The Evolution of an Invention

[jefflovstrom]

You a witty dude! You gonna let me check out your next try- I am always near and around?
Jeff

 

[jomoco]

You a witty dude! You gonna let me check out your next try- I am always near and around?
Jeff

I tell you what Jeff, you buy a Wraptor, and pick any spry fellow on your crews to run it, including yourself, and we can have a race to 75 or 100 feet in one of the bigger eucs hereabouts, perhaps even at the PTCA seminar this spring in Balboa park?

jomoco

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I suspect that an hourglass designed capstan will be the only way to get the unit to track true in both directions.

I would think a slightly conical capstan drum would work better then the hourglass, since you want it to tend in one direction, vs the center.

 

[jomoco]

It all depends on the rope's feed and exit locations being controlled so that when ascending the feed point steers the rope onto the fatter OD of the outer capstan with the wraps tailing towards the smaller OD in the middle and exiting downwards towards the captive eye. This will keep the tracking true going up, however the opposite is true if you want to be able to reverse direction and go down, meaning that you need a fatter OD on both ends of the capstan if you want your three wraps to track true whether going up or down, hence the hourglass configuration of the capstan is a must if you want true tracking in both directions.

Under load, the wraps must slide towards the middle at a constant rate to avoid overlapping on the rightside feed point going up, the same is true at the the leftside feed point when going down.

Remember that what I'm designing here is not quite the same as a sailing capstan where the capstan is a fixed position with the rope moving through it. This VRCB is the opposite in that the rope is in a fixed position with the capstan moving along it.

jomoco

 

[davej]

Think of it like a turtle shell backpack with a gearbox inside allowing you 4 choices of engagement means to operate...

I'd predict you'll eventually have to abandon the backpack concept unless the working assembly could alternately be pulled around front for inspection. Those ratcheting wrenches could have footstraps hung from them.

 

[jomoco]

I'd predict you'll eventually have to abandon the backpack concept unless the working assembly could alternately be pulled around front for inspection. Those ratcheting wrenches could have footstraps hung from them.

The whole point of the geared backpack spool ascendor is to have nothing impeding your work area in front of you, and no ropes below you whatsoever, a true spider hanging from it's thread configuration.

I can spool over 100 feet of 7/16ths wire rope onto my Warner 12K lb winch's capstan dependably, time after time, without worry of it snarling, without a tailer like the backpack will have.

This rather radical design concept is primarily aimed towards a commercial pruning and recreational climbing market, though I intend to atleast try it in a strategic removal scenario, just to check it out.

No, it would be a pruners climbing system for sure, and would really rock with pneumatic tools and an integrated pressure hose/climbing rope combo, powered by an on the ground mobile air compressor.

Push button cuts up to 2 inches as fast as you can pull the trigger!

jomoco

 

[tree md]

Looking forward to seeing some vid of your next flight buddy!

Some more inspiration!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWH01DBJxlo

 

[ssurveyor]

TADZ device

I thought you may like my friction ascender idea. Here is a picture of my working model. It has a freewheeling pulley sheave at each apex and works as trolley block, or ascender and descender, the carabiner hooks into the harness and binds on the sheave when weighted.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Kinda cool- works?
Jeff

 

[jomoco]

I thought you may like my friction ascender idea. Here is a picture of my working model. It has a freewheeling pulley sheave at each apex and works as trolley block, or ascender and descender, the carabiner hooks into the harness and binds on the sheave when weighted.

It's a brilliant innovation Surveyor, but I doubt many will understand how it works until you do a vid of it in action getting you up and down a tree.

Is it a novel idea, or an improved version of another ascending tool?

jomoco

 

[ssurveyor]

TADZ device

I have never seen anything like it, but I am new to climbing gear.

It works using DRT and is self advancing. I would like to try it with a single rope, using the third pulley to rig a Z lift system, but I lack a cinch to make it work.

 

[jomoco]

Well guys, I took my vertical rope climbing bike to the local park today for field test #3, risking public ridicule in a chinese elm.

But this time my VRCB tracked true!

I took a vid that's rather long and boring at 6 minutes, it's uploading on youtube now.

While not quite ready to race a wraptor yet, with some pedal clips and a little luck, it won't be long now.

This bloody contraption really works!

Video to follow shortly.

jomoco

 

[jomoco]

Well guys, I took my vertical rope climbing bike to the local park today for field test #3, risking public ridicule in a chinese elm.

But this time my VRCB tracked true!

I took a vid that's rather long and boring at 6 minutes, it's uploading on youtube now.

While not quite ready to race a wraptor yet, with some pedal clips and a little luck, it won't be long now.

This bloody contraption really works!

Video to follow shortly.

 

[jomoco]

This video is rather boring, but was a huge victory for me personally, in that it proves my design really does work as intended.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ioiBDg3_How

Now I need to test it in a real tree!

jomoco

 

[ssurveyor]

neat

Bravo! You'll have to have someone else video you as you ascend.

How much does it weigh?

 

[jomoco]

I'm guessing between 25-30 lbs.

But this pathetic contraption was meant to validate the concept and little more.

I suspect that a professionally designed and engineered VRCB could weigh less than 12 lbs. I envision one that folds in half to thread the rope onto it's capstan, and then locks back together.

I see no reason it couldn't be built and sold for around 500 bucks. It's actually a very simple mechanism outside the capstan drive OD configuration.

Can the wraptor both ascend and descend under power? Or is it like my VRCB, pretty much a one-way ticket up?

jomoco

 

[ssurveyor]

pinch roller

seems like you could descend if you ran the tail line through a geared pinch roller (sort of like the old style clothes wringer), which would pull tension when ascending and feed slack when cranked in reverse.

 

[jomoco]

seems like you could descend if you ran the tail line through a geared pinch roller (sort of like the old style clothes wringer), which would pull tension when ascending and feed slack when cranked in reverse.

It would need to be driven by and synchronized to the capstan, much like a self tailing winch. Believe me, I learned the hard way that a butterfly/hourglass configured drive capstan, is an absolute must for true tracking both ways, and I have no doubt that it can be done quite easily.

It would be a nice attribute to be able to stop and descend at will.

jomoco

 

[Tree Machine]

It would be a nice attribute to be able to stop and descend at will.

jomoco

Ideally, you would use the capstan itself as a friction controller. You would just need tie-offs (wrapping posts) at the critical places and in specific configurations .

Seriously, the way you've described this ascent device, I'm thinking you could change over to descent as easily as unwrapping a wrap and hand-belaying. If the capstsan is picking up 90% or better of the friction, control the tail by hand and just know where your soft lock and hard lock is for stopping and work positioning.

Having the backpack, and the capstan out of sight complicates this a bit, but it still remains possible.

Keep feeding us, Jomoco.

 

[jefflovstrom]

Ideally, you would use the capstan itself as a friction controller. You would just need tie-offs (wrapping posts) at the critical places and in specific configurations .

Seriously, the way you've described this ascent device, I'm thinking you could change over to descent as easily as unwrapping a wrap and hand-belaying. If the capstsan is picking up 90% or better of the friction, control the tail by hand and just know where your soft lock and hard lock is for stopping and work positioning.

Having the backpack, and the capstan out of sight complicates this a bit, but it still remains possible.

Keep feeding us, Jomoco.

Does that mean the bike comes down with the capstan or does he need to go get it?
Jeff
Still not buying a wraptor, ( yet).