutting wheel in the middle. Don't be shy to use lots of braze ether
Here you go straight out of my old Ironworkers Rigging Manual from apprentice days.