Oh My - what a drama - new swaging failure

[ribbony]

We have been taking our new wire and fittings, cut and ready to swage to a rigger to get them swaged. It has been a challengine time to do it one or two wires at a time while the mast was up on the boat, on the mooring, but we got there. Then the rigger drops a bombshell. The swaging press has not been compressing enough and he had a recent fitting fail in service (not ours) and told us not to use our rig until he gets back to us. He is having some destructive testing done to assess structual integrity.

We took the initiative and got on to the manufacturer of the swaged products who replied to our email promptly. They gave us the sizes for the swaged fittings after swaging. I checked our against this. The specification for 5/16" wire is a swaged diameter of 14.30mm (tolerance +0.00 & -0.20), our fittings measure 14.75, 14.90, 14.85, 14.65, 14, 95, etc etc.

All fittings were double pass swaged and if they are swaged again that makes them 3 passes. The engineer at the manufacturer said that 3 passes was not ideal and sometimes because the metal has been compressed twice then it may not want to move (flow) much a third time and may tend to spring back.

If anyone can give us some experienced advice on this it would be much appreciated. We kinda feel that our new rig already has integrity issues and don't know where to go from here. http://briontoss.com/spartalk/images...s/confused.gif

[Brion Toss]

Hello,
We are all very sorry to hear that your swages aren't, so to speak, up to spec. And glad to hear that the rigger is being proactive about it -- the world benefits when we take responsibility for things. Assuming that your measurements are correct, there's really no realistic choice but to start anew. Your rigger might, understandably, prefer to have you get a third pass; this is not a good idea. At best you might be able to cut the longest wires down to make shorter ones, and then make new longer ones.
It is very difficult to keep this type of machine in spec at the best of times, and my experience is that they are always more fatigue-vulnerable than other terminals, so I hope you will consider rotary swages, or compression fittings instead.
I understand that you have a lot of labor into this. Remember, please, that what you have done thus far has no bearing on how to proceed from here.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss

[ribbony]

Thank you for your wise words, you are spot on, especially with your last statement !

As the rigger was swaging only and we bought and provided the rest of the gear we are a bit uncertain as to what will happen.

I do not know of anyone who rotary swages in Sydney ?

Swageless - well in hindsight some foresight would have been wonderful.

[Asylum]

Originally Posted by ribbony

Thank you for your wise words, you are spot on, especially with your last statement !

As the rigger was swaging only and we bought and provided the rest of the gear we are a bit uncertain as to what will happen.

I do not know of anyone who rotary swages in Sydney ?

Swageless - well in hindsight some foresight would have been wonderful.

Don't know who did the original work but the gentlemen below are both excellent riggers with very good reputations. I'm sure that one of them can advise you and assist in getting things done properly. They'll know who does rotary swages around Sydney. If for some reason they can't help there are a couple more riggers around Pittwater who I know to do good, reliable work.

Good luck
RoyB; Hobart

Bruce Clark - Yacht Rigger
Sydney Rigging Specialists
5 Wellington St Rozelle 2039
(02) 9555 4277 0414 667 773

Joe Henderson - Yacht Rigger
42 Edwin Street Mortlake 2137
(02) 9736 3626 0419 848 348

(Joe checks in here from time to time, he may see your message)

[ribbony]

Given that the rigger did the swaging, we supplied all the hardware and labour, it would be interesting to hear how other riggers would handle a similar situation if the swaging they did was not to spec after 2pass swaging ? What would you be prepared to provide to remedy the situation, hardware, wire ? I know you can not speak for another rigger, but what you would do at least gives us some idea as to what is fair to ask for.

Thanks Roy for the reccomended riggers. We needed a special swage end for the furler and rang around Sydney to find that SRS had one in stock, Bruce swaged it on the wire and did a beautiful job and that is part of our comparison to assess the other swages against.

[Brian Duff]

if the swages don't spec, there are three possiblities. The wire is large, the fittings are thick, or (most likely) the machine is wore out. most rig shops i have been at NEVER have calibrated or even check their swages. thats why i use products from Brooks rotary swager (sailing services)

we find MANY rig sets from local shops to be incorrectly made, and what a dissapointment for the owners, who hire us to inspect a recently done job, to find that disaster. Not to mention the political mess that makes for me being the 'bad guy' (in the eyes of local peers)

oy

lesson learned - go to your boat and check your swages!