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crotch
May 4, 2005, 6:42 PM
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After a frustrating hour of trying to swage a tiny little alien trigger, I ended up just running some 22 guage bailing wire through the trigger bar, and then up into the cams. It took 5 minutes of work, and no swages, twisted steel cable, or crimping tools were required.
Without a doubt, I'm adding some bailing wire to the field repair kit, but there must be a catch. Will a bailing wire trigger fail faster than a swaged setup? How long do they last, in your experience compared to a swaged setup?
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asandh
May 4, 2005, 6:56 PM
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Over the years I have replaced ALL the triggers on my 2nd generation Camalots with 2 strands of Bike Brake cable. After pushing the wire through the tiny hole of the cam lobe, I flare it out a bit with a screw driver and add a dot of solder to the flare for good measure. I have NEVER had any of my own replacement wires go bad.
That swaging of a flexible wire to a stiff tiny rod is really stupid and is probably employed just to make assembly easier.
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dirtineye
May 4, 2005, 7:01 PM
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The bailing wire I know is not so good, it will rust fast and is pretty weak.
But maybe some other wire would be great for a fairly permanent trigger.
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pbjosh
May 4, 2005, 7:03 PM
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I've reswaged normal sized cams w/ new wires and it's gone quite readily. Using slightly larger wire also makes for a long lasting repair. I like the little metal bars being a part of the trigger cable system so they tangle less.
I've not tried repairing an alien however - doesn't look like fun, and I dunno what swager would fit in there.
I had an alien with the central sleave detached from it's collar (the retractor mechanism before the spreader bar and cables to the lobes at the bottom). Pretty much not self-reparable, I sent it to CCH and thought I'd never see it again as about 9 months passed, then suddenly one day it was back on my doorstep, repaired w/ no charge. Bizarre but better than lost!
josh
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slobmonster
May 4, 2005, 7:10 PM
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I've done this too, intending it to be a temporary fix. But it's plenty durable... just bring some more wire along with your O-Sh!t-Kit.
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tradklime
May 4, 2005, 7:38 PM
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In reply to: Will a bailing wire trigger fail faster than a swaged setup? How long do they last, in your experience compared to a swaged setup?
The bailing wire tends to get bent, tweaked, kinked, etc. It works, just not that great. With aliens having such a short section of wire, it may work just fine in the long run, but if it breaks, you mave have just lost your alien.
Recently, I bought another purple alien and it didn't have a section of stiff wire, just a section of braided wire fed through the hole in the cam lobes with a funky ball fitting on the end of the cable. We'll see how that holds up in the long run.
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crotch
May 4, 2005, 8:04 PM
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In reply to: I like the little metal bars being a part of the trigger cable system so they tangle less.
I'm not sure what you mean by that, Josh. Care to elaborate?
In reply to: I've not tried repairing an alien however - doesn't look like fun, and I dunno what swager would fit in there.
It's a pretty tight space for my fat fingers to work in, and this was Red. I fear a Green repair.
In reply to: suddenly one day it was back on my doorstep, repaired w/ no charge. Bizarre but better than lost!
Like finding a $20 bill in a pair of pants you haven't worn in months....
In reply to: Recently, I bought another purple alien and it didn't have a section of stiff wire, just a section of braided wire fed through the hole in the cam lobes with a funky ball fitting on the end of the cable.
Is that the way they're making them at CCH now, or is this a custom mod?
In reply to: Over the years I have replaced ALL the triggers on my 2nd generation Camalots with 2 strands of Bike Brake cable. After pushing the wire through the tiny hole of the cam lobe, I flare it out a bit with a screw driver and add a dot of solder to the flare for good measure.
Nice trick. Is bike brake cable any different than regular old twisted steel cable?
In reply to: That swaging of a flexible wire to a stiff tiny rod is really stupid and is probably employed just to make assembly easier.
Whenever my triggers break, it's at the twisted cable just below the swage, which makes me think that you should increase trigger life by eliminating the swaged cable.
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pbjosh
May 4, 2005, 8:09 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: I like the little metal bars being a part of the trigger cable system so they tangle less. I'm not sure what you mean by that, Josh. Care to elaborate?
I think that on non-alien cams having part of the cam retractor wires be solid metal instead of the whole length being floppy cable helps keep things from getting too tangled. I could see the finger bar falling way down the stem and the cables getting wrapped around the lobes or cams getting even more tangled on your waist when in chimneys, etc....
josh
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asandh
May 4, 2005, 8:17 PM
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:)
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tradklime
May 4, 2005, 8:23 PM
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In reply to: In reply to: Recently, I bought another purple alien and it didn't have a section of stiff wire, just a section of braided wire fed through the hole in the cam lobes with a funky ball fitting on the end of the cable. Is that the way they're making them at CCH now, or is this a custom mod? |
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brutusofwyde
May 6, 2005, 12:03 AM
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Largest Alien I have is Red. For up to that size, I use steel paper clips. work fine, last a long time, at least as long as the Alien's life expectancy before retirement from blobbing lobes.
The huge cams made by Apollodorus have trigger wires built with hardened steel wire only, no braided cable. Pretty sweet and bomber. I've yet to try this on an SLCD repair.
For standard cams, I still use .062" music wire and 1/16" steel cable, which is slightly thicker than that found of old style Friends and significantly thicker than old-style Camalot cables and requires some slight drilling during repairs.
Painting a bit of seam-grip on your cables for about 4mm where they come out of the swage helps prolong cable life by preventing excessive flex at that point -- it slightly stiffens the wire.
Brutus
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wlderdude
May 6, 2005, 1:02 AM
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In reply to: For standard cams, I still use .062" music wire and 1/16" steel cable, which is slightly thicker than that found of old style Friends and significantly thicker than old-style Camalot cables and requires some slight drilling during repairs.
I repaired one of my cams with spring tmepered wire (aka piano wire, aka music wire). Works fine, but I don't use that cam much.
Rigid trigger wires does hinder the cams ablity to retract the lobes on one side without retracting the other sides'. Not a big deal to me, but some people value moving the sides with a little independence.
The piano wire came in really handy a couple of years ago when my brother and I were stuck on a mountain short one headlamp. I took a spare bulb for the headlamp we had, a walkie-talkie and the piano wire to make a light. A little athletic tape stuck it to the helmet to make a servicable headlamp.
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