Swaging cable

[signcrafter]

Bought a swaging tool today, the kind that looks like a bolt cutter. Wanted to make up a cable to hold a pair of wheel chocks together and there have been plenty of other times I could have used one but just used the little u bolt type clamps instead. So when I saw one in HD today I decided to pick it up. Got some 1/8" cable and some 1/8" swaging crimps and some thimbles for the loops. I bought two of the bigger rubber wheel chocks that come with an eye hook on them and wanted to make a 2-3' cable tying them together so I can just grab the cable and carry both chocks to the tires and set them in place. Thought about using chain so it was more flexible when storing but ended up going with nylon covered cable. If it doesn't work I will just cut it off and use some chain.

So after I got home I realized my mistake of getting 1/8" vinyl covered cable and 1/8" swaging crimps that work on non covered 1/8" cable and not the vinyl covered cable I bought. I think my swaging tool only does up to 3/16" swages. Will a 3/16" swage fit over 1/8" vinyl coated cable? I will pick some up tomorrow and see but just wondering if anyone knows. This isn't a high strength application so I'm not really worried about crimping over the vinyl coating.

Also, the crimps I bought came with a "stop". Just a little round collar that gets crimped somewhere. There are no instructions but the picture looks like it gets crimped on the longer part of the cable, not the cut end. So what is the correct way to make up a looped end using the crimp and the stop?

 

[619DioFan]

Having made hundreds of cables for gym equipment here is what I do-

1- form a loop with the cable using the thimble as a guide ( make sure to leave enough of a " tail " to pass through the crimp.

2- you want to remove the vinyl coating from the cable ( just the amount of the loop and tail ) the easiest way to remove the coating is with a box cutter- slice in a circle around the cable , then using the box cutter start at the circle and make a shave straight down the cable to the end. you can then peel the coating off.

3- know you can fit the cable through the crimp , wrap over the thimble and insert the tail through the other side of the crimp. you want to leave about a 1/4 inch of the tail sticking through the crimp. pull the other end tight across the hoop and through the other side.

4- make 2 sqeezes on the crimp 1st near the top this will pull the short tail inside 2 nd near the bottom. and you are done. the " collar " you described is not needed in this application.