[Rhodes22-list] Cable Tie Stay Fasteners

[Fred Kaiser]

Bill, we tried your cable tie idea last year on some of Fretless's 
turnbuckles.  The hole in some of the other turnbuckles is to small to 
allow the littlest tie to go through the hole.  I have thought of 
increasing the hole size very slightly so that the tie would fit but 
haven't tried it yet.  The ties that we were able to insert worked very 
well none broke and there was no movement by the turnbuckle. And as you say 
the ties are not in any way supporting the stays. They sure are easier to 
remove and insert than the cotter rings.  I do suggest that you use the 
black ties as they have better UV protection than the white ones.  Sun 
light may be the reason some of yours did break as UV light tends to make 
the white ones brittle.

Fred Kaiser
1991 R22 Fretless
Swan Creek, MD / Ft Washington PA



At 10:39 AM 11/22/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>I'm the only one I know of who uses the plastic stay fasteners.
>Forked cotter pins can hurt you when you walk by.  The cotter rings jiggle 
>out.  Taping turnbuckles traps water, which rusts rigging where you can't 
>see it.
>
>All of these things have happened to people on this list.
>
>I am using little cable ties.  I put the lead through the hole in the 
>turnbuckle, and then around one arm of the turnbuckle, through the head of 
>the cable tie, and then I cut off the excess right after the head.  I 
>wedge the cable tie head between the turnbuckle thread and one arm of the 
>turnbuckle so the turnbuckle can't turn even if the loop of the cable tie 
>is sheared.
>
>If a cable tie fails, the rig doesn't come down.  The turnbuckle is 
>holding up the rig, not the cable tie.  All the cable tie must do is 
>prevent the turnbuckle from turning.  The wedged head, by itself, will do 
>this.  The loop is a safety.  Any time you see a sheared loop you replace 
>it.  This can be done in a matter of seconds.
>
>Very few of my cable ties have sheared during the 2 or 3 years I have been 
>doing this.  More than 0.  Less than 5.  The turnbuckle has never turned 
>from where I set it.  I have never had both the upper and lower cable tie 
>shear at the same time.
>
>I find I am much more willing to retune my rig as the summer progresses 
>and things stretch out because it is so simple to cut the existing ties, 
>(with wire cutters) tune the rig -- I always do this by feel and sound -- 
>and reinsert new cable ties.  I don't use rigging tape any more because it 
>damaged my turnbuckles.  I plan to replace all my turnbuckles, and never 
>wrap them.  The new ones should last a lifetime.
>
>Bill Effros