diameter of served 3/8" wire

[redbopeep]

Originally Posted by benz

I'm in the middle of a similar mental wrestling match but which involves leathering instead of serving. Here's my seat-of-the-pants method: multiply the diameter of the serving twine by 2. (example, 1/16" marline X2 = 1/8"), Multiply the thickness of the parcelling material by 2, or by four if you plan to overlap it as you wind--( say, 1/32 X 4= 1/8). Now add those two eigths (of the marline and the parcelling) together to get a 1/4" more than the 3/8" of the wire. So, 1/4 + 3/8 equals 7/8". Now find out whether a 7/8 thimble will fit into your turnbuckles and Presto! you're either out sailing next month or back to the drawing board.
Hope this helps.
Ben

Well, actually part of my problem is that I don't know what the "proper" size serving twine would be. Also, had a friend tell me NOT to count the parcelling because it gets squeezed down to basically nothing with the serving. Hearing that from him is what made me post here since I didn't know that about the parceling (nor do I have good knowledge about proper size serving twine).

Thanks for your reply. Leather sounds a bit harder to figure out. Good luck with it.