Amsteel Crane Slings

chris_girard

Treehouser
Joined
Jul 28, 2007
Messages
1,535
Location
Gilmanton, N.H.
How many of you guys splice your own crane slings?

Amsteel spider leg slings are so easy to splice that I feel others should do it.

Thoughts?
 
I feel that I could but I think I’ll be buying mine for the time being. It is very easy to splice Amsteel but aren’t crane slings supposed to carry a rating tag on them? I did get away with using rated chokers and adding my own spiderlegs a time or two though.
 
Be happy yu ain't down under slingin chains about!

Little wonder Aussie tree men are tough as nails.

I loved the start of The Man From Snowy River, where his pop has a fatal logging mishap, involving chains.

Jomo
 
In the industrial world, aka where crane requirements are heading towards unfortunately, you need ratings on everything, to the point where if they become illegible, you retire the sling. I personally haven't worked with amsteel slings there yet, but i plan on getting some spliced for personal use. Ironworkers used to make their own steel slings, but even that practice has disappeared. Which is really too bad because hand spliced slings used to be a super handy tool because they are more flexible than the pressed ones.

They have actually gone so far as to remove some of the other awesome rigging tricks such as homemade spreader bars (without engineer approval, stamp, and tag), homemade gin poles and derricks, half hitches to Christmas tree stuff, and other "redneck" rigging. The older guys are the only ones who are familiar and comfortable with that skillset (and a handful of guys like me), so in reality there's a death of knowledge in rigging techniques. They even outlawed the boiler hitch on about every job too. That's where you basically use the chain from a chain fall or come along and tie a cows hitch, with the chain hook to grab the loop. You can then rig stuff with little headroom, or even lift vertically, especially with a chunk of wood or a leather glove (which works better) as a softener to improve grip. Because people can rig it wrong by pulling across the hook for vertical picks, or by hooking the hook in and not out (where the back of the hook is forced into the material, making it impossible to fail), you can't use it anymore. Works great for fence posts btw, especially with a half hitch above it :)

I thought you had to have a splicing certification in order to do actual rated splicing, and I'm not sure how to obtain that or if you are required to carry insurance or some shit. I personally would feel more than comfortable splicing my own stuff, as i do for everything else. I'm sure you could even say that in tree work, which is exempt from ncco bullshit, hand spliced stuff is very common trade practice, so splicing your own is in line with industry practice. The tree industry has to fight this commercialization of rigging, because trust me, where i come from, it's a nightmare.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #8
No doubt, liability would fall on the person splicing the sling, unless it was rigged wrong. When I splice my own crane slings, I make up a tag and attach it to the throat of the splice to identify the make and type of sling being used. I have also gone through Yale's Certified Splicing program and had my single braid and double braid splices tested to meet industry standard. This was only for my piece of mind.

I know that Amsteel is a Samson rope, but they don't offer break testing. Treestuff does though.
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #9
In the industrial world, aka where crane requirements are heading towards unfortunately, you need ratings on everything, to the point where if they become illegible, you retire the sling. I personally haven't worked with amsteel slings there yet, but i plan on getting some spliced for personal use. Ironworkers used to make their own steel slings, but even that practice has disappeared. Which is really too bad because hand spliced slings used to be a super handy tool because they are more flexible than the pressed ones.

They have actually gone so far as to remove some of the other awesome rigging tricks such as homemade spreader bars (without engineer approval, stamp, and tag), homemade gin poles and derricks, half hitches to Christmas tree stuff, and other "redneck" rigging. The older guys are the only ones who are familiar and comfortable with that skillset (and a handful of guys like me), so in reality there's a death of knowledge in rigging techniques. They even outlawed the boiler hitch on about every job too. That's where you basically use the chain from a chain fall or come along and tie a cows hitch, with the chain hook to grab the loop. You can then rig stuff with little headroom, or even lift vertically, especially with a chunk of wood or a leather glove (which works better) as a softener to improve grip. Because people can rig it wrong by pulling across the hook for vertical picks, or by hooking the hook in and not out (where the back of the hook is forced into the material, making it impossible to fail), you can't use it anymore. Works great for fence posts btw, especially with a half hitch above it :)

I thought you had to have a splicing certification in order to do actual rated splicing, and I'm not sure how to obtain that or if you are required to carry insurance or some shit. I personally would feel more than comfortable splicing my own stuff, as i do for everything else. I'm sure you could even say that in tree work, which is exempt from ncco bullshit, hand spliced stuff is very common trade practice, so splicing your own is in line with industry practice. The tree industry has to fight this commercialization of rigging, because trust me, where i come from, it's a nightmare.

As usual Kyle, you offer great insights, especially in the industrial world.

Yale is the only rope manufacturer to offer a certification program and it must be renewed every year with a break test of your splices. Cheap insurance IMO for guys like me who splice their own rigging.

No doubt about it, we are losing our old time ability to rig things like our ancestors knew how...such a shame.
 
Using rated slings here. We will retire them when sufficient chafing is evident that would render them unsafe (as with ropes). We don't go by some arbitrary expiration date or if the rating tag is illegible. Hopefully no OSHA commandos ever come swinging out of some trees to check up on us, but that's highly unlikely, given our 100% safety record (no personnel injuries, no insurance claims).
 
How many of you guys splice your own crane slings?

Amsteel spider leg slings are so easy to splice that I feel others should do it.

Thoughts?

Hey, Chris! A curiosity question here. How much money would you estimate that you save, expressed as a percentage, off the price of a sling by doing it yourself? Or is it always just the $25.00 they typically charge for an eye splice? For some reason I had the impression that there was a big difference between the price of the raw material required, and the price of a finished piece of spliced goods, like an Amsteel loopie sling for instance. Thanks in advance for any answers you choose to give.

Tim
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #14
Not sure Tim, but I do know that for 3 crane slings from Wesspur, you are looking at over $400.00 which is way more expensive than it is to splice my own.
 
I seem to recall our local Kansas City area supplier being way cheaper than that. (We have 2 yellow slings and a longer red one from them -- don't want to go out in the rain and look at the rating tag at the moment...)
 
Not sure Tim, but I do know that for 3 crane slings from Wesspur, you are looking at over $400.00 which is way more expensive than it is to splice my own.

Thanks for this answer, Chris. That is how I was thinking it would be. Probably especially so when you get into stuff like the rigging ring slings. It seems to have a huge markup over just the cost of buying the raw materials. Thanks for your time.

Tim
 
I just buy crane slings at the local rigging shop, cheap enough really. But I do love the adjustable chain slings Paul Cox recommended to me!
 
  • Thread Starter Thread Starter
  • #19
I've been meaning to post some pics of my Amsteel crane slings, since I've spiced them a few weeks back. They work great and I'll try to get some work pics up soon.
 
Plz do, i was gonna splice some up for my welding rig, figured a premade bridle with soft shackles would be ideal for my chrome d rings on my bumper :D :lol: sure would beat the whatever rigging they can find when i get stuck
 
What's a bridle look like?

In tree work, you can make what I heard to be called a bridle for big logs with two chokers. The knob of one choker goes in the 'bell' of the other choker. Gives you more length, and two legs to ease the strain, if they both stay loaded. Squish, is that correct?
 
A bridal is just multiple slings on a ring, which is called a master link.
Just 2 same size straps, which I'll probably splice over a master link so the excavator can just hook it. I'll do 2 soft shackles to the d rings, so it'll be only soft rigging on them, not a beat up rusty screw shackle, or an endless sling. Sean i thought that was called a swede...? Lol Justin it's not new anymore, hell i already got 9000 miles on it!
 
Back
Top