Rainy days splicing

[Ghillie]

Haven't been able to work outside for the last couple of days so I went down to the basement and did some splicing.

Made two lanyards, one 15' with one eye and a 20' with two eyes. Then I made two split tails. All of these are 16 strand XTC Fire.

Here is the end of my homemade 14 ga copper wire fid (soldered the whole length to keep from wedging fibers). I have a snare made of a strand from the core of the rope fed through the end. I am ready to insert it into the rope and feed it back to the insertion point of the sheath bury.

Fid and snare inserted into the rope up to the loop handle, carefull to keep the ends of the doubled over wire out of the rope. I will smooth the ends of the wire to prevent accidental snagging.

End of fid out of the rop and snare around the end of the sheath ready to be inserted back into the rope.

I pulled the fid completely out of the rope leaving the snare inside of it, then snugged it up to the rope. I did not use any kind of hitch to connect to the sheath, it is just doubled over the loop of the snare.

 

[Ghillie]

I attached the pull end of the snare to an anchor I rigged to the ceiling.

Worked the snare and sheath into the rope.

Once the sheath was pulled through to where it starts to overlaps the core inside the rope, I pulled on the exposed section of the core. The inserted sheath is still doubled over the snare inside the rope.

Sharp tugs on the core pulls the sheath through the overlap area and back out of the rope.

And here are the fruits of my labor. Only one of the eyes is whip lock stitched in this picture.

 

[Ghillie]

Ends of the 20' lanyard whip locked. I should have some 8mm Ice arriving tomorrow to rig up with a swivel eye 'biner as self tending adjuster with a distel hitch.

 

[tree md]

You are obviously a man of many talents my friend. Looks good!

 

[Ghillie]

You are obviously a man of many talents my friend. Looks good!

Thanks, I am by no means an expert on splicing. I just started a couple of weeks ago but I hope to keep learning.

I left a lot of details on the splice out of the post because I know it is no substitute for manufacturers recomendations.

This is just my technique for getting through the toughest part of this particular splice. It took me about 8 hours and 30' of rope to figure this out on my own.

I have about 40-45 minutes in each eye now with the stitching. Practice, practice, practice!

 

[pdqdl]

That is some particularly pretty whipping.

What are you writing on it?

 

[Ghillie]

That is some particularly pretty whipping.

What are you writing on it?

month/year, length on the lanyards, and my initials.

Marker kind of bled a little.

I am just experimenting with the shrink wrap to see if it has any use.

EDIT: Oh, and I cross my 0's to differ them from O's and my Z's to differ from 2's. Doesn't make much difference when the ink bleeds does it?

 

[Blakesmaster]

Looks great, man!

 

[Tree Pig]

My fingers hurt just looking at that

 

[masiman]

Very nice Ghillie. Couldn't rep ya, gotta spread the luv more .

I ordered the BT wand and video, it should be here any day.

To make your fid, did you actually solder all that or did you use a propane torch?

 

[Ghillie]

Very nice Ghillie. Couldn't rep ya, gotta spread the luv more .

I ordered the BT wand and video, it should be here any day.

To make your fid, did you actually solder all that or did you use a propane torch?

Thanks for the luv! (or at least the thought!) LOL..

I "sweated" it with a propane torch.

 

[Adkpk]

Looking good there hillie. Thanks for the step by step pics.

 

[Ghillie]

Looking good there hillie. Thanks for the step by step pics.

Thanks, I had tried to explain the snare technique in some ealrier posts and the way it came out it even confused me. Pictures were the solution.

 

[moray]

Great photos, Ghillie! With a presentation like that, you are bound to get a following of new splicers. Nice work!

 

[Ghillie]

Great photos, Ghillie! With a presentation like that, you are bound to get a following of new splicers. Nice work!

Thanks, I really enjoy making my own gear instead of making do with what's in a catalog.

Plus I saved a bunch of money at $20 a splice.

I have about 16' of Ice I am going to try to make some eye and eye prusiks out of on Sunday.

 

[Ghillie]

Eye and eye prusiks

How do they look. One is 36", it was the first one and I wasn't sure how much rope to start with. Next one was 32".... I was shooting for 28" but my math wasn't right. Tried the both on a hitch climber rig in my basement, seemed to work great, I would just like to shorten the gap between the hitch and the pulley a little.

Opinions, critiques or suggestions?

 

[moray]

You could hang a truck from one of those.

Did you have any trouble making the second locked Brummel? How about cutting the yarns to make the taper--what tool did you use?

 

[Ghillie]

You could hang a truck from one of those.

Did you have any trouble making the second locked Brummel? How about cutting the yarns to make the taper--what tool did you use?

Thanks, I have been told I am "like a truck"...LOL.

I thought the second brummel was going to be tough but it was not bad with loose braid compared to 16strand.

For a fid, I used 14 ga copper again, bent it the same way and didn't solder it. I inserted the wire into the rope in the same way I want the tail to go. Then I pulled a snare (core from the 16 strand splicing) back through the rope. I then just use the snare, no wire, to pull the tail through the brummel.

The second brummel, I pulled a leg of the snare out of the rope, fed it through the eye of the other end of the prusik (the first eye you splice) then fed the leg of the snare back through the rope, knotted it and with constant pressure, manipulated the braid to get the eye to pass through.

I'm glad you asked about the taper in the overlap. Per instructions, I had 3 1/2" on each end to taper. I had 6 strands to taper so I cut 2 at 1 3/4" and two at 3 1/2". The other two where cut to length when I marked them at the extraction point. I think next time I will cut one strand each at 11/16", 1 3/8", 2 1/16" and 2 3/4" ( Those are not exact, I didn't want to divide it out into 32nds but you get the idea). You can't really see the bump where the strands end in the overlap but I can feel them.

Do you have any suggestions with the taper?

The fibers weren't too bad to cut with fiskers scissors. I already have a set for sewing but I will have to get some dedicated for cutting this stuff. A really interesting fiber.

 

[canopyboy]

I joined this site today purely to look at the pictures. I'm expecting some velocity to show up today, and I want to make the splices myself. Not so much because I don't want to pay $20 each (although that helps), but because it's jut one of those things to do in the evenings to stay out of trouble. I've been splicing single braid (and of course 3 strand) for years, but was wondering how it was going to work with the velocity.

Anyhow, nice pictures and nice work.

 

[Ghillie]

I joined this site today purely to look at the pictures. I'm expecting some velocity to show up today, and I want to make the splices myself. Not so much because I don't want to pay $20 each (although that helps), but because it's jut one of those things to do in the evenings to stay out of trouble. I've been splicing single braid (and of course 3 strand) for years, but was wondering how it was going to work with the velocity.

Anyhow, nice pictures and nice work.

Welcome to the site!!

What kind of tools do you use for splicing?

Post some pics of your results, velocity is on my project list and anything to shorten my learning curve is welcomed.

Stay safe!