Making Control Cables, was Aileron Fairleads

[Jeff J]

I used to wrap the cable with tape and cut it with a Dremel fiber reinforced cutoff wheel. Cut slow. Any straight blade cutter will crush the cable flat and make it difficult to put the sleeves on the cable. I still use the Dremel at the sleeve so I don’t get the frayed mess hanging out there. Just don’t nick the other side with it. I also use hardware store cable clamps to hold everything in place until I get the first crimp done. The sleeves expand when crimped so buying extras to practice with is a good idea I saw mentioned above. YouTube is likely full of how to videos.

I got lucky a few years back and picked up an actual Nicopress tool like new on ebay for about $100. Not sure what I was borrowing before that but the Nicopress tool was a huge improvement.

I have yet to build a cable in place. I have always built the new on top of the old on the bench. The advantage is room to work. The disadvantage is having to remove fairleads and pulleys to remove and install the cables.

Correction: I made cables for a Rearwin project in place but there wasn’t any fabric on the aircraft so it was almost as open as being on the bench.

[andya]

All the above from Jeff, in addition I have used shrink tubing used for electrical connections on the cable to
cover the swaged sleeve and the extra cable that comes out the end of the sleeve.

[dgapilot]

All the above from Jeff, in addition I have used shrink tubing used for electrical connections on the cable to
cover the swaged sleeve and the extra cable that comes out the end of the sleeve.

If you cover the sleeve and tail with heat shrink, you can’t inspect to see if the swage is slipping.


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[Chris Iriarte]

I'm pleased to report the $25 screw-down swaging tool worked great. I think for swaging in place, it's actually better than the bolt cutter-type swagers. Running the aileron balance cable through the fairleads and then swaging the ends was a non-event.

Chris