Custom Friction Saver

Hey Moss I have read many of your post and watched your youtube videos always good info. I have made some of the flex conduit FS but have lost my supplier( a electrical contractor that was working in the building). Would you please shot me the supplier for the conduit as I go through a few a year. Thanks for all your sharing. Live Life Climb5

climb5 wrote:

Would you please shoot me the supplier for the conduit as I go through a few a year. Thanks for all your sharing. Live Life Climb5

Here's the 3/4' inside diameter ultra flex black conduit, you can buy it by the foot:
http://www.mcmaster.com/#8069k13/=b8yk3u

The best end cone (or end cap) is by T&B, unless you buy them bulk you have to buy the entire fitting and "harvest" the end cone.

http://www.tnb.com/ps/fulltilt/index.cgi?part=5333

This is just the ground cone (what's used on the end of the conduit) for reference:
http://www.tnb.com/ps/fulltilt/pddpart.cgi?cat_num=05371814123

Home Depot had a decent equivalent as well, RACO straight 3/4" liquid tight connector, the end cone is inside
http://tinyurl.com/4nylpfr

-AJ

Treezybreez wrote:

I had thought about break testing my old friction saver to see how much strength is left. Do you know what kind of place has accurate break testing equipment and how much it would cost? I remember seeing a thread on the Buzz board that talked about this.

I like your idea about having a "captive-eye carabiner with the rope through the hole and a "keeper" on the strap". An HMS style captive eye carabiner seems like it would work well.

Caleb, check out page 12 in this PDF, shows drop test results on different stitching methods used to secure webbing for life support:
http://www.caves.org/section/vertical/nhback/NH03.pdf

Note that the box with X scores very low. Best score is sewn longitudinal, somewhat irregular with slight diagonal, scores better than bar tacking.

You can do your own stitched webbing load testing with some weight, strong rope and a very solid anchor. Take a look at fall factor formulas to determine a good drop height to simulate real world conditions.

Sew with heavy polyester thread intended for life support gear use (you probably already know that)
-AJ

Hi Moss, Thank you for the PDF it has a lot of useful info. There is a similar picture that shows thread pattern strengths in the book ON ROPE. I made a foot strap with webbing and used the zig zag pattern they recommend. I hope the picture will attach lately I have been having trouble getting them to attach. I made sure it was the right size mb and it is jpg file type.

Thanks, Caleb

I figured it might be in On Rope, I should own it but never got around to picking it up. Searching around the web I'm surprised how difficult it is to find good info on how to hand sew your own life support gear.

So far I'm only hand sewing non-life support components to my systems but with a full year climbing on my hand sewn footloops I'm impressed at how well they're held up. I've really beat them up and they show minimal signs of wear. I frequently put my full body weight on my footloop, probably more since the loading is dynamic as I stand up on the system.

If I get the time I will try to sew some slings and drop test them.
-AJ

Treezybreez wrote:

Stitch pattern looks excellent Caleb.
-AJ

Moss,
Could you send me the specs on the conduit pipe as well?

A new advantage of using the House Sleeves. I used to dislike the problem of the sleeves sliding down the rope when they come off a branch. The leather sleeve does not slide because it is pre-formed into a U shape.

Well I am starting to reconsider that trait as not so bad. I have a number of 90 foot settings at the TCI training center. The problem I have on a few of the settings is that I can not always see the setting when I pull up my rope.

I have to go on feel more than a visual sighting. But with the House Sleeves, if you miss the branch it immediately slides down! You can then simply reset it using the Blakes hitch. You've created a loop. You just send the sleeve back up with the Blakes as the pusher, pull your Blakes back down after it rolls over the branch, and you're good to go. It takes a lot of the guessing out of the high settings. You just have to be ready to move your hands if it slides down the rope.

Peter Treeman Jenkins

treeman wrote:

Moss,
Could you send me the specs on the conduit pipe as well?

Sent by email, also in the thread above for reference.

Good point about the high settings visibility problem solved by the conduit sleeve. It works for night climbing as well.

When I'm setting the sleeve at night I raise the sleeve up toward the limb, when the end of the sleeve reaches the limb you can feel the resistance. I visualize the length of the sleeve on the rope in front of me (30") and carefully pull a little less than that length of rope to move the sleeve into position on top of the limb. As Treeman mentioned, if you pull too far, it will slide down the other leg of the rope. When you hear that whistling sound take your hand off the rope or quickly create a "belly" for the pipe to land in. Everyone gets their hand stung by the pipe coming down a couple of times before they learn to react to that sound.
-AJ

michaeljspraggon wrote:

Hi Caleb,

By the way, the stitching on your webbing in the phooto looks scarily light and I would never trust my life on it. Look at how ready-made webbing slings are stitched. They have 6 or 7 rows of very dense zig-zag stitching across the width of the webbing, each row with entirely seperate thread from the next. Alternately knots overhand on a bight or figure-8 on a bight. If your using smooth polyester webbing then definitely figure-8 on a bight.

I like the keeper clip. I used rubber ones for a while but they kept breaking.

Hi Michael, sorry it took me so long to reply to your post.

I attached another picture that shows a different angle. part of your concern for the stitching looking light is that it sinks into the webbing. There are many yards of thread in the friction saver and there will be even more when I find a suitable cover for it. Also the friction saver is one continuous roll of webbing. That means the majority of the stitching would have to come undone in order for it to fail.

The stainless steel keeper is the smaller one that WesSpur carries.