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[TowerTalk] Crank-ups.....do NOT lubricate your cables

To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: [TowerTalk] Crank-ups.....do NOT lubricate your cables
From: "Jim Thomson" <jim.thom@telus.net>
Date: Tue, 4 Sep 2012 21:20:53 -0700
List-post: <towertalk@contesting.com">mailto:towertalk@contesting.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2012 05:12:33 +0200
From: "Peter Voelpel" <df3kv@t-online.de>
To: <towertalk@contesting.com>
Subject: Re: [TowerTalk] Crank-ups.....do NOT lubricate your cables

I helped to install LUSO towers at DL3KO together with LUSO engineers.
All the tower cabling was lubricated with grease after erection and should
be repeated regularly. .

73
Peter, DJ7WW

##  UST uses in house made  Aluminum  pulleys.  They have a sealed bearing in 
the middle of them.
I have 22 pulleys on my UST  HDX-689.     UST’s  concern is that if grease is 
used, dirt, sand, debris, etc,
will stick to the grease, and then the same debris will get mashed into the 
soft aluminum pulleys, damaging the 
pulleys.   Those UST pulleys  are not cheap either.... aprx  $150.00  EACH. 

##  grease on the outside of the cables  will  not lubricate anything inside 
the cable, where it is needed most. 
The internal strands are rubbing against each other, longitudinally, since the 
strands closest to the pulley
trough, turn at a tighter rate  vs the outer strands.   That’s  yet another 
reason not to use small diam pulleys. 
Pre-lube 6 soaks right through to the inner  core...where it can actually do 
the most good.   Meanwhile, no
greasy residue left on the outer surface to attract dust, dirt, sand and 
debris. 

##  IF  UST had used  steel pulleys instead of softer aluminum ones, this whole 
thing might be another
story.  Still, the local ship yards all use steel pulleys.... and  pre-lube 6.  
 4 x 55 gal drums per pallet, and 
pallets  everywhere.   I’ll ask our local mobile  crane company  this week, 
what they use on their cables.
Bottom line is....  nobody  in the industrial world is running them dry...but 
none of them use aluminum pulleys
either. 

Jim   VE7RF 
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