Has anyone ever ordered wire rope (cable) from Fastenal?

Talk to the millwrights that do work for an elevator, general millwright, or crane service company.

They have to change cables and may be able to save you a few hundred or thousand feet from the scrapyard.

Cable Damascus may be interesting enough to them that they will do some tradesies swaps.

 

If you can't find it locally as the Count suggests, always check with Enco for deals before ordering from Fastenal, Grainger, McMaster-Carr etc.. They're a subsidiary of MSC; they don't always have stuff in stock so it may take a bit longer, but they run lots of specials and can save you some cash. Any questions, message me and I'll run them past my fiance (she works in sales for MSC - sorry, no I can't get us any steeper discounts )

 

A few years back I went to a local crane service company and came home with 175 ft of 1 inch cable in trade for a knife made out of it. I still have about 165ft of it and the wood spool is a table in the shop now. I think sometimes about selling some of it off as it will last me a lifetime for sure.

 

Drilling rig contractors have lots of cable to get rid of as they change the line in their traveling blocks based on ton-miles of use.

 

http://www.webriggingsupply.com/pages/catalog/wirerope_cable/wirerope-genpurprope.html

I have not ordered from here but saved the link because the prices seemed good.

 

I don't see comments about specs ?? Obviously you don't want galvanized of fiber core . But what about 6x19 vs 6x37 etc. Best diameter , 1" or more ? The best extra plow steel too.

 

We have a local crane repair company here, and i mentioned it to a guy in passing, next day he showed up with 2 8foot 1.25 cables and a 28 foot 2 inch cable. Never hurts to ask

 

I tried to order some cable from these guys about a month back, because the prices looked good and they had 2 inch cable by the foot. They took the order, then nothing for 4 weeks. I called them to cancel and they were apologetic, and said one of the diameters I wanted wasn't in stock, and they were straight-forward in cancelling the order. I paid the extra $ at High Temp Tools, and got the package within the week. You mileage may vary, but . . .

 

Be careful buying used cable. Like "mete" said, you can get some with a "Plastic" core. A few years ago, a guy gave me a section of cable and I proceeded to put in my forge to burn off the oil. Well, after a minute or two, I noticed this crap bubbling out the end of the cable. Made a heck-uva mess in the bottom of my forge.

Toopid me didn't check it and had to re-line my poor old forge. Can I get a big "DUH" here?

Robert (Who occasionally has brain-far*s)

 

I don't live that far from the big oil boom in N. Dakota. I know the drilling rigs strip and cut 60' to 100' chunks of 1 1/8" to 1 1/2" line on a regularly. Next time I am over there with the pick up I'll see if I can round some up. Depending on what I can get it for, I could strip the core, cut it up. Maybe I could get us all a decent supply at a reasonable cost.

They cut off the "fast line" end where it gets wrapped on the drum repeatedly, wears and a lot of the lube comes out of it. I used to run drilling rigs and the tar from the line got all over the draw works. (giant winch).