If you are a super cheapskate, you CAN make your own perfectly safe shrouds. You will need an intact set of old shrouds, a long flat work surface and a swaging tool. An asphalt street or parking lot will work, or you could drive two stakes into the ground at the shroud length.
There are two types of tool. One looks like a pair of bolt cutters, and one looks a bit like a tubing flare tool. You can see both here:
http://www.aircraftspruce.com/catalog/topages/swagingtool.phpThe bolt cutter style is much faster and less cumbersome in use, but both deliver high-quality swages. There is a bit of a price difference to consider
The chinese made bolt cutter style tool that recently showed up at the home centers for $30 would work fine if they had seen fit to include the 5/32" size, which they did not.
Now drive a big nail, like a 16d or 20d deep into the asphalt or wood stake #1 and place one end of the shroud over the nail. Then stretch out the shroud as tight as you can by hand and place a nail through the other thimble and drive it deep into the asphalt or stake #2. Make sure it stays nice and taught! Now you have a pattern of the accurate shroud length.
Now take the end of your piece of quality US or EU made 1 X 19 SS 5/32" cable and nickel plated copper Nicopress oval (Size P, IIRC) and SS thimble and make and swage one loop. You will probably suck at making/swaging loops with thimbles, so buy extra cable, thimbles and ovals to practice a couple of times. You can get the first one wrong and it's no big deal; just cut it off and start over. But If you get the SECOND one wrong, you must scrap the cable
After you have a good tight loop properly swaged around a thimble, stretch the cable around the other nail and cut it off about a foot longer than needed. Now thread the cable throught the second oval and place the thimble in the loop and the the loop over the second nail. Pull all of the slack out until it is nice and taught and lying right on top of the old shroud. While maintaining tension, swage the second oval. This won't be real easy since 1 X 19 is not docile stuff; you will probably need help. You can make the cables for about $25 a piece like this, but it's not easy work and the price doubles if you screw one up
Inspect all swages for quality before using the shroud! You must mave the heart to reject a bad cable! I recommend you use a sealer like Lifecaulk or 3M 5200 on all parts of the cable that won't see air, like inside the ovals and thimbles. This will prolong the life of the cable by preventing corrosion and hydrogen embrittlement. This will make the process really messy for a beginner but I don't care since it's not my hands
Jimbo
