I love the look of cable railing.. my husband and I researched and researched it! We even looked into the stainless tubing rather than cable rails. There seem to be a lot of new and easier systems available now rather than when we were researching it. It was was mostly used outdoors at the time.. and we wanted it indoors. While I still love the look, we nixed the idea and went with a more contemporary stainless vertical baluster. We did that because we have children and realized how dangerous it could potentially be for kids! I don't have much more to offer for advice except to think about potential hazards for kids if you do go with it. however, if you don't have children around, it's lovely to look at! Also, the quick connects can be pretty pricey from what I understand, but there are a lot of dealers on Ebay and places such as that who you might be able to get some good deals from. We were going to go with a local garage door parts wholesaler for our cable. It's the same stuff, just used differently and marketed differently, with a much cheaper price range. You might be able to find a non-stair source for the cable and save some $$ if you look hard enough! Good luck!

Galvanized is zinc which is toxic. To make clean swages takes practice, and lots of time. I have mastered the swaging of ferrules and thimble eyes on cable ends because I have done it 1,000's of times. The measurements must be precise, which is extremely difficult for long pieces of non-rigid material. The ferrule has to be crimped in a certain order to tighten up to the thimble and then to elongate and cover up the sharp, frayed end of the wire rope. You must use 7x19 wire rope for bendability. You will find it nearly impossible to swage ferrules with thimbles in the field. The eyebolt must be connected first, then feed the cable through the posts, pull it as tight as possible, secure it in the tight position and swage the stop ferrule to the end. then figure out how to make it a clean edge. I pay the $1,500 for the prefabbed stainless cables with the clean tensioners, wire rope grabs and end caps. I have already mastered cable making so it is an easy decision. It takes me a few hours to run the cables on a standard deck. The post drilling and installation is the bulk of the labor. My buddy likes the look of my deck railing but had never even unspooled a roll of wire rope. He tried your idea. 4 years later he still has the rolls of cable in the garage and keeps asking me to borrow the tool to make the clean ends he sees on other cable assemblies I put together (on gates and such.) He doesn't understand the clean end is the result of 1,000's of times practicing. He thinks I have an automatic press that does it for you! So forget the zinc wire rope and making your own cable assemblies. You can already save $4,500 by buying the prefabbed ones and DIY.

That would seem to be logical, but we are dealing with the government! ;) Building codes are a local matter and the federal government is generally not bound by local rules. Some areas will allow, some will not. I mention this as a reason they will be hard to find as "Deck railing" As long as you are comfortable with risk and either local building inspector allows or you are willing to build without inspector approval, you will most likely find this as "fencing material". Porch (near ground level) and fences are not subject to as much regulation. Manufacturers are at less risk of getting sued if someone should fall if you use their product for a use other than the intended. For example, blackdiamondfencing.com sells 4"x4" grid deer fencing. You may need to look at a number of sites to decide what is closest to what you are looking for, but fencing sites are likely your best bet short of contacting the national park people. A variety of fabricators will make a custom sized iron mesh and coat it with PVC or whatever, but these custom products are probably not practical at your volume of purchase. I mention this because the park service can buy in large enough quantity for custom fabrication.

Hi James, sorry missed your comment. Still good after almost 2 years. I didn't really "turn the corner". My cable runs are all separate (each run starts with a stop and ends with an eye bolt). My corners are 2 posts welded to a large bottom plate. I'll post a pic when i get a chance. If I did it again: supported top rail (wood is now wavy, but only noticeable when eyeing down the rail), lighter duty eye bolts, and I need a support tube at the top of my corner posts (as is, I only tensionned my cables to a few pounds, to get them tighter I need to add a tube between the posts).