EWolfe Posted February 7, 2004 Posted February 7, 2004 Ever wonder about the webbing on your cams after 9 or 10 years? Probably time to stop bustin' out the lighter to trim the fray , and start finding out about webbing replacement. Any Bartackers out there? Mr.E Quote
snoboy Posted February 7, 2004 Posted February 7, 2004 OnSight equipment in Squamish does a beatiful job of replacing webbing on certain cams. They don't want to hear from you though. The best bet is to drop the cams off at Valhalla Pure in Squish. If my memory serves me, they do single stem BD Camalots, WC Friends, and maybe some others. The definetely don't do Metolius, or U-stem Camalots. Between April and December you can also get trigger wires done at the same time. Quote
chris Posted February 7, 2004 Posted February 7, 2004 Metolius also offers sling and trigger replacement. In fact, they told me they specifically don't offer trigger-replacement kits because they want the oppurtunity to examine cams that are so mangled the trigger doesn't work. Quote
snoboy Posted February 7, 2004 Posted February 7, 2004 Most manufacturers offer trigger and sling replacement. Sometimes it takes a while, and costs a litle bit more though. I have repaired triggers on many Metolius cams, and have never seens any that were really "mangled" in any way except for the trigger wires. But if you are worried, it would be better to send them in for an inspection. It would also be really difficult to make a trigger replacement kit for a metolius. Just the way they're put together doesn't really allow for it the way the BD ones do. Even then the BD ones leave you with a snaggy wire at the end, instead of the nice buttonhead, if you use the trigger kits instead having someone (me ) repair it with a swager. Quote
EWolfe Posted February 7, 2004 Author Posted February 7, 2004 I just redid the trigger wires on a larger Metolius. I went to Tacoma Screw, got good cable cutters, cable, swages and a swaging tool. It was about $60 for the whole thing. It was a little tricky, but the wire and swages are pretty cheap, and I got it on the third try. They work great! Wouldn't some sewing services have a bar-tacker? Conceivably, you could provide materials and specs... Quote
EWolfe Posted February 7, 2004 Author Posted February 7, 2004 What about just cutting the old webbing off and redoing it with webbing and waterknot. Old Skool. Quote
plexus Posted February 7, 2004 Posted February 7, 2004 That's what I've done with some of my rigid stems. Grab some slings, double fisherman, ta-da. Not streamlined, but then neither are the cams Quote
dylan_taylor Posted February 8, 2004 Posted February 8, 2004 My cheapskate replacement slings for u-stem camalots, juniors, and TCU's consists of tying a normal loop of 9/16" webbing, but pre-threading it through about 4" of 1" webbing. Once the wide webbing is centered around the cable, I either use athletic tape, or run a few tacks through it on my sewing machine. That keeps the thin webbing padded. There have been occasions where folks webbing has cut almost all the way through on these types of cams because the webbing is under tension around the cable, and has nothing to pad it. The factory sewn slings on TCU's and the old juniors have an extra layer of non-tensioned webbing sewn between the closed loop and the cable. For camalot trigger repairs, three words: weed-wacker cord! It's cheap and lasts longer than the factory triggers anyway. Quote
catbirdseat Posted February 8, 2004 Posted February 8, 2004 That's what I've done with some of my rigid stems. Grab some slings, double fisherman, ta-da. Not streamlined, but then neither are the cams Bear in mind there is a strength difference between a sewn spectra factory sling and a tied mil spec 9/16" sling. The former is 27 kN, while the latter is 11 kN less 40% for the knot or about 7 kN. On the other hand, you may clip a shoulder length runner to the cam to extend it and that is no stronger, either, but you probably change them every couple years or leave them behind on raps. Quote
Jens Posted February 8, 2004 Posted February 8, 2004 In fact, they told me they specifically don't offer trigger-replacement kits Sounds like Metolius wants to make a little more money? Just another strike against a mediocre cam. ----------- The metolius TCU's are ok though.....(.but Wired Bliss gets the credit for the TCU deisgn). Quote
dylan_taylor Posted February 8, 2004 Posted February 8, 2004 Found this to be quite interesting... http://www.xmission.com/~tmoyer/testing/pull_tests_11_98.html Quote
snoboy Posted February 9, 2004 Posted February 9, 2004 There is a ton of stuff on this subject at the TechWeenie pages at the FISH Products site. Click > Webbing Strengths and do some scrolling. Quote
Dru Posted February 9, 2004 Posted February 9, 2004 13 year old tri cam webbing is bomber and safe Quote
snoboy Posted February 9, 2004 Posted February 9, 2004 13 year old tri cam webbing is bomber and safe YUP! Re: re-slinging Lowe Tri-Cams Author: Clyde Soles Email: csoles@rmi.net Date: 1998/04/25 Forums: rec.climbing Rawdomg <rawdomg@aol.com> wrote: > I got a slick tip about a year ago that has worked well for me. Drive the > steel roll pin 3/4 of the way out with a drift pin or flat-tip punch, then > slide in a spectra quick draw. Press the pin back in and voila. I use Blue > Water 6 inch draws which have a rated strength of 3000 kg, way above the > original 3/8 in flat nylon loop. Um, bad tip. Lowe was especially concerned about that procedure because of high potential for stress fracturing the fairly thin aluminum. When I tested some old tricams, that's where they all broke...not the ratty looking sling. (same source) Quote
catbirdseat Posted February 9, 2004 Posted February 9, 2004 It would seem the safer procedure would be to cut out the old sling and sew a new one on. Home sewing jobs can be quite strong. Quote
STORER Posted February 14, 2004 Posted February 14, 2004 For webbing replacement, try a shop that repairs parachutes. Steve Quote
glacier Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 Fish Gear go to 'Repairs' on their order form. I've had them do cam slings and trigger bar repairs - call them about tricams. Quote
Rodchester Posted February 16, 2004 Posted February 16, 2004 BD will repair (sew slings and trigger kit) for their cams only. I think that most manufacturers will only fix their own cams. I sent some back to BD about 6 months ago and they did them fast, did a great job with new slings, new triggers, and cleaned them up, and did it for free even though I enclosed a credit card number. They are damn near like new. Quote
scrubber Posted March 2, 2004 Posted March 2, 2004 Please don't try to sew your own slings! I used to work at Onsight in Squish and we got some really scary examples of home jobs in there to re-do. The best part was testing them on the Dynamometer and seeing how strong they actually were! Most other sewing places that have a bar tacker will be unable to sew something that heavy, with that size of thread, at that width. It's a pretty specialized piece of equip. Even if you tried on your own machine you probably would have a hard time acquiring the proper thread (lubricated DC#138 polyester) and your machine wouldn't be able to handle thread that thick. They won't resling metolius cams or the like because the diameter of the stem that the web goes around is so narrow that it significantly weakens the web when sewn in open loop fashon as they do. You may have noticed that metolius uses a tail end of the webbing to make an inner wrap around the stem thereby increasing the diameter that the loaded sling goes around. It's also a royal pain in the ass to set up the machine to sew through three layers like they do. They use a smaller thread and more tacks to get around this problem. If you're in a rush, include a six-pack with your ratty old cams and maybe they'll get processed faster! Quote
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