Unslung hexes

[mtnrgr]

What is the best cord to sling BD hexes? I recently purchased a few, but the 5mm cord I have won't fit. How do you fuse Maxim tech cord? The core won't melt with a regular lighter.

[dharmabum]

any of the kevlar or spectra cords are fine. they are stiff enough to make the small and medium hexes easier to place. to fuse the ends, take the piece of cord you have cut (about 36"-40") and slide the sheath back on one end, exposing the core. cut about 1" off the core. now the sheath is about 1/2" too long on each end, and you can melt the sheath and seal the end. this will also make the cord easier to thread into the hex. on the larger size hexes you can fit the knot inside the hex to make it less bulky.

[kevin_page]

Or just step up to the plate and buy some slcd's because you'll soon outgrow your hexes. Maybe you can still return them.

[Lambone]

naw, hexes have their place...good for building alpine belays and such. Light easy to pack, plus they make good bear bells in grizzly country.

[Cpt.Caveman]

i PEE MY UNSLUNG HEXES ON LAMMY'S FACE!

[Scott_J]

What the fuck is wrong with you guys. Hexs stillhave their place in the climbing world. Hell Henry Barber thinks cams are cheating so he still uses hexes and stoppers. Big hexes are cheap and work in big cracks. Great for lam basting ass holes in the head with.

[mtngrrrl]

well said, sisu suomi. i like hexes. what ever happened to having a diverse rack? slcds are nice, but expensive and there's just something more satisfying about placing a bomber hex.

[dharmabum]

Hmm, see if you can pick the person who doesn't know what they're babbling about!! (HINT)It's not Caveman!

[al]

If your using Kevlar be sure to tie a triple fishermans knot 'cause the stuff is slippery. I tryed Kevlar once and didn't like it. The older hexes (Chounard) had bigger holes so I went back to perlon. Hexes are great for an alpine rack. I've rapped off them and didn't rue the loss.

[willstrickland]

I recommend reading the recent thread on this board (do a search) concerning cordellettes and nylon vs spectra vs vectran etc. By all accounts, it looks like plain 'ol perlon/nylon is way cheaper, plenty strong, and with some other charactersitics preferable to the super techy cordage. Actually, here's the url for the Fish page that contained most of the pertinent infoCordage Article

[chucK]

That article talks about 7mm perlon. If you got holes big enough for 7mm then go for the perlon; however, mtnrgr said 5mm cord won't fit .What's up with that? I think those hexes are made for the 5.5mm cord. In any case I don't think sub 5mm perlon would be strong enough.

Hexes are cheaper than SLCD's yes. Note that the largest hexes (#9-11) are not much lighter than Friends (see http://home.attbi.com/~cspieker/misc/sizerang.htm ). You save less than an oz on #8 hex vs 2.5 friend. Hexes do seem worth the weight and fiddle factor in places with irregular and pockety cracks like Smith.

Once you figure out the length of the cord you want (I'd say about 4' or slightly less per hex) make sure you get different colors for each hex. You'll be happy you did.

Oh yeah, another thing. To "fuse" the ends, pull the sheath down around the core and chop off about 1/2-1" of the core, then pull the sheath back over and melt that part. Before the molten goo hardens, shape it into a nice tip for threading.

Chuck

[ 01-28-2002: Message edited by: chucK ]

[Bronco]

quote:

---

Originally posted by mtnrgr:

What is the best cord to sling BD hexes? I recently purchased a few, but the 5mm cord I have won't fit. How do you fuse Maxim tech cord? The core won't melt with a regular lighter.

---

check this out:

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic&f=9&t=000086

and I ended up using 5.5 spectra for mine with a double fishermans. Experiment with your lenghts as it is a personal preference matter. The holes are tight and kind of bothersome for feeding cord though, but it will work just fine. A small propane torch works pretty good for melting the ends if you have one.

[al]

Hexes were designed for the cracks of Sierra granite (Yosemite)and thus, sometimes seem tougher to place in the irregular cracks of basalt and other forms of local rock except when placed on end. The smaller holes drilled in the newer hexes must be for the newer tech cords. I've got 6mm perlon on my old hexes, but I had to use an awl to shove them through.

[mattp]

I sort of agree with you except that it I believe that it is slightly the other way around: the irregular nature of granite cracks is precisely what makes them hex-frieindly whereas the smooth and parallel nature of the basalt at a place like Vantage causes difficulty for hexes. Interestingly, I find that the Andesite at Tieton is often quite hex-friendly and indeed, the cracks there are often irregular inside and narrower at the rock surface than the inside of the crack, so hexes work very well and do not walk like a cam.

[ScottP]

quote:

---

Originally posted by mattp:

I sort of agree with you except that it I believe that it is slightly the other way around: the irregular nature of granite cracks is precisely what makes them hex-frieindly whereas the smooth and parallel nature of the basalt at a place like Vantage causes difficulty for hexes. Interestingly, I find that the Andesite at Tieton is often quite hex-friendly and indeed, the cracks there are often irregular inside and narrower at the rock surface than the inside of the crack, so hexes work very well and do not walk like a cam.

---

From John Middendorf's excellent treatise The Mechanical Advantage "...Chouinard and Frost redesigned their tooling for the new clean equipment. Their major contribution to the clean-climbing revolution was the invaluable Hexcentric, co-patented in 1971, which made protection available even in parallel-sided cracks." (http://www.primenet.com/~midds/mechanical.html)

The excentric nature of the hex shape was designed specifically to to give a camming action of sorts in the smooth parallel-sided cracks that are found in the Valley.

[Lambone]

quote:

---

Originally posted by mtnrgr:

What is the best cord to sling BD hexes? I recently purchased a few, but the 5mm cord I have won't fit. How do you fuse Maxim tech cord? The core won't melt with a regular lighter.

---

If you bring them down to the gym (VW) you can use our hot knife. It might work better than a lighter.

One thing I used to do was pull some extra core out of the sheath and cut it. Then pull the sheath back over the core, so that the core is burried inside(so to speak). Then just melt the sheath and be done with it. This works nicely to seal off the end of any cord...and gets rid of the freying issue. Hope that helps.

[monkeyboy]

I took a drill and made the holes on my hexes slightly {this is key} larger to fit the cord I wanted to sling them with. Ya I know someones going to say this is potentialy harmful, or not reccomended or blah blah blah. As long as you file off the insides smooth when your done it's fine.

[al]

I never thought of basalt as having a parallel nature to their crack systems. The outside edge may look parallel, but a quick feel with fingers betrays a grossly flairing or irregular inside making it impossible to get a hex placed on it's side in the way you see diagrams in books. Perhaps the smallest hexes do better since not as much side area. Since I've forsaken sunny sierra granite for the glooms of cascade rock I've rarely placed a hex on it's side, but rather, on it's ends.

In any event, hexes be damned. This morning I'm getting out and looking for ice at the pass!

[Lambone]

quote:

---

Originally posted by monkeyboy:

I took a drill and made the holes on my hexes slightly {this is key} larger to fit the cord I wanted to sling them with. Ya I know someones going to say this is potentialy harmful, or not reccomended or blah blah blah. As long as you file off the insides smooth when your done it's fine.

---

The only thing I'd be worried about is affecting the temper of the aluminum with the heat of the drill bit...maybe it's not a problem, but something to consider.