Control cable?

[Eric Page]

I had to cut the cables out of my fuselage during disassembly, so it's in many pieces and needs to be replaced. I also cut off and tossed all of the Nicopress sleeves, and I can't remember how many there were. I'm preparing an Aircraft Spruce order and could use the new cable and sleeves to get me over the $350 hump for free shipping.

Aircraft Spruce says this about Nicopress sleeves: "Plain copper and zinc coated sleeves are used with galvanized cable, and tin coated sleeves are to be used with stainless steel cable." I'm certain the cables I removed were fastened with plain copper sleeves, but the cable appears to be stainless.


So, five questions...

1. Do we use 1/8" 7x19 cable?

2. Is the cable galvanized or stainless?

3. What length of cable ships with the kits?

4. Do we use plain copper, zinc coated or tin coated Nicopress sleeves?

5. How many sleeves ship with the kits?

Thanks!

[Cherrybark]

Wish I could help with answers to your specific questions but I'll offer that Kitfox will sell the components to assemble the control cable and they will always be the correct parts.

Don't forget the round "thimbles" for the cable ends.

[Eric Page]

Yeah, I'm sure Kitfox would sell me the parts, but I need to get another ~$50 into my Aircraft Spruce cart at the moment. I'll be ordering $thousands from Kitfox before my plane flies...

I did keep the round thimbles.

[patrick.hvac]

Cable - 1/8x7x19 stainless 59ft.
Sleeves - MS51844-24 1/8 zinc qty 8.

I had to cut the cables out of my fuselage during disassembly, so it's in many pieces and needs to be replaced. I also cut off and tossed all of the Nicopress sleeves, and I can't remember how many there were. I'm preparing an Aircraft Spruce order and could use the new cable and sleeves to get me over the $350 hump for free shipping.

Aircraft Spruce says this about Nicopress sleeves: "Plain copper and zinc coated sleeves are used with galvanized cable, and tin coated sleeves are to be used with stainless steel cable." I'm certain the cables I removed were fastened with plain copper sleeves, but the cable appears to be stainless.


So, five questions...

1. Do we use 1/8" 7x19 cable?

2. Is the cable galvanized or stainless?

3. What length of cable ships with the kits?

4. Do we use plain copper, zinc coated or tin coated Nicopress sleeves?

5. How many sleeves ship with the kits?

Thanks!

[Eric Page]

Cable - 1/8x7x19 stainless 59ft.
Sleeves - MS51844-24 1/8 zinc qty 8.

Thank you, Patrick. Much appreciated.

[Agfoxflyer]

When I was building my 5 Skystar put out a directive that you needed to replace the copper nico press sleeves with zinc. Apparently copper and stainless don't play well together. I had already installed cables with kit supplied nicos. So I stripped out everything and replaced with zinc and 1/8 stainless cable.

[Eric Page]

I asked this same question of Aircraft Spruce, after pointing out that one of their previous answers contradicted the information in their product description. This was their reply:

I got with our supplier on this and they got back to me with, "MS51844 is specific on copper and zinc plated for carbon steel cable, and tin plated or stainless steel for stainless cable."

They edited down my question and their answer quite a bit when they added it to their product page, and they still haven't deleted the contradictory Q&A, but the text above was their emailed reply to me.

AC 43.13-1B only specifies (in a note below Table 7-6) the use of "plated" sleeves with stainless steel cables, and Tony Bingelis' books are silent on the question. So, it seems the sleeve supplier's guidance via Aircraft Spruce, and the actual Mil Spec, are as definitive an answer as we're going to get.

Tin-coated cost $0.04/ea more than zinc-coated for 1/8" sleeves. Pretty easy decision to make.

[Jerrytex]

This is an interesting and frustrating issue. I just swagged all the cables on my kit and after fixing my mistake on the location where the copilots and pilots pedals connect with swages. I now realize that I have to start all over and replace all the swages since I missed the service bulletin and used all copper.

So the service bulletin says use zinc, but the aircraft spruce says to use tin plated?

I have some zinc ones and trying to figure out if it's worth the trouble of ordering tin plated especially since the SB says to use zinc.

Anyone know what kitfox provides in the current kits?

[efwd]

I used heat shrink only on the end of the nicopress with the free cable end to protect me from being snagged by the cut ends of the cable.

[alexM]

Speaking of rudder cables. I was installing mine yesterday and when I picked up the coiled mass that represents the four cables I couldn't help but notice how heavy they are.

I have to ask what will probably seem like an insane question, but why has no one used Spectra or Kevlar? I did a google search because I thought there would be examples. The marine industry uses Spectra in shrouds, which see WAY more abuse than a pair of rudder cables will ever see. Kevlar is used in the marine industry all the way through space applications (Kevlar "cables" were used extensively in getting rovers on the surface of Mars). Both materials are very stable thermally, don't suffer from the same corrosion issues that plague steel cables and damn are they light.

I looked up 1/8" 7x19 Stainless (which is weaker than galvanized) and it has a breaking strength of 1150 lbs (the one source I found). I found some 1/8" kevlar with a coating that protects it from abrasion and it has a breaking strength of 825 lbs (again, single example with no in depth research).

I don't know what kind of quad muscles you folks have but I can't squat 825 lbs, and certainly not with one leg.

Am I crazy?