Dennis is spot on and his comments are worth many times more than the claimed $.02. Lifelines are primary safety gear and a very visible component of the boat; a poor place to save the price of a couple of boxes of beer.
Rich Knowles Indigo - C&C LF38 Halifax - Nova Scotia On 2013-02-15, at 21:03, "Dennis C." <capt...@yahoo.com> wrote: > FYI, for the adventurous, you can make your own hand crimp SS lifelines. > I've made lifelines with both a wrench swage and a Loos hand swage tool. I > have the Loos tool. I got it off eBay for about $60. It sells normally for > around $250-300. > > Couple of points here. > > 1. The cost savings is offset by the aethetics of hand swage fittings. > Machine swage fittings look much better. Over the 10-20 year life of a > lifeline, the $$ difference isn't much. When a customer asks me for an > estimate, they, more often than not, either choose to do nothing or have a > local rigging shop make them rather than hire me to do it. > > 2. Making your own lifelines is a pain in the butt. If you measure > incorrectly, the $$ you lose in a fitting or a length of lifeline will > probably offset your savings. > > 3. Buying a Loos swage tool on eBay may sound good but a word of caution. > Many of them are well used tools from professional installers that may have > excess clearance. If the tool can't properly compress the fitting, one or > more of your crew is going over the side when it lets go. > > 4. Hand swage fittings tend to bend a bit when you swage them. This is > particularly true of the cheap wrench swage tool. Machine swage fittings are > genrally straight although I have seen a few with a slight bend. > > My recommendation is that you strip all the lifelines and take them to a pro > to have them duplicated. In many cases, you can re-use fittings that only > require a new threaded stud. > > My 2 cents worth. > > Dennis C. > Touche' 35-1 #83 > Mandeville, LA > _______________________________________________ > This List is provided by the C&C Photo Album > http://www.cncphotoalbum.com > CnC-List@cnc-list.com
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