Many years ago, I went to cut the end of a 1" cable that was spooled onto the drum of a crane with a cutting torch. The operator came out of his cab yelling at me at the top of his lungs. (they could do that to us youngsters back them LOL). When he got done yelling, I asked him to please explain what was wrong with using a torch. He explained to me that the strands of the cable have to be able to work. Running the cable through sheeves and blocks, the cable is constantly twisting. Any time you braze, or even melt the cable, you are locking the strands together and thus, preventing them from working independently. That is why they manufacture cable cutters which shear the end of the cable off with. I would suggest strongly that you contact the crane manufacturer and follow his specifications to the tee as to how to connect the cabel end to the drum. Usually, a wedge that is groved to the size of the cable, shaped kinda like a pear or teardrop is used. You simply make an eye, put the swedge in the center of the eye, and then tighten the cable by applying tension to the cable.
Mike
One of my maintenance guys came to me and asked me for the proper technique and I didn't readily have an answer, but I was fairly certain applying heat wasn't a good idea. We have had several guys in maintenance in the 21 years that I've been with this company and hundreds of cables have been changed in this time frame using the method I described earlier. I'm going to try to get in touch with the hoist mfg and see what their recommended method is for recabling these hoists. We are in the process of taking out the old METEOR hoists because we can't get parts for them any longer and the drums are worn terribly bad and will damage a brand new cable in less than a week.
I'll post back when I hear from them.
Thanks for all the replies and emails concerning this. The safety of our guys is most important.
John Wright