PSA: A safety inspector told me my cable terminations were wrong - here's what I changed

Last month during a routine inspection in a 12-story office building downtown, the inspector pointed out that my swaged fittings on the governor cable had burrs I'd been ignoring. He told me, "Those burrs will start a stress crack after about 10,000 cycles" - I had no idea. I switched to using a proper file and then a fine stone to dress each termination, even though it adds maybe 3 minutes per cable. Has anyone else had an inspector call out something small that actually saved you a big headache later?

2 comments

2 Comments

morganhayes29d ago

Nodded along reading this because I had the exact same thing happen on a rope access job a few years back. Inspector caught me using a dull file on a swaged termination and basically told me I was making the burrs worse, not better. I switched to a proper mill file and a fine stone and now I treat every termination like I'm sharpening a knife. It's a pain in the ass but I haven't had a single crack or failure since, even on cables that see heavy cycling.

spencerm5229d ago

Can you really fix a dull file though? I mean, maybe it's just me but I feel like once a file is shot it's shot. I've tried sharpening them before and it never works right, just makes them worse. I end up just tossing them and grabbing a new one. Idk, maybe I'm just not patient enough but it sounds like you had more luck with yours.