SWA glandsan easier way ?

O

oilly brother

New Member
ok ! this may seem stupid , but today i was terminating some SWA cables and as usual thought there must be an easier way.

first i slide on boot, then nut, then cut outer insulation round cable, then make a second cut 30mm away to score the armour, then remove outer insulation, then snip off armour at score mark, then assemble gland,

are there easier ways of doing this, does anyone have any useful tips or tools to ease the process
 
Sry but I have often thought the same thing, it is tedious especially the larger SWA it feels like building a battleship. I shall mark this message thread and will be interested myself in what the more experience SWA operators have to say.
 
When you say that you "snip" away at the armouring - what are you using?
I have always scored around the armoring deeply with a junior hacksaw or hackswaw for bigger cables, cutting around and almost all the way through the steel.
Then it's easy to just bend a few say 5 or 6 strands back and forwards until they snap off - easy.
I use a Jokari stripping tool to strip smaller cables - it gets the outer PVC and inner sheaths off easy.
Armoured 'aint difficult - no need to struggle. :)

TN
 
Maybe I should mention that the scoring/cutting of the steel armour is the very first cut I make, going all around the circumference of the cable.
Then I strip off the outer sheath, bend/snap off the strands,
then strip off some 30 mm or so of outer sheath,
work the inner cores of the sheath around in a wide circle.
This should "fan" out the steel wiring ready for the inner part of the gland to be inserted.
Mate up with the gland nut that should already be on the cable along with the cocksock,
Tighten up the gland and then using a Jokari tool I finally remove the inner sheath.
Piece of the old proverbial - easier than plumbing eh?

TN
 
Cheers Tallow nob, ill try using the hacksaw method, i usaully snip them with a pair of end nippers. have tried using rotary stripper for the inner insulation and works fine,

Still wonder why someone has not come up with something like a plumbers pipe slice to do the armour bit though

easier than plumbing ? how about pushfit SWA, then anypone could do it !

Ta again
 
nice post tallow, i do same way, advice to any 1 tho, dont use any snippers to snip wire LOL, side cutters other tools are actualy only designed to cut copper cables, there are NOT suitable for use with steel wire, learnt this at age 12 ;)
 
LS,
I have had my side cutters for over 15yrs and they have to cut everything I throw at them including screws(to shorten them)nails, swa or anything.
 
Good advice LS, i use a pair of nippers that are designed to cut 1.2mm piano wire, had them years, will also cut 25mm tails no probs, right tools for the job and all that, ceratinally would not use my pair of Lindstrom end cutters for this job
 
Using a hack saw makes a lot of sense. I too usally cut but the problem is using that method is the end result is a small curl in each steel wire whereas using the hack saw method I guess you finish up with a very nice clean break. Thanks for thatidea I will try it next time, especially on the larger SWA stuff. Rgds Ray
 
ok soom good points, but why would you need to use any cutters on the steel wire?, you shouldnt need to, i agree somtimes you have to cut steel wire etc, but i certainly wouldnt be using any of my electrical cutters,side cutters,pliers,CK strippers to cut anything other than copper cables.
 
RE:
ok soom good points, but why would you need to use any cutters on the steel wire?, you shouldnt need to, i agree somtimes you have to cut steel wire etc, but i certainly wouldnt be using any of my electrical cutters,side cutters,pliers,CK strippers to cut anything other than copper cables.

Erm... that's what I thought I was saying - no need for cutters of any description when removing the SWA.

Anyway hope it helps :)

TN
 
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