compound cable protection.

[geoffretired]

By fixing plastic tape, long ways, on my cables where they run through the cable slide, they slide through better and don't wear/rub. Does anyone else do this?

[sambow]

Originally Posted by geoffretired

By fixing plastic tape, long ways, on my cables where they run through the cable slide, they slide through better and don't wear/rub. Does anyone else do this?

Hi Geoffritired. I have not seen this but I have seen the cables "served" on the area going through the slide. Personally I think serving them is a bad idea as it will increase friction and potentially prematurely wear the cable slide. My main concern with tape would be if it wears through you will get all sorts of adhesive gunk on your slides. I would have thought if anything was to be added, some thin wall low temp heatshrink sleeving might be best, but I am not sure how the strings would take to being heated up.

I would have thought well waxed strings would be as good as anything.

[geoffretired]

Hi Sambow.
I must admit, when I first gave this atry I wondered about glue getting everywhere. So far, the tape has stayed in place and the first sign of wear is normally a crack appears in the tape. Then I remove the old and replace it.
I have thought of heat shrink too but that requires the cables to be removed.

[sambow]

Originally Posted by geoffretired

Hi Sambow.
I must admit, when I first gave this atry I wondered about glue getting everywhere. So far, the tape has stayed in place and the first sign of wear is normally a crack appears in the tape. Then I remove the old and replace it.
I have thought of heat shrink too but that requires the cables to be removed.

Just as an aside, why do you want to do it?

[geoffretired]

Heehee, I like that question, Sambow.
When I started making my own rests, I eventually made a drop away that was activated by the cable slide.I had to make my own slide to incorporate the fixings for the rest drop attachments.When making the slider, I noticed the original was very simple and the cable slots were not in line with the cables, so they had to bend to get through the slots. I decided to cut the slots parallel to the cables so they would run through more easily. Having got that far, I thought the next stage would be to make the string slide through more easily by reducing the "screw thread" appearance of the twisted cables.
I remembered the older steel cables had been coated in plastic, and assumed it was to reduce friction, as well as reducing effects of rust.I gave the plastic tape a try as I have no other way of coating the cables.

[Kevin English]

Whats wrong with good old string wax, polished in with the fingers never had a problem, no sticking, no wear and nothing to go wrong. I can just imagine being in a competion or somthing and the tape starts sliding and balling up on the cables then what do you do??? I've had the pleasure of seeing some of your idea's and work but if you have managed to fabricate a slide with better lead angles why not just polish the insides (just playing devils advocate GR) plus I do not know what material you have used for your slide??

kevin

[geoffretired]

Hi Kevin,
I understand that cables , well waxed, work fine. Nothing to go wrong either; nice and simple, yes?
I just like trying things , as you know. Plus, on the ordinary cables you can see which sections of the cables run through the slide; there is a change in texture that is visible. With the plastic coating there are no signs, which makes me think something is reducing wear or whatever.
I have used this idea for several years now and always get a warning split in the tape before anything peels. The draw stroke is very smooth too which makes me feel something is better.
The slider has a ptfe insert in the hole that runs along the cable bar and the body is nylon, well polished up inside the slots and nice bell mouthing at the entrances/exits. I have used delrin as the body too, with ptfe insert.

[Watch_Man]

We changed to Saunders Hyper-glides because of this problem and have not had any issues since. The cables are waxed in the contact area every week and the combination of the two seems to have sorted the wear problem out.

[ThePinkOne]

Originally Posted by geoffretired

By fixing plastic tape, long ways, on my cables where they run through the cable slide, they slide through better and don't wear/rub. Does anyone else do this?

Serving through cable slides- extends string life as this is where it wears, even with a PTFE slide.....

I found some slides do feel better than others, eg my basic PTFE slide on my Hoyt feels smoother than by Bowtechones did (I put Hyperglides on the Bowtech) not sure tho if is was material or design or both.

Only time serving was a prob in terms of increasing resistance was before I realised you use mini serving not standard 0.19.... doh.

P.

[geoffretired]

Thanks TPO. Would you say that serving the cable also reduces the friction, or just the wear? I know wear is a result of friction, but covering with serving thread(served on) might not be so smooth as plastic tape. I say MIGHT because I've never tried serving; I always imagined it as looking too much like a screw thread, if you see what I mean.