Randalthor
Cast Iron
- Joined
- Mar 7, 2018
- Location
- Kansas City
I'm not a professional machinist, but need the advice of one please.
I was using a wire grip sometime ago to stretch some barbed wire and the gripper instantly and catastrophically failed. This can be a serious issue. The taut wire, instantly released of it's tension, can slide through flesh like a chain saw. In this instance I was lucky and avoided getting cut.
The wire grip I was using looks like this:
It's actually a good design in that it clamps the wire without damaging or kinking it. You insert the wire in the "cut-out" of the ring, then spin the ring so that the wire is between the ring and tapered post.
Here's another pic of how the grip grabs the wire:
The problem is that these grippers are now all made in China using cheap cast. When the one I was using failed, it never even gave a hint of failure (like bending a little). It just snapped without any warning. It's the ring which goes around the tapered post which broke. This naturally seems like the weakest point to me because the ring is not a solid ring, but has the "cut-out" to allow for insertion of the wire between the ring and post.
Because the design is what I need, I'd like to make one myself, but want to use a material that will give a little warning before failure (like deforming/bending a little) instead of just snapping. Or alternatively, a material strong enough it won't break.
I may be over thinking this because just about steel would be stronger than the cheap cast used in the original tool, but I thought I'd run it by you good folks. The cheap cast of the original was "almost" strong enough. The barbed wire was stretched just about tight enough when the gripper broke.
Would 1018 work? Or, I have some O1 drill rod. Thoughts on using that? Or something else?
I was using a wire grip sometime ago to stretch some barbed wire and the gripper instantly and catastrophically failed. This can be a serious issue. The taut wire, instantly released of it's tension, can slide through flesh like a chain saw. In this instance I was lucky and avoided getting cut.
The wire grip I was using looks like this:
It's actually a good design in that it clamps the wire without damaging or kinking it. You insert the wire in the "cut-out" of the ring, then spin the ring so that the wire is between the ring and tapered post.
Here's another pic of how the grip grabs the wire:
The problem is that these grippers are now all made in China using cheap cast. When the one I was using failed, it never even gave a hint of failure (like bending a little). It just snapped without any warning. It's the ring which goes around the tapered post which broke. This naturally seems like the weakest point to me because the ring is not a solid ring, but has the "cut-out" to allow for insertion of the wire between the ring and post.
Because the design is what I need, I'd like to make one myself, but want to use a material that will give a little warning before failure (like deforming/bending a little) instead of just snapping. Or alternatively, a material strong enough it won't break.
I may be over thinking this because just about steel would be stronger than the cheap cast used in the original tool, but I thought I'd run it by you good folks. The cheap cast of the original was "almost" strong enough. The barbed wire was stretched just about tight enough when the gripper broke.
Would 1018 work? Or, I have some O1 drill rod. Thoughts on using that? Or something else?