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How climbers can avoid unnecessary falls thanks to 3D printing

Making safety climbing gear accessible to everyone through 3D printing

Climbing equipment is usually very pricy, this makes a lot of sense most of the time but not always, for those not safety-critical pieces, 3D printing can substantially cheapen some of those parts/tools.


(a quick disclaimer before continuing, all the items that I present are my work unless the opposite is stated, done in the license-free version of Fusion360 for makers, if you want to know more about the design process, let me know in the comments, also if you want to learn how to use Fusion360, check out these videos: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheKHaug)

Climbing equipment is usually one of those things in which you don't want to skimp on, if you need to spend 150 € on that rope you better go do it instead of trying to get a cheaper one from AliExpress or whatever, your integrity depends on it.

The certification processes most of this equipment must undergo usually justifies these high prices, this is however not always the case for other things such as:

  • Climbing holds for gyms
  • Training devices like the one in this picture
  • Clip sticks for rock climbing
  • Chalk bags
A very good example is the well-known clip stick, the commercially available version of these products range from 35 up to 100 euros for the higher-range versions (PinGO Beta Stick Evo Ultra Long) This below is btw, a clip stick for climbing, it allows you to clip the first or the second biner from the ground, this is especially important when the first clips are far away from the ground, and the rope is still not hanging from anywhere (opposite to common belief the closer you are to the ground the higher the risk is, as a fall would likely imply smashing yourself against the ground, however the further you are from the ground the less likely it is that your fall finishes with your bones at ground level).

Most of these devices that not withstand high strains are not prone to break, and if they do that doesn't imply a high risk, nevertheless having some of these tools substantially improves your safety while climbing. The fact is that many people cannot access them due to their high prices, which has a detrimental effect on safety.




So, I took my chance of designing the very same tool in my house and print it for my personal use, in fact, when I did so I published it in My Mini Factory (link to my profile in case that you want to follow me: https://www.myminifactory.com/es/users/cerr3Do)but I even received messages from the brand and the original designers asking me to delete it and to the day I still receive requests of people asking for the blueprints of the original file.

Below you can see the 3D file I made, and even play a bit with it, I did it just looking for pictures of the product on the internet,

clip stick original by pablo.herrefu on Sketchfab


And then I proceed to print it and bought a telescopic pole of those that people use for painting hardly accessible stuff in walls or roofs. Here you go a picture of the finished product and the original one side to side for you to compare the result.


Since this could be an infringement of copyright or whatever (IDK much about the topic), I decided to make another design that I could share with the climbing community for the benefit of all, and I came up with this design, which I believe is as good as the one that costs up to 100 euros. As this is my design I can share it with you all for free if I want to, you can find it in my My Mini Factory profile (https://www.myminifactory.com/es/object/3d-print-clip-sitkc-head-170205). 


This was just the beginning, I discovered that many other people are sharing their designs for free and you all can just use them if you want to, and I made some other designs that can be useful for training, such as the one in the thumbnail, whose commercially available version costs around 75 euros, but you can get it printed for less than 10 euros (and a lot of time that's true), to the day I've had over a thousand visits to this design in My Mini Factory profile. I've also printed climbing holds, other finger training devices and even carabiners (ofc not safety ones)

You might be wondering why I put cerr3Do on my climbing-related designs, well this is I believe the prettiest mountain in my not-so-mountainous home town Castro-Urdiales, so that's why.

3D printing is such a powerful manufacturing technique, and I focused this entry on climbing because is a sport I like practicing, but I've also printed very useful things such as a Go PRO mount for my bike, racks for climbing material, and many other items that would be either too expensive to buy or don't exist (for instance a wheel for the cart of the dishwasher of my grandma).

These are just ideas I've sketched, I hope you can find some of your own, or if not take mine, and use them on your own.

Hope you liked this one,


 

















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Location: Castro Urdiales, Cantabria, España

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