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I have free access to a test stand that can pull stuff until it breaks. up to about 50 kN. if you have something you'd like tested, PM me...

suggestions:

old, retired gear and you wanna see if that loop really would have lasted "one more jump"
designs you made but were not actually insane enough to jump yourself

Edit: clarification... PM me if you want to send me the thing you want tested. I'm not buying new stuff just to break it

do a belay loop on a climbing harness.

i would be very interested in seeing those results, or even a caribiner!

send me your harness, or steal your friend's and send that but i would be curious to see the same.

i've alread done one test on risers, i'll be posting it after i get time to do a proper write-up and clean up the photos. might be a week or so.

edit: speling error

if someone has a harness to donate, I'd like to know what kind of load the chest strap can support. people talk about using a quick draw to chest strap for resting on A's.

I assume the chest strap has plenty of strength, but it would be cool to know.

unfortunately, I do not have a rig to rip apart.

I was just about to suggest that. I dont trust a chest strap when taking breaks, but I have heard of a few who do. I dont have a rig to donate either though.

Taking breaks attached to your chest strap is fine. It's not for taking shock loads but it's not going to do a thing just hanging or leaning on it.

I've used my chest strap with a quickdraw for resting, the thing is clearly bulletproof. My Gargoyle is built like a tank, a human will break long before the cheststrap in a shockload (resting puts hardly any stress on it anyway). Ditto both of my Infinity rigs although the Gargoyle is way more heavy duty. No I haven't shockloaded them but I frequently rig big heavy things for a living. It gives me a sense of what to trust and when to be scared. Also physics and trig are useful tools.

Doing a Mr.Bill (out of a plane) while holding on to the chest strap, I would think, puts more of a shock load on it than resting on a climb. Just my own thoughts.

I know a sky rig is not the same as a BASE rig,but still...

where are you located? if im'a destroy my gear id like to at least come and watch...

stands to reason that the part to check on a chest strap is the metal keeper itself, and not the strap, or the massively bar-tacked ends.
Have i been doing Mr. Bills wrong? I thought you grabbed the main lift web above the chest strap...?

From what I understand, holding on to the MLW "could" cause the reserve pin to be pulled out from the closing loop when the MLW is "stretched" so to speak, when it is "shock loaded" from the opening.

And how many times does a Mr. Bill not work because the "rider" cant hold on? Imagine his/her hands sliding down the MLW and taking the reserve handle with him.

A guy at our DZ did a Mr.Bill and the rider fell off and pulled the handle out of the pouch, it didn't deploy the reserve, however, when he landed under his main he pulled off his rig and looked at the pin. It was a hair away from coming out from under the closing loop. When he sat his rig down, the reserve PC hit him in the face.

Yikes! close call!

good thing i wasn't drinking milk, it would be all over my laptop right now

i like this chest-strap testing idea. i will ponder this. i wish i had a sewing machine and materials to fabricate something to model this for destruction. if anyone has one and wants to volunteer the effort, i'd consider buying the material and sending them to you for construction

So, I'm sending Colm some biners of various age/use, some used slings/runners and some "wire quickdraws" often used at steep desert crags...that I suspect are pretty weak (<8KN).

IF he can get this carnage on video, I'll also send him a 15 year old well used Gri-Gri to try to break and 20+ year old Vector SDiving container that he can try to bust the chest strap on!

I've got a Juki single needle walking foot machine and just got let go from my job as an industrial tailor for the Dept. of Defense. I'd be glad to offer my time & sewing skills if it could be useful.

For anyone interested in the random breaking of stuff, there's also a heap of results from tests on climbing gear here http://www.rockclimbing.com/...gforum.cgi?forum=69;

ok, so a couple of beers into dehydration, and i read yet another post about break cord, and what people use, and i had a funny thought for you to test on the test stand... What is the tensile strength of a (non lubricated) condom? Yeah, it's random.

WTF would you be doing with unlubricated condoms!?! Even an 18 year old coed who can normally squirt as far as I can goes dry after 10 beers :(

Cheap insurance...

I don't think i've even seen an unlubricated condom in years! ...besides, condoms are for sailors! lol

I know this tread was started a while ago but if you are still doing tests it would be good to know what 3, 4 and 5 wraps of electrical tape breaks at.

Has anyone else done any tests on this?

Those are some good ideas, mofonz. I never got anything in the mail from anyone, but i can probably scrounge up some electrical tape.

That's a bummer. When you were here, I could have simply handed you some webbing and possibly a simulated chest strap with hardware.

I'd be hard pressed to do it now