Old school aliens.

I've got an old set from before the big quality control issue. I still use them and they seem to be in good working order. They must 20 years old. I'm wandering if over 20 years their strength could be comprised just due to the materials age. Any thoughts?

Have them reslung and they're good for another 20 years.

Yeah I got new webbing put on them 5 years ago.

The only way metal would wear out like that would be through fatigue, but you'd have to have thousands of loading cycles on the gear for that to happen.

eli poss wrote:The only way metal would wear out like that would be through fatigue, but you'd have to have thousands of loading cycles on the gear for that to happen.

Gunkiemike wrote: Well, the CCH Aliens were made with really soft lobes, and I've seen pics of a few that were retired simply because the lobes had mashed to a point where they didn't function as they should. But that sort of heavy use is pretty rare, I think.

It's not just mashing that can happen. My aliens are the same age as yours and I've noticed that they are smaller than they used to be. I wouldn't have noticed except that I have a mad scientist friend who built some prototypes to the exact size and cam angles and they were just barely bigger than my cch's.

Years and years of micro wear have made a subtle change. It doesn't affect the functionality thoug.