Transcription:
A great way to get your cable railing system in a cost effective ways to use wood posts and the cable as the infill.
So today, what we’re going to show us how to cut the cable and attach the fittings and install your cable rail system in your wood railing. Okay, so now we’ve got our cable fitting attached on one end. You go ahead and put it through the end post, put your washer on, put a jam nut on – just enough to where you could put acorn nut on there but you leave it off for now and you just pull it tight.
Next thing you want to do is go to the end post. You string the cable all the way through all your intermediate posts and go to your end posts.
And you’ve got to cut the cable now, and the point where you want to cut the cable is right in the middle of the post right here, so you just pull the cable up, hold it up, line it up, and then use these cable cutters and cut the cable.
Okay, so now we’ve got our cable cut to length. We just need to attach the fitting on the other end of the cable, just like we did before.
Okay, so we have the cable fittings attached on each end, go ahead and run the cable, fitting through the end post. Put the washer on and your jam nut and you can tension up the cable just enough with your hands.
Once you’ve tensioned it by hand, as far as you can tighten it, you go ahead and use your seven sixteen inch wrench to give it half a turn more. At this point, you just put the acorn nut on to finish it off. You tighten the two nuts against each other using the seven sixteenth wrenches. That keeps the cable from loosening up in time.
…in this video
Cut cable to length, crimp and install CLEARVIEW® stainless steel cable fittings
17 Easy Steps to Install Cable Fittings on Wood Posts for a Cable Railing System
Tools Needed for Installing Cable Fittings:
- Two wrenches
- Dril
- AGS cable crimpers and cutters
- Drill Holes in the Wood Posts Where You Would Like to Run Your Cables Through.
A drill bit is inserted into a drill for the purpose of creating holes. The tip of the drill bit has sharpened edges that, when rotated by the drill, cut into the work material resulting in a round hole. When selecting drill bits for drilling wood posts, most general-purpose drill bits will work fine. When drilling other materials such as Stainless Steel a harder and more durable bit should be selected. When drilling masonry or concrete a masonry drill bit should be used. Except for the drill bit for tough metals your local home improvement store will have the bits you need. For tough metals, a vendor such as mscdirect.com or grizzly.com carries a good selection. If you don't install and secure your drill bit properly, it could spin out of the drill while drilling and damage your wood posts. Additionally, the drill chuck will damage the bit itself if the bit is chucked too loosely.
- Put the Cable Fitting onto One End of the Cable.
A cable fitting is a cost-effective part for attaching stainless steel cables to wood posts or posts of other materials.
- Use Cable Crimpers to Crimp the Cable Fitting.
It would be best if you use AGS cable crimpers. AGS Stainless supplies cable crimpers, which feature custom, hardened steel jaws that were specifically designed to give the best crimp with CLEARVIEW Cable Railing Fittings. Crimping, in this case, means applying pressure (compressing) the cable fitting onto the cable to fasten them permanently together. AGS recommends 2 crimps 1/2 inch in from the end of the fitting spaced 1/2 inch apart. You should crimp all the fittings to the cables on one end of the run first before completing the other end.
- Thread the Cable Fitting with the Attached Cable Through All of the Holes in the Wood Posts.
If the cable fitting doesn't fit through the holes in the wood posts, then it means that your drill bit is too small in diameter. AGS recommends using a 9/32 inch drill bit for our fittings. We recommend drilling the hole 1/2 way through from each side. The holes you drilled might not line up perfectly, run the drill a little deeper, sight through the hole to be sure they line up.
- Slide a Flat Washer onto the Exposed Part of the Cable Fitting.
Using a flat washer will help distribute the load of the cable across a larger surface and prevent the jam nut from compressing into wood posts, damaging the posts. While you can obtain many different flat washer sizes from various sources, AGS offers only one flat washer size specifically selected to give the best result when used with our cable fittings on soft material posts such as wood.
- Screw the Jam Nut onto the End of the Exposed Cable Fitting and Leave Space for an Acorn Nut.
A stainless steel jam nut is a hexagonal nut with matching threads for use on CLEARVIEW Cable Railing Fittings. The nut is used to secure and tension the cable to the posts in a cable railing system.
- Screw the Acorn Nut on Top of the Jam Nut.
A stainless steel acorn nut is shaped like an acorn. It has the dual purpose of both providing a good looking and safe termination to our cable fittings.
- Lock the Acorn Nut Against the Jam Nut.
Locking nuts means that you should place one wrench on each nut and twist in opposite directions.
- Pull the Cable Taut and Mark Where to Cut It.
Cable tension is used to inform where you should cut the cable. Pull the cable through the wood post and mark it with a Sharpie. Then pull the cable back out of the post, measure back 2 inches shorter than your mark and cut the cable.
- Use the Cable Cutters to Cut the Cable.
The large cable cutters supplied by AGS Stainless are made of hardened stainless steel and have shear blades with a "bypass design" for cutting 1/8 inch cables featured in CLEARVIEW railing systems. Standard wire cable cutters might not be strong enough to provide a clean, non-crushed cut. A clean cut is important because a crushed cable will be difficult to insert into the cable fitting. In this case, you could end up wasting the cable and have to start all over again with new cable stock. There is no reason to take that risk when you can buy the best cable cutters for the job that are guaranteed to work with the proper technique.
- Insert the Cable Cable into the Fitting and Crimp It.
If cutting the cable crushed the end, then you are using the wrong tool or you aren't using the proper technique. AGS cable cutters are the best tool for the job, but you might not be familiar with how to cut stainless steel cables. While keeping the cable cutters level, apply pressure, and cut the cable with a single stroke. If you twist the cable cutters, don't apply enough pressure, or have to try multiple times, then you won't have a clean result. If you happen to make a mistake, then you should not use the cable that you failed to cut earlier and try again with a fresh uncut section of cable.
- Insert the Back Cable Through the Wood Post.
- Put the Washer and the Jam Nut onto the Fitting (Finger Tight).
The cables should initially be installed finger tight and then tensioned after all cables are installed.
- Step 14: Repeat Steps 2-13 for Remaining Cable Runs.
- Starting with the Middle Cable Run, Tighten the Jam Nut Until the Cable is Barely Taut.
Tension the middle cable first to balance the force that is being exerted on the posts.
- Tension the Jam Nuts for the Cables By Alternating Out from the Middle Cable Run Until Taut. DO NOT OVERTIGHTEN.
Continue with the cable above and then repeat for the remaining cables by alternating (Tighten the cable that is 2 down, 3 up, 4 down etc).
- Thread the Acorn Nuts and While Holding the Jam Nut Stationary with One Wrench, Rotate the Acorn Nut to Lock The Nuts Together.
The best way to adjust the cable tension after doing this is to take the acorn nuts off and tighten the jam nuts again.