Alien Fixe cam worth the $$$

Chris D wrote:

Hi! When I made these repairs, I thought it was pretty interesting how retracted the cam lobes were, knowing how Alien cam lobes on factory-wired units at rest are quite umbrellaed. 

This repair was made with pre-bent wires supplied by Fixe for this specific cam (you can see how they are shipped in the repair kit in the image below), so I didn't have the option to make them any longer. 

When it was all together, I looked at it and called it good, since I would never place that cam with the lobes more deployed than they are in the picture.

Which made me wonder again (as I have many times) why Aliens are built with the umbrella built into the cam lobes at rest. What's the benefit?

Functionally, it’s fine.

I don’t know why aliens were set that way other than they looked cool.

Years ago I posted a tutorial here with pics and lengths of wire to use to repair them. No idea if it still exists. I know that drawing I made certainly doesn’t.

The biggest problem with home alien repairs is that the smallest brass stop available at a local Ace is still too big. Considering how low volume my personal repairs are, it’s probably worth just getting the kit.

FWIW, Aliens are held together by a rounded nut and some red loctite. I took one apart last winter to use under an epoxy tabletop in my shop. It came apart very easily. That loctite was probably 25-28 years old and had seen a ton of mileage. Still surprised me though.

Where are you finding aliens in stock? I tried to buy a rack a few months ago but ended up having to buy fireflies instead to get the small stuff. (love them btw but would still like to try aliens)

Taylor Evans wrote:

Where are you finding aliens in stock? I tried to buy a rack a few months ago but ended up having to buy fireflies instead to get the small stuff. (love them btw but would still like to try aliens)

just the tiniest bit of research will get you there...

https://fixehardware.com/index.php/fixe/climbing-hardware/fixe-alien-cams.html

old5ten wrote:

just the tiniest bit of research will get you there...

https://fixehardware.com/index.php/fixe/climbing-hardware/fixe-alien-cams.html

LOL they only had like 2 of them in stock when I looked awhile back. 

highaltitudeflatulentexpulsion wrote:

The biggest problem with home alien repairs is that the smallest brass stop available at a local Ace is still too big. Considering how low volume my personal repairs are, it’s probably worth just getting the kit.

The kits are very nice, and super reasonably priced. Clearly folks honoring the legacy of the gear. No money is being made on the repair kit at the price, and you'll never swage the ball on the wire like it is in the kit without special tools you would never use again. 

FWIW, Aliens are held together by a rounded nut and some red loctite. I took one apart last winter to use under an epoxy tabletop in my shop. It came apart very easily. That loctite was probably 25-28 years old and had seen a ton of mileage. Still surprised me though.

The head of the cam is attached to the stem with loctite? Or the stem has some pressed-on ferrule with threads that are secured to a nut in the head with red loctite? Or maybe I'm reading this totally incorrectly? Haha. 

Chris D wrote:

The head of the cam is attached to the stem with loctite? Or the stem has some pressed-on ferrule with threads that are secured to a nut in the head with red loctite? Or maybe I'm reading this totally incorrectly? Haha. 

In the days of CCH. Pre Fixe. No idea how the new ones are, I haven’t had a new alien in decades.

There is a fluted steel axle that the lobes and springs slide over. To hold it all together there is a nut that tightens onto the axle.

They used a vice with a specific sized hole to hold the axle and a big pair of pliers to hold the nut. With a dab of red loctite, the two were tightened together.

Sometimes the nut was a plain ol nut that had been machined round. Other times, it was cut from bar stock. I think it depended on which tasks the machines were doing and whether they were free to make nuts.

Aliens failed at the steel head brazed point, mostly due to the infamous outsourcing “dimple f death”. Some probably failed due to extreme forces and a softer than T6-6061 aluminum.

Independent testing also showed some inconsistencies in the range of the orange, like the hole was not always in the same spot. Further testing showed some non dimpled failures at a kn or two less than spec. It was enough to give statisticians a headache but these didn’t break in practice.

I’ve never heard of that nut backing off. It probably doesn’t see much force.

highaltitudeflatulentexpulsion wrote:

In the days of CCH. Pre Fixe. No idea how the new ones are, I haven’t had a new alien in decades.

There is a fluted steel axle that the lobes and springs slide over. To hold it all together there is a nut that tightens onto the axle.

They used a vice with a specific sized hole to hold the axle and a big pair of pliers to hold the nut. With a dab of red loctite, the two were tightened together.

Sometimes the nut was a plain ol nut that had been machined round. Other times, it was cut from bar stock. I think it depended on which tasks the machines were doing and whether they were free to make nuts.

Aliens failed at the steel head brazed point, mostly due to the infamous outsourcing “dimple f death”. Some probably failed due to extreme forces and a softer than T6-6061 aluminum.

Independent testing also showed some inconsistencies in the range of the orange, like the hole was not always in the same spot. Further testing showed some non dimpled failures at a kn or two less than spec. It was enough to give statisticians a headache but these didn’t break in practice.

I’ve never heard of that nut backing off. It probably doesn’t see much force.

Thanks for the detailed reply! 

With almost everything being made in big factories overseas these days, it's easy to forget that a good bit of climbing gear was (and still is) made by pretty small operations and subject to manufacturing "variances." Like "what the machinist had time for today." Ha!

highaltitudeflatulentexpulsion wrote:

Aliens failed at the steel head brazed point, mostly due to the infamous outsourcing “dimple f death”. Some probably failed due to extreme forces and a softer than T6-6061 aluminum.

Independent testing also showed some inconsistencies in the range of the orange, like the hole was not always in the same spot. Further testing showed some non dimpled failures at a kn or two less than spec. It was enough to give statisticians a headache but these didn’t break in practice.

I’ve never heard of that nut backing off. It probably doesn’t see much force.

It wasn't just the orange that had the axle hole in the wrong place.

Gunkiemike wrote:

It wasn't just the orange that had the axle hole in the wrong place.

I’m not surprised. The orange was the one I heard more about.

Whether or not my axles are in the right place, I can’t say. But after 25+ years on my rack, I know where they fit. 

Climb On Equipment in Squamish has the Alien X cams now for US$70 - retail. $20 less than Fixe's website.  The exchange rate is 1.40