[Shop-talk] Can steel cable be welded?

[Mullen]

Joe Szwed wrote:
> 
> Crimp it as good as you could first, then if you cut 
> the cable flush with or leave it a little past the 
> end of the ferrule then zap it with the welder, cable 
> end to ferrule end.  I don't think you would weaken 
> anything that way, just backing up your crimp?

I would suspect that it could cause problems.  Just like with electrical
connectors, crimping is strongest.  Soldering a connector on a wire tends to
"stiffen" the wire, and the dynamic movement of the rest of the wire/cable
tends to work the boundary of the flexible to "stiff" part and cause it to
crack/fail.

For the brake cable, I would simply crimp on a new fitting - that's what the
"pros" will do.  

By the way, I used to have a hand tool crimper - I'd clamp it in a vise, put
the ferrule on the cable, into (through) the tool, and hit the crimper
mechanism with a hammer.  I've got a couple of cables that are still going
strong 30 years later.

Tim Mullen

Chantilly, VA