When to retire a nut?

I have a #5 BD stopper that I noticed a single cable strand had broken approximately 1/4" above the nut.

For the $9 the piece costs, I will replace it.

Back in my days working on aircraft, the regulations required that any cable assembly that has one broken wire strand located in a critical fatigue area must be replaced.

I was wondering if there was something similar, such as a manufacturer's recommendation concerning broken strands on wired nuts?

Thanks,
Glenn

How much is your time worth? Add up finding such a place, talking to them, driving there, waiting for it, etc.

freerangequark wrote:I was wondering if there was something similar, such as a manufacturer's recommendation concerning broken strands on wired nuts? Thanks, Glenn

Climbing science isn't quite as standardized as that of Aerospace. Nobody is going to give you a firm answer one way or the other when it comes to such thing. Do a search for rope life, dropped biner, etc.

Personally I'd take some dikes, snip off the wire to keep it from poking me and put it back on my rack. But that's me. The best answer is simply: if it bothers you mentally and you don't trust it, retire it. There's enough stuff to worry about in climbing, why add that to the list?

Well Id have to agree with both Rickd and Mike and Ryan

If you have a nicopress tool than fix it if not why bother just buy
another one

and Ryan has the same take on frayed wires as I do just snip the offending little nub and drive on .

Really all manufactures of gear will tell you to replace it Hell it's
one of the first things you see on all the little tags that come with the gear it's even in 20 different languages

when you retire it, send it to me. i could use another #5 stopper. thanks.

All good points... thanks!

-Glenn

Ryan Kelly wrote:Personally I'd take some dikes, snip off the wire to keep it from poking me and put it back on my rack.

What do lesbians have to do with nuts? ;)

Why do people call diagonal-cutters dikes? I never got that.

edit: aha. duh. now that i've typed them together, it's obviously a portmanteau: DIagonal Cutter. DI-C. Dike. lol

NEVER RETIRE YOUR NUTS.

Considering that the cost of a new nut is $9-$12 and that your life is worth more than that; I would recommend replacing the nut. Even if you fixed the stopper, how much would this cost you? Can you trust the work? I would have to assume that your time is more valuable than $12 per hour. How many hours will you have tied up in this process of avoiding the simple fact that a new stopper is the most logical choice.

Ryan Kelly wrote: Climbing science isn't quite as standardized as that of Aerospace. Nobody is going to give you a firm answer one way or the other when it comes to such thing. Do a search for rope life, dropped biner, etc. Personally I'd take some dikes, snip off the wire to keep it from poking me and put it back on my rack. But that's me. The best answer is simply: if it bothers you mentally and you don't trust it, retire it. There's enough stuff to worry about in climbing, why add that to the list?

Very true, Ryan, nobody is going to give you a firm guideline as to how much damage is too much damage for any piece of climbing gear to continue being safe.

That said, I worked for several ropes courses and there retirement guidelines for belay cables was more than one broken strand per bundle per foot.If you look carefully at the cable construction, it is actually multiple bundles of small strands braided together. For example, I believe the cable we were using had 8 bundles of 3 wires, meaning 24 strands in all. If more than one strand in any bundle was frayed over any distance of a foot, the cable got retired. Granted belay cables and stopper cables are very apples to oranges, but the point is that one frayed strand is just a component of one of many bundles of wires that makes up the cable and the stopper is is PROBABLY fine.

Still, WHEN IN DOUBT THROW IT OUT. This is especially true for something cheap like a stopper. Repairing the stopper is probably more trouble than its worth.

I have several of these that I take on multi-pitch routes. I just hang them on the back of my harness and if we need to bail due to weather or something they become part of the anchor (if possible).

usually i just grab another one from the bucket of stoppers that i have bootied. the thing i don't like about the frayed cable is that it is always trying to poke me. god i hate that.