Mondoman

Well, I trimmed my newly-installed FD cable down to a couple of inches past the cable clamp; my diagonal clipper cut somehow unwound the strands, so I've got an inch or two frizzy that won't fit inside a crimp end cap noway nohow. Easy solution(s) welcome.

mechBgon

Twist it back into its normal form with a twist-&-draw motion. Or get a new wire, install it, and hold it between your fingers right next to the cutter so it can't do that trick again

Mondoman

I appreciate your suggestion, but it's too short and in too cramped quarters to twist back; being steel, it's also springy and doesn't want to twist back completely. This is a nice wire, and the FD works, so I don't want to go buy another nice wire a day after I installed one (annoyed at myself!).

JonathanGennick 

Maybe wrap a bit of duct tape around the frayed ends?

jsmithepa

So unbolt from derailleur (shift to smallest chainring first to facilitate) then fix. Use a small plier to help twist if u like. Then re-install.

Nothing to it.

tellyho

New cable. There's no great solution to this. I've had luck with superglue after cutting to keep it from happening.

jsharr

slide a piece of heat shrink tubing over it, apply heat, and forget about it until next time.

Mondoman

Wow, lots of suggestions -- thanks! And the winners are: jg and js! I was able to tame it enough with some tape wrapped around it that I should be able to get some shrink-wrap over it and melt it into submission. I keep forgetting how handy shrink wrap can be.

BarracksSi

I was gonna say to solder it.

the_tool_man

Next time you get a new cable, solder it BEFORE you cut it. Once it frays apart, it will never go back together right. If you solder it now, you may not be able to pull it out of the derailleur clamp.

vettefrc2000

It's what I do anyway.

Sekine

I feel like solder is a lot of work for a cable, I see lots and lots of people advocating soldering cable, but doing a couple dozen cuts a week I don't ever use solder, nor do I ever run into a problem with a frayed end. Cap and crimp, and when you crimp, crimp hard!

BarracksSi

With a small butane torch and a ribbon of solder, it should be pretty quick (I repaired a trumpet this afternoon, and the longest part of the process was dipping a strip of solder into some paste flux and wedging it into the brace-bell junction).

I have yet to do it to a bike, though -- but if a crimp pops off for whatever reason, I'm gonna do my first cable soldering job.

vettefrc2000

It is the best way to go. Permanent and it is clean looking.

Mondoman

Regarding soldering, this is cable coated with black "teflon", and I'm not quite desperate enough to smoke it yet.

onbike 1939

If the cable is SS then soldering becomes more difficult.

dlharrison

I use clear finernail polish. After cutting the cable to size, I put on 3 to 4 coats of the polish. It takes about 5 to 10 minutes for the polish to dry between coats. The polish, which is an acrylate, keep the metal strands bound together. I keep a small bottle in my tool box.

operator

Or you could've just cut the frayed section off and left it alone. Samll frayed end of a cable doesn't affect functionality in anyway if it's trimmed.

Mondoman

op - sorry, I should have posted a photo. The cable was fine until I cut the end off to leave about 25-30mm past the anchor bolt. I squeezed hard on the diagonals, heard a "sproing" sound, and voila: a nice 45 degree spray of fully frayed cable to just about the anchor bolt. I know it won't affect function, but it just bugged me. This was also my first use of a new pair of diagonals, and it turns out they are slightly defective, in that only about half the jaw length actually has both cutting surfaces meet, even under substantial hand pressure. Back to Sears for warranty replacement!

jsharr

Mondoman and others.

When shopping for cutting tools like diagonal cutters, close them tightly and then hold them up to a light source. If you see light, try another pair. Keep trying until you find a pair with no gap.

mechBgon

I can usually get them back together OK. It's worth a shot But it looks like the OP has taken a different approach.

dsm iv tr

+1

I finish cables with 2 coats of the same colour nail polish as the frame, after trimming them to a reasonable length. Looks better than a cap, works the same, and - no issues finding little cable caps when you need them!

the_tool_man

The nail polish idea sounds good. It would certainly be easier than soldering. Has anyone tried CA glue? It would seem to be stronger than nail polish.

vettefrc2000

CA works well also.