bike-izle

I heard solder doesn't work on steel cables.

Superglue?

I like the idea of being able to reinstall cable w/o it fraying. Sure, I can cut a little off for a fresh end, but even that frays at times if it's a difficult routing.

dabac

Galvanized cables can be soldered with regular solder. Stainless ones needs a silver based solder and often higher temperatures. Some are quite content with a drop of superglue on the end.
I think FBny suggested heating red hot with a MAPP torch and twisting/pulling the cable off to create a fused end.

Booger1

To braze stainless,you need a crack torch and SILVER solder.It has to get red hot.Regular steel cables can use lead solder and a g u n or iron.

I hear superglue works,never tried it myself.....I can only get superglue to work on my fingers...

tattman23

+1 (or should that be +10) on the FINGERS!

SJX426 

Superglue, like most cyanoacrylates, will come apart when wet. just soak and be patient.

CliffordK

I've soldered the galvanized cables for years, but the stainless ones seem to be a problem.

Lately I've tried tig welding my stainless steel cables (they seem to come welded from the factory).

Just takes a fraction of a second. Easy to get a ball, but with some luck one can get a perfect end. No filler rod.

I do recommend removing your bike computer before welding, and as many electronics as are easy to remove.

HillRider

It will come apart a lot faster with acetone. Fingernail polish remover works because most are acetone based and it's more likely to be available around the typical house than a can of straight acetone.

dsbrantjr

I use heat-shrink tubing over the ends; it can be easily removed if needed but keeps the strands from poking anyone. Not as good as the welded ends from the factory for rethreading through housings, though. I use cyanoacrylate (Krazy-type) glue for that.

FBinNY 

Don't rub your eyes.

If you have a oxy/gas torch with a pinpoint flame you can adjust to the leanest (most oxygen) sustainable flame, and use it to cut the wire. (watch where you aim it). It makes a clean cut and fuses the ends very nicely. The blunt fused end threads better than a wire that was sheared.

Otherwise I use heat shrink tubing. Some times it's thin enough to leave on for threading, but if not it can be removed without the wire fraying.

BTW- IME having to rethread and existing cable for any reason is pretty rare. In most cases I'd be replacing both the inner and outers at the same time.

SJX426 

I agree that rethreading is infrequent but often on older bikes with white housing, the cable is fine but he housing look like...... it needs to be replaced!

hotbike

A piece of Scotch Tape™ is better than nothing.

fietsbob

the factories making up the cables for bikes for sale in bulk do an automated cutting/melting of the cable sections very ends

it makes feeding the cable thru all the places it passes thru simpler,

but then that gets cut off. after the cable is installed , so the place where it will be cut gets soldered by yourself .

In the Bike shops the cut end gets a cap crimped over it.

I got a 400F (Lo Temp), silver solder from a welding supply shop , its getting the right Flux and the metal clean that makes a good silver-solder Bond.

edit: 20th post below names packaged brands. ( Liquid flux included was a PiA to get to use on the metal cable vs Powder.)

Wilfred Laurier

Dip the freshly cut, unfrayed end in nail polish.

rccardr 

Today, I was able to solder a stainless brake cable on my travel bike. Carefully cleaned it with lighter fluid, then dipped in flux and used regular old solder. Was using my high powered HaKo iron, and it was really hot, but I was still surprised that it worked.

FBinNY 

Stainless steel can be soldered with conventional tin/lead solders if the right flux and technique is used. But it's harder with used cables which may be contaminated with oil. Here's more on the subject.

rccardr 

Yes, I agree. Actually do quite a lot of soldering (note use of professional Hako unit in post) but this was the first time I've ever successfully soldered up the end of a stainless brake cable. It's used, but not outrageously so. I think the reason it worked was because the heat level on the Hako was set to the maximum.

Gresp15C

Beware the flux. If you used some kind of liquid flux, it could erode the plating on your tip. I'd give the tip a good cleaning with a few cycles of fresh solder.

Drew Eckhardt 

They stay together when you use a decent pair of cable cutters.

Conventional cable ends are added insurance. Squeeze them at 90 degrees to the original cramp and they come right off. Squeeze again to put them back on - you can do that a bunch of times.

Rowan

I use crimped cable ends, but have thought often about experimenting with dipping the ends in rapid-cure epoxy resin after cutting with cable cutters. It's the epoxy that comes in two small tubes and you can mix as little or as much as you like. Better than supaglue variants.

kingston 

I use this Stay Brite Kit on SS cables, and it works well with an inexpensive 25w iron. I also find that it is much easier to remove the cable from the bike to solder the end.

rccardr 

just ordered some of the Stay Brite mentioned above, looks like it would be easier to use on stainless cables. I normally use crimp ends on all cables, but on my travel bike I need to have a plain end so that I can pull the whole rear cable off of the bike for packing in the bag, and a crimp end won't pass through the adjuster.

Coal Buster

You can solder stainless steel with regular solder. You don't have to use silver. As mentioned, you can't use paste flux. You need a water based flux meant for stainless. McMaster-Carr PN 7695A1 is an example.

SkyDog75

I've got a few cables that need finishing... I think I might try Plasti-Dip since I have it on hand.

Al1943

I just use a small cable end crimp. Or you can glue on the crimp.

Calder Benson

That stuff takes a long time to "cure." If you can keep anything from accidentally scraping it for a few months, it should stay intact and be fine after that.