by SUNBIRD » Tue Jun 21, 2016 12:02 pm
I have one of those Nico-Press tools for swaging that uses the 2 bolts. I purchased it initially t do the standing rigging on a small trimaran back in 1987. I have since used it several times to rebuild the up cable for my DS II CB. I've had cables break near the swage, but the swage itself has never let go.
I made an interesting mod to my CB up haul cable one time, wish I could have done same this last time, I replaced the nico-press swaged loop where the cable attaches to the tang with a standard fork terminal (had to be professionally swaged, but I was working in a marine hardware store at the time and my co-worker offered to do it for me (no charge!). That made it easy to connect to the tang without removing the tang from the CB and it lasted over 7 seasons without trouble, actually it would have lasted longer but the other end of the cable broke last year where I made a nico-press loop to attach the block. My original (1979) CB up cable had a thimble where the cable attached to the tang, when the sheave on the block broke in 2003, Rudy at D&R replaced the whole cable assembly but couldn't get a thimble to fit in the hole of the tang. So, the new cable didn't have any protection from the edge of the tang hole. It lasted until 2007 though. That was when I ended up making my own replacement using the swaged fork. I'm back to the original style swaged loop now (new cable from S&R last year) but since that new cable came with the tang, I saved the old tang and have built a spare CB cable (no block yet, will use one presently on boat if present cable breaks), I was able to force a thimble in there this time.
Rod Johnson, "SUNBIRD"
1979 DS II, # 10201