Made In China - dont bet your life on it

[rebocardo]

Here is a "made in China" clamp that broke before it even reached torque spec. I was using it on a 1/4 inch cable I use for tree work and winching.

I use a beam torque wrench because it is more accurate then a click type, especially on the low end, this clamp just kept yielding until it snapped. Did not even get to 15 pounds. Another reason to use at least three instead of the min. two and why

"You should not bet your life on anything "Made In China""!

[HORSELOGGER]

I always wondered what happened to all those Yugos I used to see. Guess they got melted down into "chinesium" ;D

[etat]

rebocardo, the gas powered winches on my laddervators that we use to send up shingles also uses 1/4 inch cable.  I gave up on those types of clamps long ago.  I always use the kind that the cable slips through, and then you clamp a crimp in them.  I usually double these up, and have never had one to fail.  It's not any fun at all to be sending 3 bundles of architect shingles up a laddervator and have something to fail.  I have had brake failure a couple of times.  When it hits, it warps the frame and carriage that runs up the ladder, every time.  I have also had clamp failure, and again catastrophic loss of control.  One of my number one rules when running the laddervator, is HANDS OFF, everything except the handles that control the up and down, and DO NOT STAND UNDER The CARRIAGE while it is up and loaded or not.  You can find these crimp type connectors at better hardware stores, and sometimes Lowe's.  It takes a special tool to make the crimp.

[Fla._Deadheader]

I've done my share of clamping and crimping. Don'T believe I have seen the type you mentioned CK. Got a pic???

[etat]

 ;D ;D ;D Sure ya have FLA.  Just you're probably used to seein them on bigger cables on bought winches and things!






Upon checking I found that I was using one clamp, no two as I thought.  This cable was put on this winch appx. 2 years ago and I think it would be safe to say it has carried thousands of squares of shingles up the ladder, three bundles at a time.   I am NOT exagerating.  You can see
where I used the tool to make multiple crimps, and also installed a cable protector thingy where I hook it to the top of the ladder.

This winch clamps to the back of a special ladder and the cable strings through a series of pullies, and through a pulley on the carrage, and then back up to the top of the ladder where it hooks.  I can bolt and brace enough sections together to send shingles up as high as 40 feet.  I also have a 16 foot lightweight section that we use for small houses.  

[DanG]

I use those little clamps, but I give them a real test when putting them on. ;D  If I can wring it off with the ratchet, I toss it. :D :D  I had real trouble with the ones from Lowe's, but I bought a sackfull from Mr. Hootie, and haven't broken one since.

[Fla._Deadheader]

OK, ya got me : :  We used them at the Power Co.

  Didn't know Lowe's carried them. HATE to have to drive to Mr. Hootie's for a bag full : : ;D

[etat]

  Just caught ya off guard FLa. that's all, just caught ya off guard.  It would be pretty easy to duplicate that crimping tool with some pieces of steel and a vise.  

[DanG]

Harold, I was talking about the little clamps in Rebo's post, not the swages like CK has.

[etat]

SWAGES,  so that's what them little clamp things are called.  I always thought it was called the 'little thingie what that you threaded the cable through a couple a times and then clamped and crimped it'.   That's probably the ONLY thing I like about Lowes.  When you are a huntin something that you know what you're hunting but don't know what it's called in there you're usually dealing with someone that wouldn't know what you were talking about even if you did know what you were talking about!!!!! 8) 8) 8)

[Duane_Moore]

 8) :DI think them is  ( chingaderos) u no whatyamacallit ;D ;D   Duh---Duane

[shopteacher]

The good ones are made by Nicopress.  I'd be very careful about trying to make you own crimper.  The Nicopress crimper comes with a Gage to determine if the crimp is the right size and depending on cable size as to how many crimps need to be put on a sleeve.  The sleeves also come in different material composition such as aluminum, copper , zinc plated copper (steel cable), tin plated copper(SS aircraft
 cable). I have crimpers from 1/16 to 7/32".  The last crimper I bought was for 7/32" cable and run $119.00 and made in the good old USA.
www.nicopress.com

[Fla._Deadheader]

  Mr. Hootie Don'T got "crimps" ???  That's what we called 'em at the power co. That Nicopress thingy was near outlawwed at the power co. Problem was, we needed to use the nicopress tool, on occasion. : :

  We used a "Burndy" hydraulic crimpin tool, both, hand pumped and electric-hydraulic pumped ;D

  I switched to re-braiding all the cables we use, BEFORE clamping. I put a post on here, waaaaaayy back, showing how to unwind a cable and re-winding it as if it were new, and then clamping. Puts a LOT more strain at the loop or splice, instead of all of the strain on the clamp. Yood be susprised how strong that makes the joint. ;D ;D

[shopteacher]

FDH, those hydraulic crimpers are real nice, but you got to dig a lot deeper in the pocket for them.

   My dad made his living as a rope and cable spicer. Started in the Baltimore shipyards as a rigger and moved to Pa. to work in the steel mills. Started splicing the big hauser hemp rope on steam engines and mostly spice wire rope crane cable.  I remember as a small kid his shop at home where he and another rigger spliced cable at night as a part time business. Very hard work splicing 1 1/4" and 1 1/2" wire rope.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Yup  ;D :D :D

[old3dogg]

Made In China! Indeed!
That is the whole reason I have to go "sign up" next week.
I thought slave labour was illegal? >:(

[shopteacher]

I've really think a tariff equal to the difference of what minimum wage here is and the country exporting to this country should be levied and paid to those workers. Not only would that elevate those workers to above slave status, but would put this country on a more level playing field.  I also believe there should have to be documentation of those factories abiding to some environmental policies.  Here to we could cut back on the cost of goods as long as you don't mind living along side Love Canal.  I don't really blame manufactures for going overseas today, it's the only way they can compete with the import markets. However, it's killing the jobs and opportunities here.  If all were equal in wages and manufacturing restrictions there is no place or no people who can produce a better product than the USA.  That folks is my thoughts on that.

[D._Frederick]

Our newspaper ran an article about fiber optics being farmed out to China, the girls working on them got $60 a month plus room and board. We can't compete with that , the playing field is not level.

[shopteacher]

Well D. Fredricks that's not entirely true. Remember WPA, CCC, the depression all we have to do is go back to living like that. 60 dollars a month would seem like a fortune. :(  

[old3dogg]

We,the USA,impose tariffs againts Canada but allow countrys like China to dump their junk on us.The sad part is that we keep shopping at places like Wal Mart.
$60 bucks a month! Can you live on that?
I know it is real hard to buy products made here but I am one who still looks at the label to see where it was made.
Shopteacher.
Dont blame manufactures here in the USA for going overseas?
Bull s*&t! It boils down to one thing.GREED!
I just hope that all the junk wood products that we buy from "over seas" start falling apart from poor manufacturing and we all wake up and say"Gee! We should have paid the extra $5 bucks and bought the good stuff!
We are heading to be a third world country and fast!
Mike.

[old3dogg]

a l'application.
active par la chaleur du corps.
pouder satinee.
antisudorifique et desodorisant.
 
anyone care to tell what kind of deo Im using?
It was made in the USA!

[shopteacher]

Well 3dog, I ain't saying I like the fact that business is going overseas, but let face it, if the American public supported US products they wouldn't be going there in the first place.  Tell me what US brand of shirt  or TV set I can buy? The American public is not one to go without.  Their  want for more and more  for their money and more and more money and benefits for their labor and lack of support for US product has brought about the state were in.
  Businesses are not in the business of providing jobs to the public, but rather to make a profit.  If they don't show a profit investors pull their capital out and the business folds or is consumed by a competitor.
   In 1985 the steel mill I worked in shutdown due to foreign imports, so no I don't like to see business move overseas and I don't like buying imports.
   Wood products and furniture is a recent attack, what about the autoworkers, steelworkers, appliance manufactures, telecommunications, machinery manufactures,  clothing industry even agriculture. Many of the huge food producing farms are owned by foreign investors.  Where were we when all these industries and jobs were on the line.
    So when I say I can't blame a business of moving out, it's either that or die.  
    Look at Powermatic, Delta & Oliver. All great names in woodworking machinery and now  mostly made overseas.

[Mark M]

There would be a lot of problems if we try to raise the standard of living the people in China to anywhere near ours. I have a friend in the mining business who visits his company's mine in China several times a year and I asked him why didn't they just get some big machines for mining instead of doing it by hand? He said if they did then all those people wouldn't have a job and there is nothing else for them to do. I'm afraid the same thing would happed if you start taxing their imports, they would lose what little they have.

I myself do not buy Chinese products. I'm not against buying foreign goods and do it all the time, but I absolutely despise cheap tools and cheap parts. I don't believe I've ever seen a tool or part come out of China that wasn't substandard quality.

[ksu_chainsaw]

We have been using nicopress type splices on fence wire for a long time.  We used to get the small crimpers at the farm store for an outrageous price, but we would either loose them or break them.  Also, for high-tensile fence wire, the 18" crimpers that they sold were virtually impossible to start crimping.  We found an older pair of 36" bolt cutters, cut the notches into the jaws, and we have used that pair of crimpers for fencing for almost three years now.  It is the most useful tool that we have in the fencing trailer now, since it still has an area to cut wires, and the long handles make it much easier to crimp in the splices.

Charles

[etat]

ksu_chainsaw, pretty much what I was talkin about making to use with a vise.   ;D

charles..... ;Daka cktate!!!