I have been trying to make my own. I am videoing all my failures and successes. I have only made one successful breakaway, designed to safely retard a thousand lb, 40 lb dropped 2 meters onto a static rope. Weakening the webbing and finding thread that is not pathetically weak or insanely strong, has stymied me making my own from webbing - - so far. My only success was with a thousand lb paracord with the first three breakaways at 5 G, and the rest at 2.5 G... The knots slip a little and can pile up if not tight and spaced at least 1 inch apart... I know 1000 lb sounds low, but this is in the context of a 5600 lb rope that would still catch even if the shock absorber (paracord) chose to fail before the breakaways. I would prefer to sew my own in webbing, but nylon thread breaks at too high of weight to scale test and for me to measure, and regular thread stitches tear at too low of a force to mock up. I need a 101 video, with sourcing for the exact sewing thread, needle, stitch length, and webbing.
Ryan, have you ever done testing of via ferrata sets? I weight about what the upper limit of most ferrata sets is (~120kg) and you be interested to see at which force set as a whole will break...
Where can you buy these doo hicky absorbers? I am not 100 percent sure of the proper thread, needle, stitch length and webbing sourcing to make my own, just educated guesses. I am counting 27 break aways, probably 1 cm apart. They should offer 350 lb breaking resistance for a 250 lb person (600 lb - the guys weight), I would think.... So, let's say 200 lb break force times 27 (likely 30), which should bring a guy to near rest by the end, unless he fell father than 2 meters or was very heavy. I am still not sure if 600 lb slams would hurt my daughters who are much thinner boned than the average 200 lb man. I only weigh 130 lb, which is closer to the world wide average person, when you consider Asians and that half the planet is female. The gate flutter is very interesting. Fortunately, all of my modern climbing Carabiners lock and gate flutter is impossible. I calculated an average person might gain 20 lb of force per inch of fall. I think this is only for the first inch of free fall. ... My current understanding is this break away design needs to at least support the weight of the falling person at each break before benefitting with deceleration.. If B is the breaking lb. W is the persons weight. F is the breaking force in lb. A is the acceleration force in lb between break aways. F=B-W-A in my mind. A, I still think is an inconsequential 10 ish lb, when compared to the break away lbs and the entire 5600lb we are trying to gracefully, safely arrest.... The only indication to me that my math could be incorrect, is that when I calculate the stopping distance of my 100 lb daughter, the overall breaking distance force ( N= 1/2(kg*V^2)/meters), converted to kg is greater than the break away kg---which cannot be correct. The maximum force she would see should be the break away resistance, so long as she stops before the end of breakaways. I am open to any one with a better math formula, or direct testing. . Again, I love this video. It is right down my alley of the problem I have been trying to solve for 2 months, to save a neck or 2 over the next 50 years. I really just want to buy 30 to 60 of these, or be able to make 30 myself.
The generic gear name is a "climbing screamer" if you search that in google it will come back with an array of options to buy these. The new generation (what was shown is quite old) of this tool is much better. Out of curiosity, what is the use case where you want 30-60 of these? Having climbed for a few decades i've never thought I needed more than 1 or maybe 2 at a time.
Whatever you make, will be better than nothing. Something like this will always go to full strength at the end. And as long as the string doesn't break under normal use, it will slow you down on a fall. But something you buy will be better.
Sailrite did an article on calculating the breaking strength of stitching, but you need to base your math on the energy you need to dissipate, not just on force. Google engineering toolbox, I think that's what the sites name is that you need to look at. Unless you're planning to make an exact copy of one you have the design details on, in which case you don't need to do any math as long as you don't change anything. You also need to buy materials you can trust and a machine you can do consistent bar tacks on, in webbing. By the time you buy that machine alone you could probably buy 50 shock packs from Petzl. It's certainly not infeasible but there's probably a reason there's not a lot of people doing it. Edit: It looks like you did base your math on energy, I just didn't recognize it the first time I read your comment
Drop tower test is eagerly awaited.
Thanks for all your great work.
I need to see this on the tower. Since it's not made to withstand a lot of force. But instead to absorb a lot of energy.
Ooh link to drop tower test please!
I have been trying to make my own. I am videoing all my failures and successes. I have only made one successful breakaway, designed to safely retard a thousand lb, 40 lb dropped 2 meters onto a static rope.
Weakening the webbing and finding thread that is not pathetically weak or insanely strong, has stymied me making my own from webbing - - so far.
My only success was with a thousand lb paracord with the first three breakaways at 5 G, and the rest at 2.5 G... The knots slip a little and can pile up if not tight and spaced at least 1 inch apart... I know 1000 lb sounds low, but this is in the context of a 5600 lb rope that would still catch even if the shock absorber (paracord) chose to fail before the breakaways.
I would prefer to sew my own in webbing, but nylon thread breaks at too high of weight to scale test and for me to measure, and regular thread stitches tear at too low of a force to mock up.
I need a 101 video, with sourcing for the exact sewing thread, needle, stitch length, and webbing.
Ryan, have you ever done testing of via ferrata sets?
I weight about what the upper limit of most ferrata sets is (~120kg) and you be interested to see at which force set as a whole will break...
Why aren't the stitches diagonal to the direction of pull? I think diagonal stitching will give lower highs and higher lows of force
Das Fuck, Ryan! Where's the drop test!
👏👏👏
p͎r͎o͎m͎o͎s͎m͎ 🔥
Where can you buy these doo hicky absorbers? I am not 100 percent sure of the proper thread, needle, stitch length and webbing sourcing to make my own, just educated guesses.
I am counting 27 break aways, probably 1 cm apart. They should offer 350 lb breaking resistance for a 250 lb person (600 lb - the guys weight), I would think.... So, let's say 200 lb break force times 27 (likely 30), which should bring a guy to near rest by the end, unless he fell father than 2 meters or was very heavy.
I am still not sure if 600 lb slams would hurt my daughters who are much thinner boned than the average 200 lb man. I only weigh 130 lb, which is closer to the world wide average person, when you consider Asians and that half the planet is female.
The gate flutter is very interesting. Fortunately, all of my modern climbing Carabiners lock and gate flutter is impossible.
I calculated an average person might gain 20 lb of force per inch of fall. I think this is only for the first inch of free fall. ... My current understanding is this break away design needs to at least support the weight of the falling person at each break before benefitting with deceleration.. If B is the breaking lb. W is the persons weight. F is the breaking force in lb. A is the acceleration force in lb between break aways. F=B-W-A in my mind. A, I still think is an inconsequential 10 ish lb, when compared to the break away lbs and the entire 5600lb we are trying to gracefully, safely arrest.... The only indication to me that my math could be incorrect, is that when I calculate the stopping distance of my 100 lb daughter, the overall breaking distance force ( N= 1/2(kg*V^2)/meters), converted to kg is greater than the break away kg---which cannot be correct. The maximum force she would see should be the break away resistance, so long as she stops before the end of breakaways. I am open to any one with a better math formula, or direct testing. .
Again, I love this video. It is right down my alley of the problem I have been trying to solve for 2 months, to save a neck or 2 over the next 50 years.
I really just want to buy 30 to 60 of these, or be able to make 30 myself.
The generic gear name is a "climbing screamer" if you search that in google it will come back with an array of options to buy these. The new generation (what was shown is quite old) of this tool is much better. Out of curiosity, what is the use case where you want 30-60 of these? Having climbed for a few decades i've never thought I needed more than 1 or maybe 2 at a time.
Whatever you make, will be better than nothing.
Something like this will always go to full strength at the end. And as long as the string doesn't break under normal use, it will slow you down on a fall.
But something you buy will be better.
Sailrite did an article on calculating the breaking strength of stitching, but you need to base your math on the energy you need to dissipate, not just on force. Google engineering toolbox, I think that's what the sites name is that you need to look at. Unless you're planning to make an exact copy of one you have the design details on, in which case you don't need to do any math as long as you don't change anything.
You also need to buy materials you can trust and a machine you can do consistent bar tacks on, in webbing. By the time you buy that machine alone you could probably buy 50 shock packs from Petzl.
It's certainly not infeasible but there's probably a reason there's not a lot of people doing it.
Edit: It looks like you did base your math on energy, I just didn't recognize it the first time I read your comment