Version A	Version B

Overview

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Version A
(#3720)

Front	Rear

Left	Right	Top

Front: Open for Rigging	Top: Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I made this Storrick – Romanian belayer in 2022.

This belayer is 75 mm. tall, 70 mm. wide, 26 mm. thick, and weighs 215 g.

The belayer consists of an aluminum block with a hinged arm mounted in a second block riveted to the first, and a third block to act as an arm support. I used 6061-T6 aluminum alloy for all the aluminum pieces, and made the rivets out of brass. The main block is 13 mm. thick. It has two 51 mm. long, 12.8 mm. wide slots and a 16 mm. circular eye. The pivoting arm is 60 mm. long, 15.7 mm. tall, and 13 mm. thick. The outer surface is rounded except where held within the mounting block. That block is 35 mm. tall, 27 mm. wide, and 13 mm. thick, with a 16 by 14.5 mm. cutout for the arm. The arm pivots on a 6 mm. brass rivet, and the mounting block is attached to the main block with two more 6 mm. brass rivets. Finally, a 20.5 mm. tall, 9.5 mm wide, 7 mm. thick block riveted to the main block supports the pivoting arm under load.

I stamped my logo on the rear of the device.

Comments

In December 2019, Ionut-Gabriel Burete sent me pictures of an interesting device that he acquired as part of a bulk gear deal made while he was living in Romania. He never tried using it, nor did he know much about it. Made of aluminum with iron rivets, it appears to be a belay device that can also be used as a descender for single or double ropes. Gabe will try to learn more about it on his next trip to Romania.

This is an interesting design that allows one to rig and derig without removing the device from the anchor. I like the concept, but the execution may have room for improvement. I would prefer to see the eye below the slots to align better with the pull from the rope.

Gabe is not ready to part with his, and so I did what anyone would do – I went out to the shop and made one for myself. I didn't have any iron rivets that were long enough, so I cheated and made my own brass rivets instead.

My device lacks the charisma that the handmade construction, dings, and corrosion give Gabe's original. Here are some photos of Gabe's version:

Original: Front	Original: Rear

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Version B
(#3741)

Front	Rear

Left	Right	Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I made this Storrick – Romanian belayer in 2022.

This belayer is 111 mm. tall, 57 mm. wide, 23 mm. thick, and weighs 138 g.

The belayer consists of a milled aluminum block with a hinged arm I used 6061-T6 aluminum alloy for all the aluminum pieces machine screw for the hinge.. The main block has two 51 mm. long, 12.8 mm. wide slots and three 14.3 circular eyes. The pivoting arm 13.2 mm. tall, and 12.7 mm. thick. The outer surface is rounded. The arm pivots on a stainless steel 8-32x1-1/2 UNC machine screw.

I stamped my logo on the front of the device.

Comments

My initial reaction to Version A left me thinking about improvements. After procrastinating for a month, I made a second version.

This time I milled everything except the arm out of a single block, eliminating the need to rivet three blocks together. I move the eye from the side of the slots to a position below them to align better with the pull from the rope. I borrowed the three-eye concept from the Венто Аллигатор.

I liked the result, but then realized that I was starting to reinvent the Kong Hydrobot. Silly me.

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