Minimal Cost Stainless Rap Anchor

Would you not actually need two links for every one chain link. They come in a chain. You would have to cut at least one to get a whole one. 

eli poss wrote:

I really like the idea of something like this, although I would want to see a picture with like a carabiner for size reference before ordering. But at the moment i still have quite a few quicklinks and some chain lying around so I'll probably get a couple of ramshorns and pair with that. But once I get a little more molah and more time for FAs, I'll be hitting you up about some of these set-ups Jim.

I'm stoked you were able to get a distributor in the US because I like a lot of your products better than a lot of the stuff available here. For example, I like your rod hangers much more than the standard ones used over here.

Like this:-

The chain links are 52mm long internally so two of them are about the same as a normal karabiner.

jbrown2 Brown wrote:

Would you not actually need two links for every one chain link. They come in a chain. You would have to cut at least one to get a whole one. 

You do indeed, I´ve a scrap box with maybe a couple of hundred cut links. At least with stainless I can weld them shut again and for some stuff like fitting to hangers you have to do it this way but actually welding them back together costs more than the link itself so normally it´s just into the bin. I just got an order which will involve throwing away 400 links  

Jim Titt wrote:

You do indeed, I´ve a scrap box with maybe a couple of hundred cut links. At least with stainless I can weld them shut again and for some stuff like fitting to hangers you have to do it this way but actually welding them back together costs more than the link itself so normally it´s just into the bin. I just got an order which will involve throwing away 400 links  

Recycle, don't throw them away. Around here stainless is worth big money.

Jim Titt wrote:

I infer from this photo that it's fairly easy to retro-fit a single rams horn (pigtail) to an old-school American-style with two bolts set at the same horizontal level.

By simply hanging a chain down off each bolt -- or a single chain connecting between both bolts.

. . . (since I had installed last year some horizontally-set anchors, I think I'll go back to them next spring after the snow melts and replace with a single rams horn).

Ken

Gunkiemike wrote:

Recycle, don't throw them away. Around here stainless is worth big money.

Big is relative! I produce about 500kg of scrap a year which costs me around €2800 to buy in and I get maybe €250 back from the scrap man. the world scrap price for 304 Sabot (as it is called) is $1500 per ton so the value without any middle men/transport/shipping and tax of a single chain link is 8c.

kenr wrote:

I infer from this photo that it's fairly easy to retro-fit a single rams horn (pigtail) to an old-school American-style with two bolts set at the same horizontal level.

By simply hanging a chain down off each bolt -- or a single chain connecting between both bolts.

. . . (since I had installed last year some horizontally-set anchors, I think I'll go back to them next spring after the snow melts and replace with a single rams horn).

Ken

Sure, as long as the chain will let a 10mm bar through......

M Sprague wrote:

Personally, I like the ramshorns for top anchors, where it is unlikely someone will be climbing above them, and usually use a more closed system like heavy quicklinks, rings or chainlinks for mid anchors.

I'll build mid anchors that come down to a single point sometimes if is something like a giant link from a logging chain. I have been thinking of trying  the vertical bolt arrangement with a single horn, but frankly it is cheaper to just go with 2 glue-ins and 2 horns placed horizontally 6"s apart than with the connecting parts to go vertical even with only one horn. I haven't noticed rope twisting and you get some redundancy in the unlikely scenario you do something strange and unhook from one. Despite some advantages of vertical bolt alignment, I like the little extra acreage horizontal gives you.

Jim, what do you use to close up the ramshorns some after placing them? Some are pretty loose and can be spun off the bolt by hand; hammer and wood blocks or giant vicegrip? I am using them mostly on the 8mm twist bolts

I never fit ramshorns on mulri-pitch routes though they do make rapping easier I guess, they really are just intended to be a lower-off and nothing else.

I´ve never had to adjust one on the cliff so I really don´t know, I always carry the whole lot up ready to glue-in or just change them, originally they are made to fit a 6mm bolts so shouldn´t be loose BUT we did make some earlier for Rumney to fit their gigantic 1/2" ring bolts and maybe you got some of those? Basically I´d have no problem if you hammered them tighter, it´s unlikely you´ll damage them  . Some guys cable-tie them in place but I don´t really know why.

Not sure if it was mentioned but if its not marine, you can use a zinc plated quicklink and chain on SS bolt and hanger without issue. That cuts some of the costs.