Photos of BEAUTIFUL HARDWARE

DrRockso wrote:

Shawn,
Serious question, would you consider replacing all of your (older style) fixe glue in anchors if their were confirmed independent testing data of the weld breaking at or below 15kn, we'll below the manufacturer rating. BTW your work looks great.

Holy undercut! I'm continually baffled by Fixe's weld quality. A few years ago I was working as an RT level 1 and convinced my boss to let me take a shot of a few Fixe eye bolts. The following radiograph depicts the serious flaws I suspect are in most of Fixe's welded products. The bolts are from different batches over a 10 year period. Centerline cracking and lack of fusion seem to be a common theme. I would have been shocked if any of those welds held 15kn.

Shawn, the bolt pictured is the old style with the grooves and was purchased over a decade ago.

The weld issue is why I prefer 1 peice rod and forged glue ins. Inconsistency and possibility of human error in welded bolts are a concern. We switched to using twist bolts a long time ago, and now I use a combination of wave and twist bolts. Jim's bolts are hard to beat in terms of quality, consistency, strength, ease of installation and price, and the fact that he offers a variety of lengths and diameters is a big plus for working with different rock quality and high use applications. For example I use the Beefy 8mm twist bolts on highly trafficked routes and crux bolts that take a lot of hard whips, while the regular 6mm are great for the rest...

We are all striving to improve the quality of our anchors, and not every bolt pictured in this thread is perfect, but a lot are very good. I strive to have everything I place have at least a 50 year lifespan, we all have limitations in anchors replacement in terms of reusing old holes or drilling new holes, using what is available from the ASCA or local bolt replacement funds, etc. In terms of strength 15kn kinda sucks, especially for an epoxy anchor, but I'm not out there wasting my time chopping every fixe bolt  I see because we're not seeing failures is these bolts because even at their worst (15kn) they're good enough, and not failing on people. WilI I place or buy those books? Probably not there are better designs out there IMO. Did they serve their purpose when they were one of the few commercially available anchors? Absolutely. The point of this thread is to show what good anchors look like and I'm sure many reading this thread have learned a bit from it.

Keep up the good work Shawn.

My “yellow” chain is Bomber thats why there’s quick links for eady replacement Thanks Nobacks 12a

Tristan Burnham wrote:

From what I’ve seen at places the yellow chain sometimes called transportation chain isn’t plated or galvanized and when I used it, it rusted really bad in just a few months. 

No, as I stated before, if the chain wasn't plated it couldn't be the yellow color, non-plated chain would be the color of steel, i.e. a dull grey.  Also as I stated before, transportation chain is zinc plated, then yellow chromate treated and is absolutely more resistant to corrosion than clear zinc plated chain.  While I am certainly not saying that your transportation chain didn't rust badly in a few months, I am saying that if you had used standard zinc plated chain it would have rusted even more quickly.  Obviously, the environment you used it in needs stainless chain.

I don't think there are a lot of failures but there are definitely failures.  

Mikey Schaefer wrote: I don't think there are a lot of failures but there are definitely failures.  

Wow what happened? I never would have expected a clean snap there, would've guessed the weld would be the point of failure.

Titan Eterna, only $15 each...

Will look better once the glue fully dries

Ian F wrote:

Wow what happened? I never would have expected a clean snap there, would've guessed the weld would be the point of failure.

This sorta looks like an infamous bolt that broke in Austin years back.  I think it was an early titanium single shaft that wasn't placed properly (flush or counter sunk) and it allowed the bolt to flex repeatedly as it was loaded.  Eventually the shaft snapped.  That fixe sort of looks like it suffered a similar fate and is of the design that does need to be counter sunk.  Pure speculation mind you 

Ken Noyce wrote:

No, as I stated before, if the chain wasn't plated it couldn't be the yellow color, non-plated chain would be the color of steel, i.e. a dull grey.  Also as I stated before, transportation chain is zinc plated, then yellow chromate treated and is absolutely more resistant to corrosion than clear zinc plated chain.  While I am certainly not saying that your transportation chain didn't rust badly in a few months, I am saying that if you had used standard zinc plated chain it would have rusted even more quickly.  Obviously, the environment you used it in needs stainless chain.

G70 towing (transportation) chain isn’t always chromate coated (yellow color) or even Zinc plated, so it’s possible to have G70 that rusts  quickly.  But if it’s shiny and yellow, it’s almost definitely chromate coated and therefore is quite corrosion resistant.  I’ve used in on some top anchors and they still look fantastic.

Mikey Schaefer wrote: I don't think there are a lot of failures but there are definitely failures.  

Thanks for the picture, poor wording on my part, thanks for the correction. I meant bolts aren't failing due to people generating 15kn falls. Any more info on this particular failure, looks like some series corrosion going on there like it was placed in scc susceptible environment and not countersunk? 

Not my work. Any guesses where this anchor replacement took place ? Which route ?  ;)

Kent Krauza wrote:

G70 towing (transportation) chain isn’t always chromate coated (yellow color) or even Zinc plated, so it’s possible to have G70 that rusts  quickly.  But if it’s shiny and yellow, it’s almost definitely chromate coated and therefore is quite corrosion resistant.  I’ve used in on some top anchors and they still look fantastic.

Correct, G70 doesn't have to be plated at all, but I am going off the earlier post that said that he placed shiny yellow G70 that wasn't plated (obviously not correct).

Eric Berghorn wrote: Not my work. Any guesses where this anchor replacement took place ? Which route ? ;)

Looks like a route at the Point on Cayman Brac. Those are big fat titanium bolts with the old stainless bolts nearby, quickly succumbing to SCC. I easily broke old bolts by hand at the Point.

All these went in recently in an area intended as a learning and practice zone (short outcrop).  Want to expose climbers to many setups, both old school and "new" so they can familiarize themselves with them and practice near the ground.  Conveniently, there are also some cracks that will allow anchor building practice as well.  Pretty cool actually.  I was trying out some G5+ this day as the temp was 95 with a feels like around 103.  Nice grey color but a bit more runny than the A7+/AC100+ stuff so it was a bit more difficult to work with, especially with SLBs that wanted to move around more.  Had zero issues with nozzle curing so high temp friendly for sure but extra shop paper towel pieces are a must.

French with 3/8" Snaps. 5/16" QLs and 8mm SLBs, all 316SS.  On the wall the top one will likely be a thicker mussy on the high use routes but here, corrosion trumps wear concerns.

BP 4 Link bolts in traditional "V" formation.  Not worried about wear given how they'll used.  Can always add rings if needed.

BP Inline and Pigtail with 10mm SLB to better resist tampering at ground level. Personal Favorite.

French Style with Raumer "Euro" 13mm drop ins.  Testing as an ultra low profile setup.

Inline Trad Double Ring

Classic Horizontal with Rings.  We have a lot of this legacy style at our local granite area.

Vertical French Single Ring.  Nice lower profile setup (I see these a lot in Squamish).

mattm wrote: All these went in recently in an area intended as a learning and practice zone (short outcrop).  Want to expose climbers to many setups, both old school and "new" so they can familiarize themselves with them and practice near the ground.  Conveniently, there are also some cracks that will allow anchor building practice as well.  Pretty cool actually.  I was trying out some G5+ this day as the temp was 95 with a feels like around 103.  Nice grey color but a bit more runny than the A7+/AC100+ stuff so it was a bit more difficult to work with, especially with SLBs that wanted to move around more.  Had zero issues with nozzle curing so high temp friendly fore sure but extra shop paper towel pieces are a must.

French with 3/8" Snaps. 5/16" QLs and 8mm SLBs, all 316SS.  On the wall the top one will likely be a thicker mussy on the high use routes but here, corrosion trumps wear concerns.

BP 4 Link bolts in traditional "V" formation.  Not worried about wear given how they'll used.  Can always add rings if needed.

BP Inline and Pigtail with 10mm SLB to better resist tampering at ground level. Personal Favorite.

French Style with Raumer "Euro" 13mm drop ins.  Testing as an ultra low profile setup.

Inline Trad Double Ring

Classic Horizontal with Rings.  We have a lot of this legacy style at our local granite area.

Vertical French Single Ring.  Nice lower profile setup (I see these a lot in Squamish).

Now that's beautiful hardware....

Not really beautiful but I love the idea of practice anchors on the ground for people to learn on instead of getting taught at a hanging belay or someone coaching them from the ground. Here’s one I put in with old hardware from a bolt replacement  

Tristan Burnham wrote: Not really beautiful but I love the idea of practice anchors on the ground for people to learn on instead of getting taught at a hanging belay or someone coaching them from the ground. Here’s one I put in with old hardware from a bolt replacement  

Agreed - I've seen too many cluster Fs with someone coaching a terrified 2nd from the ground.  The inline Trad double ring above is actually about 1m off the ground on a small ledge.  It will allow people to practice MP stuff as well.  I'm hoping I can get a 2nd anchor in another 4m up (lots of gardening) so they can literally climb a "multi pitch" and rap down 2x pitches while never being more than 5m up.

The inline BP and pigtail with 10mm SLB is really growing on me as well. 

mattm wrote:

Agreed - I've seen too many cluster Fs with someone coaching a terrified 2nd from the ground.  The inline Trad double ring above is actually about 1m off the ground on a small ledge.  It will allow people to practice MP stuff as well.  I'm hoping I can get a 2nd anchor in another 4m up (lots of gardening) so they can literally climb a "multi pitch" and rap down 2x pitches while never being more than 5m up.

Someone bolted a 4th class multipitch at one of our local crags and its way out of the way and doesn’t mess with anything and it’s a great intro to multipitch. I think it’s like 5 pitches with like 30ft pitches. Pretty rad idea. 

timothy fisher wrote: The inline BP and pigtail with 10mm SLB is really growing on me as well. 

I know some think it's higher profile than other styles (two biners/hooks with QLs) but in reality it's only ONE more link and usually a thinner and duller grey vs QL and extra hook.  I also have this theory that vertical setups don't stand out the same way symmetric side by sides do.  Something with how on a vertical wall, vertical things seem more "natural".  Zero proof to this mind you.  
** A quick google search indicates there may be something to this.  We're more prone to spot things in the horizontal or vertical planes but oblique less so.  "Vertical" anchors as we think of them are somewhat oblique.  Interesting...