Soldering ends on cables

[DogBunny]

Nothing new here, plenty of how-to vids on Facebook, but thought I'd share my experience soldering ends on cables.
Super-easy.
I needed to shorten a throttle cable on my 1978 Honda NC50 Express, which I am readying for sale.


Left to right: two practice ends I made, the original end that I cut off of a new cable that I bought to shorten it, and the new cable ready for the solder.
The new cable end has been splayed out (called a rosette), and a blob of flux has been put on it.
The white board is a piece of soft silicon refractory material from when I made ceramics. The mold is made by drilling, very simple.


I had hoped to be able to get more than one use out of each mold, but the refractory board is too soft, and gets damaged when pulling the end out.
I did a little clean-up of the ends I made in the first pic, but that was not at all necessary -- almost any crude blob of solder on the end of the cable will work.


I tried Medite for the mold to see if it would be reusable, but it was worse than the silica board -- the cable had to be dug and cut out. That's a little dam for the solder that I made with a silica and water slurry.
Anyways, very doable for throttle cables. I'd be a bit leery about cables with harder pulls, but I'd do it if I had no choice.

 

[Jim]

What type of solder did you use, William?

 

[JJames]

What type of solder did you use, William?

That was my next question. Seems like the "harder" the better?

 

[JJames]

Makes me wonder, has anyone tried this with epoxy- JB Weld?

 

[Jim]

Makes me wonder, has anyone tried this with epoxy- JB Weld?

I love JB Weld, but in this case, no. It would likely start to crumble on the first pull on it.

 

[cra-z1]

Nothing worse than making a cable and having it break 5 miles from home especially the clutch cable. For a throttle cable your system would work well as the forces are not great. Clutch cables have a bit more tension to deal with. I made these jigs to prevent the dreaded 5 mile push back to home. First step is to create a bird cage (as they call it) that sits down in the cable end which I make out of brass The tool is pretty easy to make and looks like this. Couple pieces of angle iron drilled to the cable dimension. Placing a piece of paper between the angle iron before drilling will create a clamping force on the cable. Then a 2nd hole (1/4 inch) is drilled deep enough for the wire to expand. The rod that is used to make the bird gage has a divit drilled on the end which pushes out the wire to form the bird cage. For the clutch I like to make my ends out of brass or I have even used an old shoulder bolt and drilled to accept the wire and bird cage assembly. Just remember to put the end on before you form the bird cage. Dont ask how I know this. You can make a jig for several sizes of wire but the 2mm would be the most common for the clutch. I have used just common solid plumbing solder and flux with a torch but I want to pick up a solder pot one of these days.

Of course you can splay out the wire end ( done many this way) with whatever is handy and get it seated into the barrel end but the tool gives you a nice bird cage that will not pull out.

 

[DogBunny]

What type of solder did you use, William?

Good question. I used the scrap at the bottom. Which I don't what it is, because it came free on a wheel -- it was wrapped around a spoke, being used as a wheel weight.
It's thick -- compare to the other solders -- which is why I used it. To cast the cable end, you cut off a couple of pieces and put them in the mold, then you melt them with a torch. If there's a lot of excess it will pool at the top, and you can flick it off while melted or grind it off when cool.

That was my next question. Seems like the "harder" the better?

That never occurred to me, but I guess it should have. For a throttle cable, I don't think it matters. Yeah, you'd definitely want to do some research before choosing solder for a brake cable.

 

[DogBunny]

Nothing worse than making a cable and having it break 5 miles from home especially the clutch cable. For a throttle cable your system would work well as the forces are not great. Clutch cables have a bit more tension to deal with. I made these jigs to prevent the dreaded 5 mile push back to home. First step is to create a bird cage (as they call it) that sits down in the cable end which I make out of brass The tool is pretty easy to make and looks like this. Couple pieces of angle iron drilled to the cable dimension. Placing a piece of paper between the angle iron before drilling will create a clamping force on the cable. Then a 2nd hole (1/4 inch) is drilled deep enough for the wire to expand. The rod that is used to make the bird gage has a divit drilled on the end which pushes out the wire to form the bird cage. For the clutch I like to make my ends out of brass or I have even used an old shoulder bolt and drilled to accept the wire and bird cage assembly. Just remember to put the end on before you form the bird cage. Dont ask how I know this. You can make a jig for several sizes of wire but the 2mm would be the most common for the clutch. I have used just common solid plumbing solder and flux with a torch but I want to pick up a solder pot one of these days.

Of course you can splay out the wire end ( done many this way) with whatever is handy and get it seated into the barrel end but the tool gives you a nice bird cage that will not pull out.


View attachment 360501

View attachment 360502

Yes, I called it a rosette, but bird cage is used more commonly, I just couldn't remember it. Nice tool you made, they make beautiful bird cages.
They make different size bird cage tools for different cable diameters. Here's a nice set:
https://www.ebay.com/itm/303489170679

 

[cra-z1]

Nice tool but the price

 

[Highpower]

I have a Harbor Freight hydraulic swaging tool that I have used for a number of different jobs. It was designed for crimping ends on electrical cables up to -00- and I have made anvils for sundry other projects. It puts out decent pressure and I have used it swage ferules on wire cables.

I wish I had a source for the hard lead alloy (linotype?) that is used on cable ends. I bet it would work by casting the cable into a mold and then crimping the pee out of it.