Turnbuckles used to be the standard method to tension cable railing and may still be used if the large, bulky look is desired. Turnbuckles come in a wide range of styles for your cable railing; Closed body, open body, stainless steel, chrome bronze and galvanized.
Many years of testing led to developing our TOP HAT CABLE SYSTEM TM PAT # Des. 423.913.
TOP HAT (HIDE-A-THREAD) allows the normal threaded swage stud to be utilized to conceal the ugly threads inside the TOP HAT body. Our unique design is also a turnbuckle in disguise. Tightening is done with a simple Allen Wrench which leaves a very clean, low profile adjuster with no visible threads.

We find most of our customers shy away from large turnbuckles for their cable wire rope railings and prefer to use only a threaded swage stud on each end of the cable assembly.  A cap or hex nut is used to tension the wire.  You have to hack saw off the excess screw and dress up the end as best you can.  The only problem is you are left with a section of screw exposed on the inside of each end post, not the prettiest thing to look at.

After many years of testing we came up with our TOP HAT CABLE SYSTEM™ PAT # Des. 423.913.

TOP HAT (HIDE-A-THREAD) allows us to use the normal threaded swage stud and conceal the ugly threads inside the TOP HAT body.  Our unique design is also a turnbuckle in disguise.  Tightening is done with a simple Allen Wrench.  What you are left with is a very clean, low profile adjuster with no apparent threads.

Tension is usually set from 300 to 500 lbs. Bending or bowing will occur when the cables are tensioned if the posts are of minimal structure. The end posts need to support more than 1000 lbs. of tension in order to stay vertically aligned.

We specialize in stainless steel wire rope and wire cable but we can provide galvanized, coated and even bronze cable railing if desired.
1×19 construction is preferred due to its strength. The 1×19 excels in straight runs or on large radius turns. A stair landing bend of 35 degrees is doable – right angles are not.

The 7×7 or 7×19 construction is utilized to make hard turns due to this cable’s flexibility. The drawback with 7×19 is there are many small strands of wire for flexibility and the smaller the strands are; the easier it is to damage them.

Currently, most cable installations are horizontal and vertical. Maximum spacing between cables, in most cases, is four inches. However, we recommend closer spacing. You will need to check with your local building authority concerning specifications governing cable installations in your area.