Poured Sockets

[P38]

I am curious as to why poured sockets are seldom used on yacht rigging. My understanding is that they are highly reliable (the only termination allowed for use on elevators). They're commonly used for testing wire strength. They're relatively inexpensive and are reusable. And in my opinion they're easy to make up. So why are they not more commonly used on yacht rigging?

Regards,

Paul

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
Poured sockets are an industrial item, all about safety factor. And a good thing. But that tends to make them large and heavy. And they are used, industrially, for 7x19 and similar constructions, which are easy to "broom" inside the short length of the socket, and 1x19 isn't so co-operative. Loos tried to make a socket, years ago, called Castlok, that was compact, and infamous for being hard to form 1x19 wire into.
In addition, sockets require utter cleanliness for prep, and utter stillness when curing, things not always available in a yacht. And the potting material has a fairly short shelf life. There's just too much to deal with, when you can get 100% more quickly, lightly, and compactly with other terminals. It's doable, and it can be a fine terminal, but not easily on boats. Our local foundry makes a very nice, long model, suitable for 1x19. But again, big and heavy.
Having said that, I like sockets for some applications, like on 7x wire for big traditional vessels whose owners don't appreciate the yar elegance of splices and seizings. Different tools for different jobs.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[Jackahearts]

Funny this should come up. We are getting a new poured socket tomorrow on our 3" tow wire. Crowley for years would not use poured sockets because one had failed in 1955 or something. That meant we had a crew of rigger with a giant portable riggers screw who would travel around resplicing the 2 1/2" tow wires we used at the time. About 6 years ago with Tom Crowley Sr. gone we finally went to poured sockets. We still have a crew of riggers that come and do the job, we are scheduled for new a socket tomorrow. They redo the sockets every two years or 20K miles which ever comes first.

[P38]

Hi Bron,
Thanks for the reply. Yes, I agree that the commercial poured sockets are big and heavy. Instead of the big cast industrial ones I was thinking about making up some light, efficient sockets machined from high tensile steel and bronze (depending on where they're going). Using forked ends instead of the usual hoop could allow them to be much more compact and still give good access to the wire. I'd prefer to use molten zinc instead of the epoxy compounds.

I'd appreciate your thoughts on this.

Regards, Paul

[Brion Toss]

Hi again,
I just hope that you have engineered your sockets well, and not just eyeballed things, counting on strength of materials; I've seen similar attempts come to serious grief from stress risers at either end of the socket.
Also, molten metal has zero advantages over something like Socketfast, so why risk burning your toes and other body parts?
Yours,
Brion Toss

[P38]

Hi Brion,

Understood. Thanks for the reply. If I go this way I'll definitely do a stress analysis on the fittings. Rigging failures are way too expensive to do otherwise!

Thanks, Paul