Tree Machine ... Jim Clark, inventor and ahead of his time

Tree Machine

Also, Ekka, it's not SRT. It's ALL THREE systems; 2:1 DdRT, 1:1 DbRT and 1:1 SRT, all do-able on the same device and interchangable at your will.

That is what is the key advantage. The versatility to work different systems as needed, or just according to whatever mood you happen to be in at the moment.

Either of the two yet-to-be-invented devices will allow this.

Scottyfl

I saw Tom D in Ga. at there comp with the Unicender and was impressed, but come on Tm vidio please.
Scotty

Tree Machine

OK, Scotty. The video is actually where I'm hung up. I am really bad about labelling tapes. I have 15 one-hour DV tapes and have to fast-forward through entire tapes to find what I need. I may be further ahead to re-shoot, but I don't have any ground help to do the camera work.

The clips I can offer don't lend themselves really well to still photos since its more than the piece, but how the piece performs. You want to see smooth, not jerky, precision adjustment, one-handed, left or right and no-handed friction control. You want to see the device being put on the rope in two seconds or less. It needs to be shown working the two versions of a doubled rope and a single rope. You need very specifically to see soft lock / hard lock in action and it would be very good to see an in-air crossover swap between ascender and descender done in under 5 seconds.

Then there's the Quicktime thing, the .mov video format. I would like to present the stuff in .mov and .wmv to make sure that no one is excluded. Ekka and I are working on that. Also, there is no function within regular threads to post video, that function is in the video forum so I believe we'll have to link between here and there and transmit to a server, rather than to the thread itself. We'll work that out. I started digging into this stuff a few days ago and learned it was more involved. Like anything in life, you can schlock it together, or you can spend the time and do a good job. I doubt you guys want to see schlock.

As a special treat, we have made communication with a special guest, a world authority on mechanical devices. We have summoned forth this expert and he has agreed to join us in the thread. This motivates me greatly as I'm not so alone in the presentation. We have someone who can scrutinize and call me on any fine points. This third-party specialist can greatly increase the depth of the thread and keep the information factual to a high degree.

Men choosing to try these methods out in the trees will be putting their lives on it. I take this very, very seriously.

Sean Freeman

For anyone wondering what the unicender looks like and a glimpse of how it performs visit http://www.thompsontreetools.com/ There's a flash media version and a HTML version.

__________________
Sean

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran

Ekka

I dunno, $10 of rope and a Blakes'll do me. Just more gadgets. Big honking lump of Looominum in ya face.

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Sean Freeman

I know what you mean Ekka, but there's a little rock climber in me that just loves the sound of all that gear clinking away as I walk, reminds me of all the quick shots and friends i used to cart around on my (now seems very flimsy) rock harness...and gadgets mate I love em

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Sean

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran

Tree Machine

Quick draws?

I know what you mean, Boa. I sorta look like a space alien sometimes, a self-proclamed gear freak much like yourself.

As far as the saddle goes, though, gear has come and gear has gone. Very open-minded to try something different, but it only finds permanent residence on the saddle if it pays its rent.

If I pulled all the biners off, and all the slings off, the saddle would look very stripped down. What would be left is dual-handled ascenders, a couple descent pieces and an SRT backup, chainsaw bungee lanyard and flipline. Actually quite typical for a tree climber, except for the descent pieces and SRT backup. All these together will fit in the palm of my hand and all together weigh less than a single steel triple lock. Then there's the sliding bridge piece, that's different. That's a truly one-of-a-kind. I suppose you could call it an 'invention' but's really more of an amalgamation of different parts from different industries, a modification specific to a flat-profile sliding bridge saddle.

Ekka and I use the same saddle, the Buckingham Versatile. I keep trying on new ones, but keep coming back.

Gotta fly for now. Another company has me hired to do the aerial work on a crane job they got going. Crew of five, I can't be late.

Sean Freeman

Sorry TM yes Quick draws...crikey don't know where my head was at...quick shots what the heck are they...something you drink as the bar is closing maybe?

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Sean

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran

Ekka

I use a Traverse, has dual sliding D's, note the special Aussie style saddle with dual side D's too. (and hard seat for me)

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Tree Machine

Boa, hopefully someday we can do a quick shot together, maybe a number of them. That would be a multi shot.

Sadly, however, we're on the opposite side of the planet and in different hemispheres. For us to actually be together and do a quick shot, now that would be a long shot.

But as far as the quick-draw, for those unfamiliar with that, it is simply two caribiners attached with a short length of sewn web. Rock guys use these on lead climbs on bolted routes. The quick-draw is clipped into the anchor with the top biner and the climber's rope into the one just below. In tree climbing we call this a redirect and our 'quickdraw' is generally a sling with a biner at one end. We choker the limb and then slap our rope into the biner. Used mostly when you've climbed above your tie-in point to create a new, temporary tie-in point, or when you're way out, horizontal and some distance from where your rope is set. Set a redirect so if there was some mishap, you wouldn't do a monster pendulum back down and splat on the trunk.

I realize I'm not telling anything new here.

I actually did buy a quickdraw a few months ago at a sport shop. I just needed a Petzl bent gate non-locker. They didn't have any, except for the ones in the quickdraws, which included a non-locker straight gate. I bought it, figuring I'd just remove the biners, but I never did. I just hung it and I have grown somewhat attached to it. On yesterday's crane removal when the ball and cable would appear, I would slap the quickdraw on the cable to keep it right there while I got myself positioned and set the rig. I found a sweet spot on the saddle where it can sit, available, without getting in the way of anything else.




Hey Ekka, can we test a video?

I managed to get yesterdays tree job on time-lapse. The batteries lasted the entire job and no one parked in front of the camera. I futzed with it a bit last night and got the frame rate slowed down a bit, then posted it to a server. It's about 5 meg in Quicktime format. Click right here and if you see the big 'Q' just give it a few moments. Dial-up guys, go make a sandwich. I'm sensitive to how long it can take, even though the video streams.

I climbed SRT this whole job with the rope anchored up at the top of the tree, rather than at the base, like it is traditionally done. I used spikes.

The footage is not intended to impress you big dogs, but there's something uniquely cool about time-lapse.

Attached Images

quickdraw.jpg (15.6 KB, 74 views)

TreeCo

Impressive!

That time lapse is cool.

Ekka

Jim

I fixed it up for you. Sort of.

We now have a 21 second 2mb WMV streaming file.

www.palmtreeservices.com.au/video/tmcranejob.wmv

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JayD

Good primary work,TM, good secondary Ekka, just go's to show if you work as a team everyone who's worth their salt makes things better!

Sean Freeman

That vid is very good instruction on the sequence of a basic t/d, something that climbers can take quite a while to work out, and in the process annoy the hell of the rest of the crew and the boss..yes I'm talking from personal experience I like to think I'm better now, my medicine tells me so

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Sean

Trees are poems that earth writes upon the sky,
We fell them down and turn them into paper,
That we may record our emptiness.
- Kahlil Gibran

TrevMcRev

That clip dont run for me

I can never see TM's clips!

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