Where to get custom slings sewn?

[whippersnapper]

Is there anyone locally (Squamish/Vancouver area) who sews custom slings? I don't need them UIAA rated or anything but I do need them as strong as normal slings (as in I will be using them in gear anchors). This would be a one off type of job of a number of slings. I'm willing to pay.

[Dru]

I know this seems like a radical solution but have you ever considered buying some webbing and tieing your own?

[Brendan]

ws,

I doubt you will have much luck finding anybody with a bar tacker who would be willing to sew you up some slings and have you use them for anything (load bearing) - especially if they own a company and are by the book.

I guess the big question here is why you don't just buy some from MEC or wherever?

[erock]

I bet On-Sight would do it if you ordered 2000 duckets worth! You said you were willing to pay

[whippersnapper]

I doubt you will have much luck finding anybody with a bar tacker who would be willing to sew you up some slings and have you use them for anything (load bearing) - especially if they own a company and are by the book.

Yeah I guess there could be liability issues.

I guess the big question here is why you don't just buy some from MEC or wherever?

I want to try an anchor setup similar to the equalette except with PAS style chained slings for the arms, and two foot long slings in the middle for the power point. I'm thinking it would make setting up anchors super quick. I could tie it with webbing but it would be too bulky and sort of defeat the purpose of what I'm trying to achieve.

The equalette works well enough, but just wanted to try something different out..

[Brendan]

Interesting. You would most likely have to be fairly tight with an owner of a company in order to get that stuff made.

Good luck!

[jefffski]

a double length sling (240cm) works very easily and is fast and safe. simply clip the strand into each bolt with non-lockers, tie a figure eight on a bight on the end, clip in a locking biner and attach yourself to the locker using a clove hitch on your rope. Presto.

[Brendan]

tie a figure eight on a bight.

You mean overhand

[pinner]

tie a figure eight on a bight.

You mean overhand

Ooh, controversy!

personally I tie an 8, as it's easier to untie if loaded - why the overhand, Brendan?
strength difference?

(to be honest, I usually use the "sliding death x", which, depending on which argument you prefer, is either much safer than a knot due to self-equalization - in which case you should be able to avoid failure of one anchor point - or a recipe for total failure due to excessive shock-loading through extension should one anchor point indeed fail, thereby more likely causing the second to fail as well...) wonder if there have been enough failures of this kind to conduct a study on which is truly safer - I hope not!

[jefffski]

pinner, it turns out that due to friction, the sliding x doesn't slide, or at least not much.

[pinner]

hm, makes sense - although if I were using the X, I guess I would either be top-belaying or belaying a top-roper (either way, essentially a 2nd) and in that case the rope to the climber should already be in the direction of pull, so the strands would already be equalized...

I guess this would not be quite true if there were significant slack out and the second took a fall and a big swing, but even then I would think the friction should not stop the anchor biner from sliding through the strands... in fact I can remember definite instances where this has happened.

Presumably the friction does stop the sliding, and I am actually watching a single weighted strand swinging, followed by an after-the-fact equalization?

Either way, I guess the bottom line is that the risks are known and I'm hoping that one bolt won't break, and if it does, that the other won't!

And no, don't know any sling-sewers, sorry!

[Brendan]

Pinner,

I have always used the overhand (instead of figure , and it is easy to undo.

When joining two ropes on rappel I use the overhand know as well.

[Brendan]

figure 8