Breaking Gear on Purpose

Old Monkey

Treehouser
Joined
Mar 9, 2005
Messages
8,764
I have been thinking about sending in some of my older gear to get break tested. Has anyone ever done that? I think it would be interesting to see how much holding power my ropes have left when I think they are about ready to be retired. Same with carabiners.
 

sotc

Dormant hero!!
Joined
Dec 6, 2005
Messages
21,819
Location
So. Oregon
i think he put a vid up on youtube but i dont know wha his user name is there
 

SkwerI

Treehouser
Joined
Sep 6, 2006
Messages
19,012
Location
central Florida
Here's his videos

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<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/oOhfvtOf_aM&hl=en"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/oOhfvtOf_aM&hl=en" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>
 

No_Bivy

Treehouser
Joined
Sep 2, 2006
Messages
6,451
I like breaking stuff......gives you a bit more confidence in the gear your riding. Darin, any commercial sewing places there? they may have a test machine.

who are all those subscribers...?bots?
 

gf beranek

Old Schooler
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
13,616
Location
God's country, North Coast
Northwest labs in Seattle will break test anything you send them. For a nominal fee of course.

I sent them a short hank of rope that I put in a tree in 1988. 13 years hanging and swinging in the breeze. It broke at 3300 pounds, about half of its original rating.
 

PCTREE

Treehouser
Joined
Nov 3, 2007
Messages
6,040
Location
Charlottesville VA
last fall I was putting together a 600' zipp line system for a big ugly dead white oak behind a house. Only access was down a flight of steps, up 2 flights and across a deck. We were going to zip it all out over house wood and all so I was a little concerned with stuff breaking. I set up an imitation system in my shop with the prussics that would attatch it to my loader to tension zip line , other end was spliced to go around another tree. The prussics kept slipping at about 3500 lbs which was cool to know that we couldnt break things by pulling to hard. Oh yeah the point of the post was I bought a little gismo caalled I believe a LOAD CELL, we hooked it up to a computer and put it on the end of a hydraulic cylinder and pulled stuff till it broke. Pretty fun.....
 

NickfromWI

King of Splices
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
4,992
Location
Snowless California
I have a local rigging shop that will do 6 breaks for $150. They will let me video each break Catch is they can't break things over 10,000 pounds.

love
nick
 
N

NeTree

Guest
Nick, I can do the same thing where I work, and save ya the $150. I can also expose the material to anything from a 3.0 to a 13.5 pH, and from room temp to almost 2000 degrees.

Didn't catch it on video, but broke some older HI-V I had a few weeks ago... 4340#. Not bad for sitting in my truck a few years exposed to lord knows what!
 
B

Bounce

Guest
Heck you guys, feel free to send anything you want broken to me and I'll break it for nothin. Just don't ask me what it broke at. :D
 

Burnham

Woods walker
Joined
Mar 7, 2005
Messages
21,644
Location
Western Oregon
Heck you guys, feel free to send anything you want broken to me and I'll break it for nothin. Just don't ask me what it broke at. :D

Heck, I'll go ya one better'n Bouncie...I'll break your stuff and tell you whether it broke hard or easy :D.
 

No_Bivy

Treehouser
Joined
Sep 2, 2006
Messages
6,451
10k...what kinda machine is that? Here, machine will go over 100k
 

NickfromWI

King of Splices
Joined
Mar 30, 2005
Messages
4,992
Location
Snowless California
They just use their machine to proof-load stuff before they install it. Usually just swaged steel and stuff like that. They have a rope splicing crew, too..but their work is very sloppy.

NeTree- you're on!

love
nick
 

gf beranek

Old Schooler
Joined
Apr 18, 2007
Messages
13,616
Location
God's country, North Coast
I got to bring down the 12 KV a couple of times. Told all the boss's, "I'm not sending any of my crew up there, or myself." Face cut, back cut, Ft. Bragg to Mendocino out of power.

That was quality time.
 
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