I just made a couple of spin halyards from 5/16 New England Rope VPC, one solid red and one solid green. The core does not cut or melt with the usual rope heat blade so I use a higher temperature soldering iron. That barely worked on the red line, completely ineffective on the green line. I placed a larger nail vertically in a vice and heated it to dull red with a blow torch, then could heat seal the red line. Even with the nail glowing the green line core would not melt. I was able to get the nail hot enough with a "turbo torch" to melt the green line core, but it blackened and burnt more than melting into a nice face.
The heat seal may be melting the core's polyolefin ( 300 F ) that then holds the vectran together, rather than melting the Vectran ( 660 F ). I could have hit a spot on the core that had more Vectran than normal, or maybe the 5/16 has more percentage Vectran than the 3/8 I usually work with. Interesting to see "plastic" sitting on a dull red nail ( maybe 700 F ) and nothing happening. Michael Brown Windburn C&C 30-1
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