I paid a visit to West Marine, today, to show them pictures of my new (7 months old) standing rigging. All of the 3/16" wire looks like a barbers pole. Two of the strands are rusted from one end to the other. The new 5/32" lowers are perfect.
They are taking care of it with new rigging, and advised the problem was caused by a supplier who did not correctly clean a wire die that was used to make non-stainless wire. As the stainless was drawn, it picked up iron (steel) on the surface of the semi-molten stainless. This embedded iron causes the rust (and a mess on the turnbuckles and decks!) It cannot be removed because it is buried in the twist and slightly more than surface deep.
When I first picked up the new rigging, I notice the candy stripe effect of darker wires in the strands. Now I know what that means. Hope this info saves somebody some trouble.
Regards, JimL (about to haul the boat.....again)
leinfam@earthlink.net
Interesting problem with new standing rigging....
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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matt cawthorne
Re: Interesting problem with new standing rigging....
Jim,
Interesting indeed. I am not certain that the dies will hold that much material that they would contaminate more than one spool of wire. Might also be that there were entire spools of wire that were not of the correct chemistry. Either way, it is best that you got this wire off of your boat.
I had a similar problem with my end fittings. Some of them rusted and some cracked after only 3 years of service. It seems the manufacturer received a batch of stainless that was not the 316 that they were promised. I contacted the manufacturer and they replaced the end fittings for free. They did not offer to send a rigger to do the work of replacing them and I was not smart enough to ask them to do that.
My suggestion to you would be to make certain that they supply the labor as well as materials.
Matt
mcawthor@bellatlantic.net
Interesting indeed. I am not certain that the dies will hold that much material that they would contaminate more than one spool of wire. Might also be that there were entire spools of wire that were not of the correct chemistry. Either way, it is best that you got this wire off of your boat.
I had a similar problem with my end fittings. Some of them rusted and some cracked after only 3 years of service. It seems the manufacturer received a batch of stainless that was not the 316 that they were promised. I contacted the manufacturer and they replaced the end fittings for free. They did not offer to send a rigger to do the work of replacing them and I was not smart enough to ask them to do that.
My suggestion to you would be to make certain that they supply the labor as well as materials.
Matt
mcawthor@bellatlantic.net