"RST Engineering" wrote in message
...
Orval --

A quick question from somebody who farms that part of the job out when it
has to be done...since the end doesn't take any of the tension of the
cable,
what would be wrong with torching it and then nicropressing it outside of
the torched area?

Stainless steel does not burn in oxygen like carbon steel does. You can CUT
stainless steel with a plasma torch or with an abrasive disk cutoff saw.
With an oxy-acetylene torch you could MELT the stainless cable (and blow the
melted metal away as opposed to burning away like carbon steel) and you may
be able to fuse the ends of the cable as is often done with regular wire
rope. Since stainless is normally welded inside an inert atmosphere (argon
or helium), you should expect less than perfect results if fusing the end of
the cable in an oxygen atmosphere. Some people use solder or silver
solder(brazing) to seal the cable ends and contain the jagged ends.
Stainless does not conduct heat as well as regular steel so it will stay hot
longer but will not conduct the heat as far down the cable as regular wire
rope. You could stop the heat traveling very far by quenching in water or
oil.

YMMV and I doubt that it is approved as per EA-AC 43.13-1A&2A An abrasive
disk cutoff saw and a blob of 5 min. epoxy would be the easiest and would
solve worries about the heat affected zone, or just put an extra nico over
the jagged ends.

Blue skies to all.