How'd it go today?
- Thread starter MasterBlaster
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Treeaddict
Treehouser
I’m sorry Rajan.
CurSedVoyce
California Hillbilly
Sorry for your families loss Rajan.
flushcut
TreeHouser
Thank you!
Boss texted me this morning saying he'd be in at 8:30. I was pretty much there at 6:30. I had left early to drop some stuff off at the treasure box behind the farm. It was nice and cool, so I broke wood. Got 3-4 truck loads(abbreviated cause of stacking on work stuff). Good start to the week.
drove to town for my outrigger cylinder, supposedly they didnt find a leak but replaced some seals, bid 5 pine trees on the way home (access is a concrete ditch deal that needs a bridge, and speedlining brush under powerlines, tight quadplex backyard HOA thing)
got the outrigger back in and tested, seems to be working but thats what I thought last time, crane was the ticket tho to install it, took 30 minutes instead of 2 days
got the outrigger back in and tested, seems to be working but thats what I thought last time, crane was the ticket tho to install it, took 30 minutes instead of 2 days
treebilly
Student of the Jedi. OH-7106A
Craned out a decent sized maple off of a garage this morning. No clean up. Then another good sized maple and dead spruce out of a back yard. Then over to the next property (with out crane access) to start on a Charlie Foxtrot of 8 uprooted spruce trees. Home owner tried to clean up himself and didn’t get very far before realizing he was in over his head. Came home and split about a half cord of wood and then grilled some steaks. They were pretty tough but edible. Now it’s off to a cold shower and then maybe a bowl of ice cream before bed.
It was a beautiful day😎
It was a beautiful day😎
SeanKroll
Treehouser
Grinder maintenance this afternoon.
New belt to the wheel, tightening things, getting ready to fix a cracking bracket and upsize tapping of a few belt housing bolt holes.
New belt to the wheel, tightening things, getting ready to fix a cracking bracket and upsize tapping of a few belt housing bolt holes.
just did 20 eye splices in some 1/2" cheapo walmart 3 strand anchor rope, soft lay
my fingertips hurt like hell, no wonder you had trouble with the hard lay stuff, and I didnt get a single nice one, although I was doing it sitting on hot asphalt with sun glaring at me, and splicing onto wood (my plywood mats, adding handles)
yikes
Seems like it should be easier than it is :^D I lose my place, and everything gets really congested trying to make the tucks. I liked splicing the tenex tec. That's easy, and though I have room for improvement, my splices are fully functional.
I just got a call from the boss. He told me to take tomorrow off. Said he has a bunch of stuff to do. He also said his brother wants an 8"x8"x72" column milled. I'll probably go in and do that. Maybe go in a little early, split firewood, then figure out how I'm gonna make a column. I've made them before, but I did a bunch at one time, and it was spruce. Wrestling 8" oak slabs isn't appealing.
I just got a call from the boss. He told me to take tomorrow off. Said he has a bunch of stuff to do. He also said his brother wants an 8"x8"x72" column milled. I'll probably go in and do that. Maybe go in a little early, split firewood, then figure out how I'm gonna make a column. I've made them before, but I did a bunch at one time, and it was spruce. Wrestling 8" oak slabs isn't appealing.
FireFighterZero
Captain Zero!
Sorry Rajan.
Knotorious
That Guy With The Face
I've been wanting to learn how to splice for sometime now. Specifically hitch cords. I know very little about how to create a Brummel. The entire endeavor feels daunting to me, even as someone who has successfully pursued countless hobbies and interests. I think I need to start watching some videos of other people doing it first and perhaps follow along. A friend of mine sent me a relatively "easy" to splice hitch cord and even made all of the markings for me. I still feel overwhelmed. I'm so incredibly impressed by all of you (and anyone) who can splice anything. Whatever you all are doing sounds impressive to me, and still requires talent above my comprehension, even if it feels unsatisfactory to you.
My problem with hitch cord and climbline is trust. There's a hidden component I can't visually inspect. I can judge 3strand and tenex for suitability, but I couldn't do that with hitch cord. Like my flipline. Even though I screwed it up, and the eye may not survive pulling a truck out of the mud, I can tell it's more than acceptable using it as a flipline. Hitch cord you have to splice up, then send it out to get broken to know if your skills are up to par. I wouldn't want break my pretty(hopefully!) new splice, and I kinda prefer knots in that application anyway. For me, I just don't see the benefit of expending the effort to learning how to do it right. You should totally try it though. Seems like a natural fit for your hitch creation.
Eric Forsman on YT is a great start, I use the samson 24 strand class 1 double braid eye splice instructions (downloadable PDF) for all my 24 strand eye splices, I dont splice 16 strand, and dont use any instructions for 12 strand or 3 strand
start splicing on tenex, or tenex tec, 5/8", really cant screw it up, and its got a really good breaking strength so your slings will be good to go, going off your hitch designs id say you are a smart dude, and totally capably of splicing slings that id use, just need that little nudge
this is my 3 strand from today, ugly as but its holding 30 pound sheets of plywood lol
all you need to start splicing *some* hitch cords, 3 strand and tenex is electrical tape, sharpie, scissors (really good ones, these rope fibers dont cut like tractor supply paper towel rope), tape measure, and maybe some wire coat hanger but I only use that for 24 strand
the only hitch cord I ever spliced was 10mm Bee Line, its got a hollow braid core so you can do brummels easy, I think HRC is similar (again, Eric has a video on it)
feel free to PM me if you want more input on it, I have a few good resources saved and ready to go
Knotorious
That Guy With The Face
@lxskllr Yes, you're correct about the testing. I absolutely would not trust my splices first, second, or even third go around. The other issue is cost of materials. Naturally, I'll have to waste a large amount of material before I can feel confident in what I'm producing. Not to mention that sending it out for a pull test (shipping + pull test) is actually quite expensive. At least it is for me. I don't make beaucoup bucks. So for right now, it's kind of on the back burner and I also don't really have a need to produce my own hitch cords because I am friends with someone who is exceptionally talented at it. I like to include variety in my videos and so I'm trying amass a collection of unique eye to eyes. I totally appreciate your preference for knotted hitch cords. I just find the bulky knots to be the antithesis of aesthetically pleasing. That isn't to say that I don't use them from time to time due to their practical and adjustable nature. I am actually moving towards buying some HRC or RIT or maybe some EpiCord, or perhaps something of smaller diameter, and creating adjustable length, knotted hitch cords that I can make much more complex hitches out of. I feel like if I'm going to ramp up complexity, I'll need smaller diameter to reduce overall friction per wrap. I'm also looking into creating more loop based hitches. As most people are aware, there are very few loop based hitches and I could created knotted loops (with double fisherman's bends) and develop hitches of that nature. I already have one that I seek to share soon called the Gravity hitch, which is loop based. Okay, now I'm rambling. =-D
Knotorious
That Guy With The Face
@WoodCutr Thanks so much! First of all, I appreciate that you appreicate my hitches and my knowledge. That's pretty special. Secondly, thanks for sharing some valuable information and resources that i can use. I very well may PM you, sir! Muchas gracias! I love how you made handles for the plyboard. That's clever and ergonomic. =-D
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much the opposite ive found, 10mm cord will slip at much lower load that that same cord in an 8 or 9mm, no clue why but thats been my experience with it, let my know what you figure out tho, always looking for new info
Knotorious
That Guy With The Face
Actually, now that I think about it, that's been my experience as well. The lower diameter cordage will grip the host rope much more strongly than a higher diameter cord. I believe that's because the lower surface area concentrates the forces more greatly than a cord with higher surface area, where it is spread out. Thanks for reminding me of this! Greatly appreciated! Love this forum!
My estimate is hitchcord should be ~80% of the diameter of the climbline. There's a lot of ifs, ands, and buts, but that's a reasonable starting point. A lot depends on the rope. For kicks, I tried 10mm Ocean on 11mm Mercury with the innovation hitch. It worked better than I expected. I had to tweak the hitch to get it to grab, but it's something I could use. I'd have to spend more time with it though to know if I'd *want* to use it.
me too!
I get along with people here, not so much on the other "big 2"
BTW, dropped a sub to your YT
Knotorious
That Guy With The Face
Jus to prove it to people, I've thought about making a video where I use a 10mm hitch cord on a 10mm rope. It can be done and it actually allows you to use hitch cords without any type of bend device like a rope wrench to climb SRS. Especially if you use something like a Valdotain Tresse (VT). You may need extra wraps to grab, but it's a myth that you NEED to use a hitch cord that is 2mm in diameter less than the host rope. Just ask Rich Carlson, the owner of the Canyons and Crags channel, who developed the "VT Prusik." He agrees with me that the hitch cord can match the diameter of the host rope. I thought it might make a neat video. But you're right @lxskllr, ideally, the hitch diameter is 80% less. But in an emergency situation, it's good to know that you can tie a VT or Schwabisch with your equal diameter hitch cord.
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Old school climbing on a Blakes or tautline, you used your tail as a hitch; same diameter. Of course, ropes had more texture in that kind of climbing. A Blakes was 100% unusable on my km3. With a lots of futzing, I could get it to grab once, but after advancing it, it wouldn't grab again.
Knotorious
That Guy With The Face
I tried to do it with my Drenaline (after washing it twice to remove the slippery coating) and it was total garbage with the Blake's and the Tautline. Obviously not the proper rope to be using, but in theory, it should have worked. Just like with your rope, it would grab once or twice and then feel like a death trap thereafter. I was trying to demonstrate on video how to use the tail of your climb line to create an MRS with a clove/anchor hitch and blake's/tautline. I had to terminate that video with the quickness. I feel like 12 or 16-strand ropes work better (not from experience, but from observation). Maybe even a 24-strand would have worked better. But a 32-strand? Fuh-git-uh-bow-tit! That's Donezelle Washington; no sequels!
@WoodCutr Thanks for the sub! =-D
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from experience, you are 100% right
12 strand works, 16 works, SOME 24 works (samson velocity and vortex are the 2 that I got to work), so far yale 11.7 (blue moon), 11.5 sterling scion, and my 11.8 DrenaLine have tried to kill me using a blakes
also ive found me 1/2" stablebraid to work (24 strand?)
softer ropes with texture work, the smoother/stiffer a rope is the worse itll be
safe bet in general is to stick with 12/16 strand like trueblue or hi vee
ive also noticed for hitches in general, the rougher the rope the better
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