DIY reslinging of cams

I have had a very generous gift arrive in the mail! 

These venerable cams are great, but I know I need to replace the slings. Webbing? Cord? Just stuff a sling in there? How much length should I allow?

Pics would help, please, if there is much to it at all. 

Thanks! Helen

Old lady H wrote:

I have had a very generous gift arrive in the mail! 

These venerable cams are great, but I know I need to replace the slings. Webbing? Cord? Just stuff a sling in there? How much length should I allow?

Pics would help, please, if there is much to it at all. 

Thanks! Helen

I'm gonna take some heat for this but  . . . . .  

The slings look pristine, they are not beyond what you will be using them for. The silly need to spend (and have new) should be predicated on thoughtful observation. No cuts, No fuzzy spots, looks and FEELs soft but firm , it is fine.

sure that is old nylon, that stuff is the beefy (no longer made?) it is STILL, strong enough.  So No ! You do not need*  to replace those slings, it is so overkill.

Now that red tape on the #1(?) the TIE'D one? (Maybe, get it sewn by Yates ,). .  . or double fisher-mans with longer tails.

Michael Schneider wrote:

I'm gonna take some heat for this but  . . . . .  

The slings look pristine, they are not beyond what you will be using them for. The silly need to spend (and have new) should be predicated on thoughtful observation. No cuts, No fuzzy spots, looks and FEELs soft but firm , it is fine.

sure that is old nylon, that stuff is the beefy no longer made , it is nearly strong enough to hold a small car Q

No ! You do not need to replace those slings, it is so overkill the TIE'D one? Okay get it sown, or double fisher-mans with longer tails.

Sir, my benefactor, with a huge amount of experience, asked me to replace the slings on the cams, for anything more than a bounce test. Once in awhile, I do listen, ya know!

Best, Helen

Please if you do listen ? 

Then ask around you are going to be spending $ for no reason other than what is the prescribed warning anyone giving away 30yr old gear would say, that does not make it a must. You can tie your own using double fishermans or The Fancy , harder to tie, 'doubled' (passed thru-each knot) double water knot

handle that small blue cam carefully they were best when paired with another cam, it was one of the 1st small 4 cam unit.

As per using cord, you have to Always*  check the knot.  A triple fisher-mans is a bulky knot that Still needs to be checked every time - before, during* and after climbing.  

I have some old rigid stem friends and I used 5mm cord on them when I replaced the old webbing.  Sweet gift!

I wouldn't replace the old webbing if it felt and looked fine. I would however, untie the water knot and do a double fishy so you never have to worry about the tails creeping. Water knots are for slings that are meant to be tied and untied. If you're gonna leave it tied until you cut it out to replace it then there's no reason to use a water knot.

Cheap accessory cord, 6-8mm, tied with a double fishy or flemish bend. Length is a personal preference. For those cams, I would suggest making a short and a long clip in point  in the sling by tying an overhand/fig 8 on a bight in the sling, just in case you ever end up using them for aid. For the old forged friend, I would go with a gunks tie off. 

eli poss wrote:For the old forged friend, I would go with a gunks tie off. 

For Helen's benefit: the Gunks has thousands of horizontal cracks. Sometimes they are a bit shallow and the rigid stem cams will stick out. The Gunks tie off put the accessory cord through one of the lightening holes in addition to or in place of the main attachment hole at the bottom of the stem. This is done to reduce leverage and maybe prevent the stem from bending. All the cams in Michael's last photo are slung with a Gunks tie off:

Photo: Michael Schneider

John Wilder, 

Did Yates change this policy recently?  A little over a year ago I had 4 of my old pre-thumbloop camalots reslung with them.  Am I out of the loop? (pun intended).

Micah McCrotty wrote:

John Wilder, 

Did Yates change this policy recently?  A little over a year ago I had 4 of my old pre-thumbloop camalots reslung with them.  Am I out of the loop? (pun intended).

From the Yates web site (below). What I find very curious is they say not older than 10 years, but in the last sentence they leave age determination up to the customer.

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

IMPORTANT NOTE:

We will no longer be able to resling cams older than 10 years.  Yates Gear reserves the right to decline reslinging of any cams we feel are unsafe because of there condition of use. (ie. Please do not send us cams that are used up and thrashed!) It will be up to the customer to determine the age and condition of their cams before sending them in to us. 

""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""""

Marc801 C wrote:

For Helen's benefit: the Gunks has thousands of horizontal cracks. Sometimes they are a bit shallow and the rigid stem cams will stick out. The Gunks tie off put the accessory cord through one of the lightening holes in addition to or in place of the main attachment hole at the bottom of the stem. This is done to reduce leverage and maybe prevent the stem from bending. All the cams in Michael's last photo are slung with a Gunks tie off:

Photo: Michael Schneider

Ah!!! The squirrels were rootling for this! I knew there was mention of tieing rigid stem cams way up the stem, for horizontals, some thread somewhere, but that was about it....

All, I have various bits and pieces of accessory cord, so I'll Gunk's the rigid cam, at least, and take a careful look at the others.

I might be hauling the works out tomorrow (my stoppers and micros too) depending on weather, to see what I can do with it.

Thanks, everyone! Wish I could drift off someplace fun, like the thread did!

Best, Helen

Michael Schneider wrote:

I'm gonna take some heat for this but  . . . . .  

The slings look pristine, they are not beyond what you will be using them for. The silly need to spend (and have new) should be predicated on thoughtful observation. No cuts, No fuzzy spots, looks and FEELs soft but firm , it is fine.

sure that is old nylon, that stuff is the beefy (no longer made?) it is STILL, strong enough.  So No ! You do not need*  to replace those slings, it is so overkill.

Now that red tape on the #1(?) the TIE'D one? (Maybe, get it sewn by Yates ,). .  . or double fisher-mans with longer tails.

Helen, before you take too much good advice, bear in mind the source.  From the same guy over at ST - not sure the particular poison of choice, but it's a good one.

eli poss wrote:

mmmm, quality trolling. Burchey, who let you in here? I thought you were banished to the taco.

Haha, I'm not banished anywhere, as far as I know.  I've been put on hold once here.  I'll probably get put on hold again soon, that's how it tends to go.  I got blown out at the taco before for mentioning that this same cat is always alluding to his affinity for young ladies...if you get my drift.  Strange how they let the guy making the questionable statements stay, but remove me for quoting his posts and going "huH???"   Good times in the logic-void.

Hey Helen, like others said you can tie them off yourself. I would recommend using titan cord and a triple fisherman's if you go that route. Regular accessory cord is rated much lower than titan cord. 

Andrewww wrote:

Hey Helen, like others said you can tie them off yourself. I would recommend using titan cord and a triple fisherman's if you go that route. Regular accessory cord is rated much lower than titan cord. 

If you do that, make sure that you check the knots each time you go out. Titan cord is stiff and slippery and known to have the dual combination problem of knots coming loose or being REALLY hard to untie. Triple fisherman for sure. 

I think Mountain Tools might resling those. Give them a call.

Okie engineering, buy sewn dyneema slings. Install so.......JB

Option two....

Okay, this is stupid, but, I don't know just what cord I have (leftovers from my son tieing my prussiks, Purcell's, etc.). Any way to tell what they are from a pic? 

Thanks again, all!

Best, Helen

It's your choice, but just a thought - the person who asked you to resling them may know something about their history that you don't. Or they may be overly cautious, in which case isn't respecting their wishes and offering them peace of mind a small price to pay for this gift? Cord is cheap, for very little money and time you can be sure these are as safe as new. Even sending them off to be reslung is a trivial cost compared to buying even a used cam, though I haven't run into the age limits so that may be a factor. 

I posted the solution. No knots, no mail, about $3.50 per cam...........maybe I'm invisible.....;)

John Barritt wrote:

I posted the solution. No knots, no mail, about $3.50 per cam...........maybe I'm invisible.....;)

No, that's part of the possible solutions I'm considering.

And yes, Em Cos, that's pretty much where I'm headed.

Best, H.