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adatesman
climber
philadelphia, pa
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Quite right, Jonny. It screws with the effective cam angle royally. Here's a pic of a yellow/red CCH that wasn't so good.... Tipped out the cam angle was pretty close to normal, but not when retracted:
I have the angle measurements notated somewhere, but not sure where at the moment. Easy enough to throw a protractor on the screen if you're that interested.
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scuffy b
climber
heading slowly NNW
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Wasn't there a recall of a particular batch of orange Aliens with misplaced hole?
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jonnyrig
Trad climber
formerly known as hillrat
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How did you mark your gear? The stamps on these, the characters look like factory stamps, only about 1/16 inch tall, and though a couple have W, they are followed by a 9 or a 6. If I ended up with one of yours somehow, and you can ID it, its all yours. Theives suck!
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jonnyrig
Trad climber
formerly known as hillrat
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True. Things have a way of turning up in strange places though sometimes. Who really knows the story on Fleabay gear... like ya said, as long as it works. But a little bit of karma doesnt hurt.
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adatesman
climber
philadelphia, pa
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Wasn't there a recall of a particular batch of orange Aliens with misplaced hole?
Not that I recall, Scuffy. All the ones I've seen are that way, which is why John Field built the Cam Fitter in the first place.
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Greg Barnes
climber
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The axle, however, is quite far from the center of the spiral, which causes the cam to do some pretty funky things in terms of range and holding power. So could you describe the funky things? Seems at a first guess that it'd be larger range and less holding power in general?
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adatesman
climber
philadelphia, pa
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Seriously didn't mean to drift the thread this far, so apologies to the OP.
Greg- Good news/Bad news. I found the angle measurement data, but it's buried in this 7MB pdf: http://theclimbinglab.com/tiki-download_wiki_attachment.php?attId=12&page=CCH%20Alien%20Testing&download=y
A very quick scan of the document turned up that within the 20 or so CCH Aliens I tested, effective cam angle at the limits (fully retracted/tipped out) and at the midpoint ranged from 7 degrees to 28 degrees.
Edit- Should probably point out for those not into cam design, 7 degrees means severely limited range and much higher holding force and 28 degrees has fantastic range but holding force below what typical rock-on-aluminum can support. Meaning it'll skate out *every time*. IIRC the empirical limit on typical North American rock types is ~18 degrees, with limestone and shale being much lower ~14 degrees.
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jonnyrig
Trad climber
formerly known as hillrat
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Well, if you knew what cam angle each company used, you could throw a lobe up on that program and use that to help ID it. Or, at least you'd know what rock type it's built for best. And in the case of sketchball cams or home-made cams, you can at least guestimate whether the thing is even useful.
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adatesman
climber
philadelphia, pa
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Actually, Jonny, he already has the cam-angle-by-company thing worked in. It's the dropdown box in the upper left, and is used when the "best fit" box isn't checked.
Alternatively use the best fit (with the calculated center to verify validity of the fit) to calculate the cam angle and then back into which manufacturer it might have been.
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nutstory
climber
Ajaccio, Corsica, France
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I missed this thread so I am sorry to be late.
Jonnyrig, I suspect that your Three Cam Unit (with the pink sewn sling) is an early Cable Cam #2 made by Canadian Alpine Manufacturing (David Oldridge’s second company) in 1986.
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