New device to tend Hitch Hiker

Yes. It works as a corner trap. Easy on/off. the spring is stiff enough to stay in place when unhooking. Thinking about painting it red and calling it the X-Spring.;). I tried yoyoman's shackle, then I found this. I also use the spring with my hitchclimber setup.
 
I did like the shackle. I like the spring idea too. I have a couple Rhino biners for cases where I want to control rotation. Of course they're aluminum so not much good in this case.
 
The shackle requires a mod to the bottom 2 screws to work without hanging up. The springs are cheap works great with the steel biner. I don't think the Rhino will work as good. I was about to give up on the HH then I tried it with the spring and pulley. This new tending idea look great and spring may not be needed. Is the material formed using heat?
 
Elzooka said:
The shackle requires a mod to the bottom 2 screws to work without hanging up. The springs are cheap works great with the steel biner. I don't think the Rhino will work as good. I was about to give up on the HH then I tried it with the spring and pulley. This new tending idea look great and spring may not be needed. Is the material formed using heat?
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Yes, the material, Kydex, is a thermoplastic which is formed using heat. By the way, the shackle I'm using is a wide D, and there's no need to modify the screws on the HH. In this version, I've drilled the holes to 5/8" rather than 1/2" to accommodate the carabiner which is supplied with the HH.
 
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Thanks guys; what I'd like to do is figure out how to make multiples so I can turn them out for a decent price and still have fun doing it.
 
You can make or buy a small vacuum forming press for cheap and then form them over wooden horns. You could also make a plaster male and female and use that to form the heated Kytex. If you figure out the flat layout you could have them water cut or have a Steel rule die made if you have an arbor press of some sort to use it in.
 
Yes, that water cutting machinery is pretty awesome. It could probably cut 100 of them in an hour. I'd be interested to see what it would cost to have them cut or stamped out. Right now I'm forming them over a male/ female mold set up, and cutting them with a bandsaw. I have an idea for a process that could be workable here at home.
 
Being from NC Dogwood, you probably can find a local guy that already has an under used vacuum former for holsters and knife sheaves.
 
monkeylove said:
Most of my steel rule dies cost me about 250 bucks. I would expect water or laser to cost about 3 or 4 bucks plus material
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Are you saying maybe 3 or 4 bucks per piece, Monkey? I think it would be good to find out how many HHs are in use, to consider what the potential market is. The idea would be to keep the cost for an item like this as low as possible. The guys at TreeStuff ought to have a pretty good idea. I don't expect the demand would be high. For instance, if TreeStuff let's say were to order one gross, that would probably hold them for a while.
 
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