cutting cables

[SURFER]

my cable cutter from builders warehouse did not last long.  used about 6 times on gear cable.   Will try park tool cutter.

[Guest Big H]

my cable cutter from builders warehouse did not last long.  used about 6 times on gear cable.   Will try park tool cutter.

 

A bad carpenter normally blames his blunt saw not even a new saw will make him better....... maintenance boet maintenance!!!!!!! Now become a good carpenter and READ what I wrote above!!!!!! capice!!!!!!!

[SURFER]

missed  that, but thanks

[Red Zone]

I bought a pair of cable cutters from the LBS for about R180 was a great buy, side cutters were like riding in flip-flops, you can do it but you wouldnt realy want to.

[Johan Bornman]

Cable cutters FTW. You'll pull a poepstring cutting gear outers with sidecutters.

 

I can't agree with you more. A sidecutter, even a very good one, can cut anything other than gear cable housing. I pop a vein each time I try. Foe Fighter suggest we call the agent but who exactly is the poepstring agent?

 

 

[Johan Bornman]

Any cable cutter will do. Like any tool it need maintenance' date=' especially a tool that exerts a lot of effort to cut steel. My no name brand cutters that I bought at Builders Warehouse is dressed every now and then with a porcelain stone (Lansky Tool Sharpening Extra fine Stone) to ensure they stay sharp. Any appy or pro whrench that assumes these tools will stay sharp forever is not so sharp in the cranium department!!!!!!!

 

I also use the lighter with the sidecutter trick. It works well ON CABLES not on the brake sleeves.

 

My Dremel cuts the cables and the sleeves the best. Cleanly without any burrs. Also use a sharpened spoke as a awl to open up the hole in the sleeve. I have also use a angle grinder with a cutting blade. Just becarefull!!!!! and wear protective glasses.

[/quote']

 

OK Hendrik. Jy wen. Sny 'n fietskabel met 'n angle grinder! Dis soos om 'n vlieg dood te skiet met 'n R1.

 

Anyway, I cannot picture how you dress your cable cutters. A cable cutter relies on two flat plates that move tightly against each other to shear the cable. A sidecutter relies on two chisel-shaped blades pressing against each other, splitting the piece.

 

Should a cable cutter become blunt, I can't see how a sharpening stone would come to the rescue. If you were to flatten  the flat edge of the blade (in other words, the working side), it would loose material and no longer move close to its opposite blade and have a gap inbetween that would bend the cable and mash it between the two blades.

 

Perhaps you are attacking the sharpening from the other side with some sort of round stone? 

 

Help my verstaan.

 

 

[Jules]

I have cut many a cable and cable outer with my BBB cable cutters (without once sharpening them, OomH will be horrified to hear).

 

 

 

The blades are still fine, but the plastic handles came loose this weekend, making the job a bit more awkward.

[Minion]

 

A bad carpenter normally blames his blunt saw not even a new saw will make him better....... maintenance boet maintenance!!!!!!! Now become a good carpenter and READ what I wrote above!!!!!! capice!!!!!!!

Any basic hand tool that stops working and needs to be sharpened after six uses deserves the description: *** (or butter if you want to be polite).

 

Any tool (Park) that prices itself at the upper end of the market and stops working (the two shearing edges on mine are no longer in contact - you cannot fix that simply be grinding away more material) after 32 uses does not deserve the term quality (although I'm prepared to concede that mine may be a dud).

 

If a professional workshop (LBS) was using these tools they would, apparently, need to sharpen them pretty much daily. I don't think they do.

 

[Jules]

I'm very interested to hear how OomH sharpens his cable cutters...

[deanbean]

I've used a small angle grinder with one of those thin blades, but as you say JB, it's overdoing it, but it does make a good cut. I can cut XTR outers with a sidecutter without any problems and I'm a small oke, so must be a matter of levers.

[Guest Big H]

Any cable cutter will do. Like any tool it need maintenance' date=' especially a tool that exerts a lot of effort to cut steel. My no name brand cutters that I bought at Builders Warehouse is dressed every now and then with a porcelain stone (Lansky Tool Sharpening Extra fine Stone) to ensure they stay sharp. Any appy or pro whrench that assumes these tools will stay sharp forever is not so sharp in the cranium department!!!!!!!

 

I also use the lighter with the sidecutter trick. It works well ON CABLES not on the brake sleeves.

 

My Dremel cuts the cables and the sleeves the best. Cleanly without any burrs. Also use a sharpened spoke as a awl to open up the hole in the sleeve. I have also use a angle grinder with a cutting blade. Just becarefull!!!!! and wear protective glasses.

[/quote']

 

OK Hendrik. Jy wen. Sny 'n fietskabel met 'n angle grinder! Dis soos om 'n vlieg dood te skiet met 'n R1.

 

Anyway, I cannot picture how you dress your cable cutters. A cable cutter relies on two flat plates that move tightly against each other to shear the cable. A sidecutter relies on two chisel-shaped blades pressing against each other, splitting the piece.

 

Should a cable cutter become blunt, I can't see how a sharpening stone would come to the rescue. If you were to flatten  the flat edge of the blade (in other words, the working side), it would loose material and no longer move close to its opposite blade and have a gap inbetween that would bend the cable and mash it between the two blades.

 

Perhaps you are attacking the sharpening from the other side with some sort of round stone? 

 

Help my verstaan.

 

 

 

As al wat jy het die R1 is, werk hy net so goed soos 'n vlieeplak.

 

You have eplained yourself very ably above. Nothing more to understand.

 

Only problem is that poor Jules is so anorexic he will never understand....... he is a very good example of a real acute medical problem. The medicine has not yet developed a medicine or cure for stupidity!!!!!!!!

[kosmonooit]

Guys I'd sooner use a small angle grinder with a thin metal blade to cut a bike cable than stuff up side cutters trying to cut that tough steel cable, but that's me.?

There is another use for a small angle grinder and thin blades for you home bike mechs: triming handle bars and steerer tubes. You will get a much better finish than hacksaw. Some materials are also damn hard to saw, like that Scandananium on some bars I just got: hacksaw just bounced of that, you really have to give it horns, but power tool option as discussed above is like hot knife through butter, just make sure bars or tube is secured in vice or clamped in some way, and you are cutting nice and square.

[SURFER]

Kosmonooit

 

Is this "thin" metal blade different to the blades you get to grind (cut) into concrete or metal?

[kosmonooit]

Hey surfer yea they are different: they are just over 1mm wide, its not metal (kinda composite) but ?for cutting metal.

The disks are flexible as well, work wonders even cutting angle iron etc because its just cutting a thin slice

Something like this:

http://flexovitabrasives.com/index.html/screen/razorblade27ez112206/session_id/f7eda8addaa7af4d9bbe5099e2ce91d1

[SURFER]

thanks, will get one

[Christopher Brunsdon]

Got my cable cutter from sportsmans warehouse for R110. Worth it