On Fri, 10 Oct 2014 20:57:14 -0500, Lostgallifreyan
wrote:

Jeff Liebermann wrote in
:

I suggest you take a clue from the sailing community. Long lasting
means that anything exposed to the water or atmosphere is going to
drip, ooze, leak, evaporate, oxidize, melt, dissolve, wash off, or
otherwise disappear. It doesn't matter what the lube is made from,
it's going to disappear.

Actually I have to second that. While most of my past antennas were very
fragile affairs despite being well engineered enough to stay put in a storm,
I also do a PV install whose methods are a lot closer to things done for
strong antenna mounts.

Thanks. My experience is from being a design engineer for a long
defunct marine radio company. The marine environment is a hostile
place to work and corrosion is only one of the major problems. One
learns quickly, such as when I stupidly designed in a volume control
with a brass bushing and an aluminum shaft. Much is not in the text
books, such as some types of stainless steel are galvanically
incompatible with themselves. Simple principles, such as NEVER design
in a horizontal surface, which will puddle water, are only learned
after a problem appears. Some of these lessons border on heresy, such
as hermetically sealed enclosures never really stay sealed (unless
welded shut). My web page and motto "Learn By Destroying" had some
real meaning when discussing corrosion.

I have used various bits of stainless steel chandlery
and stranded wires, sheaves, shackles and such. eBay turns out to be an
awesome way to find such things. I'm in the UK so perhaps spoiled for choice,
surrounded by water and people selling stuff to use there, but a lot of it is
easy to send anywhere. Be willing to search wide and improvise to best efect
and cost saving.

I cheated and ended up with some of the inventory from a bankrupt
marine hardware wholesale dealer. At one point, I had over 2000 lbs
of assorted deck hardware. Much of it was used to rebuild several
sailboats and keep my former Hobie 14 afloat. The rest was sold many
years ago to a jobber who tripled my prices and did quite well.

One thing to watch: there are polyester ropes, and polypropylene. Learn the
differences, and beware the mislabelled and badly decribed supplies out
there.. I tried hard to get it right, and I still ended up with 15m of
polyproylene when I thought I was getting pre=stretched polyester!

Most reputable eBay vendors value their reputation. I've had a few
similar screwups. An email to the vendor usually gets either an
exchange or a refund. It's easy to spot a reputable vendor. They're
the one's with thousands of sales and a reasonably high rating (96% or
better). Unfortunately, that also means you shouldn't buy anything
from me.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558