Annual guillotine checks

To ensure continuous reliability, it is strongly recommended that the following procedure should be carried out at each annual guillotine check:

   Cut cable with bolt cutters and withdraw through paying on gear
   Hands clear!
   Operate guillotine
   Check clearance between closed guillotine blades (should be < 0.005" or 0.013 mm). (Blade clearance may be adjusted by re-shimming.)
   Support paying on gear and remove six nuts and bolts
   Remove paying in gear
   Remove assister springs
   Remove guillotine actuating pivot bolt
   Remove four bolts securing cable guide
   Remove remaining four bolts  securing guillotine blade retaining slides
   Carefully withdraw moving blade and coaxial spring assembly - take care with compressed springs
   Clean all detritus from mechanism and springs
   Clean and inspect all metal surfaces
   Check guillotine blades for damage and repair/replace if necessary
   Lubricate springs and sliding surfaces with lithium based grease
   Replace everything but the paying in gear in reverse order. (The moving blade is replaced in a similar way to that used to load the guillotine)
   Load guillotine
   Thread two pieces of cable through the guillotine assembly
   Hands clear!
   Fire guillotine - should cut two wires cleanly
   If OK - replace paying in gear and sign off
   If not call AA 

Equipment required:

Feeler gauges Metric socket set and spanners Releasing oil and small scraper/rags to clean mechanism and slides Lub grease Guillotine setting lever and pivot board.