making climbing gear?

NorCalNomad wrote: Fly or bait? My mom just built herself a steelhead fly rod.

tenkara-style fly.

I'm surprised no one has said it, maybe they assume you are a troll...

You're gunna die!

(we all die, but you will die prematurely makign your own gear)

FWIW, one of the limitations back in the days with machine nuts chocks was that they were symmetric. A big improvement was that they made asymmetrics which gave you 3 size options.

I'm into making things by hand (v-thread hooks, fishing poles, lures, arrows, etc.) , but the question comes to me as if you have the free time, would you rather climb or make equipment?

That depends on you & how you see things, Leo.
Making stuff can be pretty damn rewarding. Plus, YOU get to use it first. That's good stuff, right there.

The there's also the question of how close you live to actual climbing.... Without a nearby after-work crag, making gear is a nice alternative to watching tv.

Leo Paik wrote:FWIW, one of the limitations back in the days with machine nuts chocks was that they were symmetric. A big improvement was that they made asymmetrics which gave you 3 size options. I'm into making things by hand (v-thread hooks, fishing poles, lures, arrows, etc.) , but the question comes to me as if you have the free time, would you rather climb or make equipment?

Recalling my reading, back in the day of gathering nuts along the railroads tracks on the approaches to the gritstone quarries, the fellas realized early on that giving the nuts a taper, like modern nuts have, improved performance - they shaped them in the 60's.

ChaseLeoncini wrote:buy gear

Another insightful addition from our friend chase.

Just curious if the OP ever made the gear he was hoping to.

I made some nuts awhile ago, but it wasn't economically advantageous as the stainless cable, ferrule and swaging is more expensive than a nut off the shelf. It was fun though.

I had begun working on making a cam for a final project in school but I wouldn't have had the time to finish it and the cost/time makes it pointless except for the fun of it. Someone had commented on making the lobes on a lathe, while this is feasible it is very time consuming as the lobes are a logarithmic spiral and would need to be carefully offset with multiple setups on a manual lathe or a CNC lathe would be needed. It would be much easier to make on a CNC mill as other operations need to happen on the face of the lobe anyways.

As far as any concerns about the safety of making your own gear, obviously gear makers have been engineering, reiterating and testing their for designs a few decades now so they have their shit together but they don't posses a magic wand that provides bomb proof gear. As long as some research is done and nothing is done half asked there is no reason why someone couldn't make their own gear.

With that said I would be amazed if someone could produce a cam (or even a nut) that is comparable to anything off the shelf for the same price.

Dylan - I would have to agree, maybe a touch less fervently, with your assessment of Arik's statement. I work in the manufacturing field so I may be a bit biased, but I feel their is no shortage of innovators in our country, I would actually argue that there are more now then there has ever been. Space X, JPL, Tesla,etc., are housing the giants of our time and I feel that for everyone of them there are many more in the general public doing the same thing on a smaller/different scale. With the proliferation of information over the internet the DIY scene has been made extremely accessible to most anyone that has basic mechanical aptitude.

In Arik's defense our manufacturing sector has suffered quite a bit from a lack of education/inspiration steering young talent into the manufacturing fields. And you will never catch me arguing that we don't buy to much imported goods.

B-B-Bump

With some assistance from a new friend (see: mega-sewing skills and legit machine), I finally finished a project I've had in mind for a while. 6 screws across the chest. VX-21 fabric and Kevlar thread. Nice and light and fits just right. Trying to minimize the clusterf*ck on my harness, and stab-bed thighs on lead.

Ahhahaha sweet Adam!

Try wearing that rig through a TSA checkpoint!

Adam, Step 1. Now make it so that you can rack 13cm/10cm opposing in one sleeve, without risk of either side falling out. With a total of 8 screws minimum in the roll-up and so it doesn't roll up like shit in the shape of a hammer. Step 2. Profit

Sherman, can't I just skip straight to Profit? Attention Span = real small

Onator, glad you approve. Figured I'd take the time I waste pounding on everyone's favorite forum morons, and do something useful. Couldn't have done it by myself, my sewing skills are about zilch.

Maybe I'll post up a pic of my gear sling i made this winter. I stole Steph Davis' simple gear sling ideology and had my gf's mom sew one up for me. Yet to use it but hoping it lasts for years to come.

Please do, Tom - would love to see it.

Climbed multipitch for a decade in this harness and took endless falls on it. Was broke at the time and made it on a Singer Featherweight with whatever thread was in it.

Healyje wrote:Climbed multipitch for a decade in this harness...

Finally proof that nylon doesn't fall apart after 4 years, 8 months, 6 days, 12 hours, and 42 minutes!

Sweet! What's up with the daisy-chain looking setup in yellow?

So, i have been thinking about melting down some old figure 8s and an old atc and pouring the liquid aluminum into a mold for some new ones. Has anybody tried this, I mostly worry about bubbles forming that would be invisible to visual inspection, only later to be exposed by rope wear, and simultaneously shredding the rope sheath.

A buddy of mine made an awesome backpack very similar to the Hyperlite ones. His pack works well and is a great ice breaker at the crag.

I made a bowl outta of an ice screw and some trash.. Does that count?