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

[Jim Thomson]

Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2012 05:12:33 +0200
From: "Peter Voelpel" <df3kv at t-online.de>
To: <towertalk at 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