installing new rod rigging

[Joe Henderson]

Frank,

Yes heat the terminals, but not a lot!

You do not want much of the heat to soak into the rod end.

I usually start to heat the threaded end up near the socket first so the heat path is through the threaded end, across the loctite bond and into the fitting with the rod head the last to see any real heat.

The strength of the nitronic rod depends in part on the mechanism of work hardening as it is drawn down to size at the mill. This is fairly carefully calculated and allowed for ( or should be ) by the manufacturers.

Too much heat will bring the rod back to the annealed state, not what you want at all....soft rod ends.

I usually heat gently until I can smell the loctite starting to powder off and then give it a turn, really not a great deal of heat maybe 100 to 125 Celcius.

If you discolour the fitting brown or blue, you have gone too far.

It is more iimportant to grip the rod socket and the threaded rod REALLY securely so you can apply some controlled torque without slipping.

A couple of aluminium ( alright aluminum ) plates in the vice jaws will grip the thread longitudinally with the thread horizontal in the jaws and gripping the long axis of the thread, without damage.

Or you may, as a last resort, have to file a couple of flats on the very end of the thread so you can grip it in a good vice.

I have found that the powdered loctite acts as a pretty good lubricant, go smoothly and carefully, but let the fitting know you mean business!

Joe.