spinning front line mod for old swivel
Posted: Mon Oct 08, 2012 11:30 am
Old swivels don't spin because the front lines are too close together. Not tried this mod yet so might be worthless but posting in case anyone is interested.
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BIG WARNING!ronnie wrote:This is how I modded a Mutiny swivel for flagging to one front line. I haven't used it yet, so its just to show one possible way to do it.
With safety systems, you have to be sure that everything works well and will keep working.
I drilled out the 2 holes at either side of the swivel to about 6.2mm so the cable end would just slide through but be tight.
Then I located the end of the hollow inside the cable eye, ground a small flat on each side and drilled a 3mm hole through. Next was to cut the cable eye hollow end off leaving about 1/4" below the hole.
Then I drilled a 3/32" hole into the swivel at either side near the bottom of the thickest part of the swivel and put a screw through the cable eye to pin it in place.
The cable eye and screw are A4/316 stainless steel.
It so happened I already had a Mutiny swivel and decided to mod it.
The Naish universal swivel is designed to flag to one or two front lines so if I had been starting from scratch, I would have bought the Naish one and used it instead of doing this mod.
http://www.tecni-cable.co.uk/3mm-A4-AIS ... 08-814-030
The eye in the end of the 3mm cable eye is 6mm diameter and on the bar I am goint to fit it to, the flagging line has to pass through a 6mm hole as the smallest hole in the system, so I have elongated the hole in the eye to make it easier for the front line to pass through.
I will have to make sure that all the line connections pass through the system, but the connection below the blue float ball will be slightly bigger than the other connections, so it will not go through the float ball, which has to have a hole smaller than 6mm.
That's a good point.AndKite wrote:BIG WARNING!ronnie wrote:This is how I modded a Mutiny swivel for flagging to one front line. I haven't used it yet, so its just to show one possible way to do it.
With safety systems, you have to be sure that everything works well and will keep working.
I drilled out the 2 holes at either side of the swivel to about 6.2mm so the cable end would just slide through but be tight.
Then I located the end of the hollow inside the cable eye, ground a small flat on each side and drilled a 3mm hole through. Next was to cut the cable eye hollow end off leaving about 1/4" below the hole.
Then I drilled a 3/32" hole into the swivel at either side near the bottom of the thickest part of the swivel and put a screw through the cable eye to pin it in place.
The cable eye and screw are A4/316 stainless steel.
It so happened I already had a Mutiny swivel and decided to mod it.
The Naish universal swivel is designed to flag to one or two front lines so if I had been starting from scratch, I would have bought the Naish one and used it instead of doing this mod.
http://www.tecni-cable.co.uk/3mm-A4-AIS ... 08-814-030
The eye in the end of the 3mm cable eye is 6mm diameter and on the bar I am goint to fit it to, the flagging line has to pass through a 6mm hole as the smallest hole in the system, so I have elongated the hole in the eye to make it easier for the front line to pass through.
I will have to make sure that all the line connections pass through the system, but the connection below the blue float ball will be slightly bigger than the other connections, so it will not go through the float ball, which has to have a hole smaller than 6mm.
That system has a risk of being "one use". The flying line, the one with the black sleeving, is not spliced. This means that when you release it will work fine, but when you reset and power up the kite again, the sleeving will most likely end up snagged on the cable eye, and then it will rip through all the stitchings and effectively open the loop. The risk is even bigger, since the line runs through the hole in the cable eye at a 90 degree angle.
I would not use this system as such. Google Brummel splice and consider taking the black sleeving out and replacing the loop with one made with splicing. I have done it on several lines, works a charm!
Ok good. Make sure u have as few connection points as possible running through the cable eye when releasing.ronnie wrote:
That's a good point.
The black lines are just a pair of pigtails I used for the photo to illustrate the way things will be connected - they are not the front lines. All of the lines are just for photo demo as I will have to trial different lines to make sure they all flow through and return and dont wear too much.
I have also opened out the hole through the eye in an elongated, slanted fashion so the line will have a more direct slide through it. I also ground slight recesses into the black plastic of the swivel so the front line can go directly from the eye to the central swivel hole.
If I am not completely sure it will work well, I will just have to use the original bar layout which will require flagging to one front line with a leash that hangs underneath the control bar.