Is there any reason not to use shrinkwrap on cable ends rather than the crimp-on alloy caps?

It seems better to pull some shrinkwrap off to lube the cable and then replace it rather than cutting off a little cable.

Maybe it's 6 one way / half dozen the other way.

I've used shrink tubing to cover cut cable ends for years and it works fine.

Shrink tubing is my preferred method, since I now use stainless wires which are difficult to solder, my previous favorite.

Whatever floats your boat. The crimps are popular in shops and factories because they're so fast, and use tools that are out already. However, whatever works is just as good.

Need to use silver solder that's all, when hot wipe with a rag.
This allows the cable to slide into a housing with out any trouble, no need to put something on the ends if you do not want to.

Crimping old spoke nippless onto cable ends works good too.

If I can, my own bikes, I Solder the end where the cut will be before cutting ..

Stainless is harder to do than Zn finished steel.

I heard shops only use the alloy caps because of liability issues.

I tried a drop of superglue last time. No status report yet.

+1 and you will find any good cutters will work also cable cutters are not really needed if you solder first.

I've used them also

Lots of good ideas here to try. You learn something new every day.

A nice dollop of solder just past the binding point on brakes will prevent the cable from pulling through, if you happen to have a problem with that, but you would need a desoldering tool to deal with it when taking the assembly apart.

Why would you want to use solder to prevent the cable from pulling through. That's what the pinch bolt is supposed is for. If you can't trust the pinch bolt, there's something wrong and a blob of solder isn't something you can rely on.

It's easy to remove aluminum crimp-on caps. Just use the crimping tool on the "edges" of the crimp to make it sort of round again.

I've tried shrink wrap (Edit--meant to say tubing), but after shrinking, it still pulls off with just a slight tug with my fingers. What size do you use?

Why do you insist upon calling shrink tubing shrink wrap?

That may be a secondary reason, but having worked in something similar to shop conditions (fixing bikes at a co-op when there's a backlog of customers) I can tell you that the crimped-on ends are much faster than heat-shrink or solder and less of a hassle than superglue, if nothing else because the Park Tools cable cutters have what I've always assumed is a crimping tool between the hinge and the hand grips, and if you're working on cables, you've got them to hand anyway.

That said, at home, when I don't have a pot of 500 cable ends available, I just use a drop of superglue.

Hmmm. Specifically what flux and what solder do you use? What type of torch?

Use a little crack torch.Butane torch....

Any silver solder will work for what you want...the more silver,the stronger the braze.....Borax based flux for stainless.You can buy a can of Borax at the grocery store and mix it with water to make a paste or buy white brazing flux(borax and water already mixed....)

The more silver in the brazing wire,the better the fit needs to be.Your not going to be making fillets with 56% silver wire.

Work fast,if you burn the flux,the solder won't stick.

This is what I use Harris Stay Clean and a 30 watt solder gun no torch needed torches can damage the strands if you are not carfull.


My original bottle which has lasted me years!

I've always squeezed cable ends at 90 degrees to their crimp to open them up for removal and re-used them since that can be easier than finding my bag of new cable ends.

For a little dot of color you can use 2-3 coats of nail polish on fresh cut cables. Take a few minutes to dry between coats, but it looks unique. Use a matching color, or contrasting color for an accent or to match others accessories. Oh, buy your own don't use your wifes\gf\bf.

same here - I reuse them several times. I also use shrink tubing if I happen to run out of usable crimps.

Fishing leader wire crimps also work very well.

https://www.amazon.com/American-Fishi...ng+wire+crimps

^^^^ Thanks for that. The LBS is several miles away but wallyworld is just down the street.