Is this cam safe? Seasoned climbers remember!

It's a green Camalot in a metal test jig, no? I'm trying to find it in my history but haven't yet...

But in the last few days I watched a green, u-stem Camalot deform and pull out of a test jig online somewhere.

teece303 wrote:It's a green Camalot in a metal test jig, no? I'm trying to find it in my history but haven't yet... But in the last few days I watched a green, u-stem Camalot deform and pull out of a test jig online somewhere.

Huh. Yup, that's mine, and apparently posted on a personal Youtube account of mine in 2011 for a thread here on MP. Seems I completely forgot about that account, and that's the only video on it. Thanks for digging it up, Mojo.

Anyway, the bending of the axles is clearly apparent as the lobes continue to rotate while constrained. Had the fixture been wider it would have popped much, much sooner and at lower force.

The cable fray, if present, is a serious issue for strength. The hairline fracture in the casting where the cable connects to the axle is more visually disturbing than it is structurally scary. BD did tests on several samples of similar cams and they failed above rating despite the casting flaw. I have a #4 with obviously visible hairline cracks that I also place as a second piece in the size or if I really need it. Never seen it on smaller sizes of the same design, so that's new to me. I'm a mechanical engineer and relatively scrutinous of my gear, but I've never been seriously worried by this flaw. I'd be more concerned about how you connect the rope to the cam and that you place it such that there's no crazy bending load on the wire cable, because it is just a plastic sheath over the cable which will pull away in horizontals and transmit all the load to the swaged/crimped wire/nut interface above the casting. This all means bad bending loads on the cable in anything less than ideal situations(fatigue is a bitch for strength when you need it). All that said, I still climb on the #3 and #4 of this style, just seriously inspect them after any loading and generally before you're willing to climb on them...

Bob M wrote: I have a couple of these that are slightly older and have a different plastic sleeve. As mentioned above, they are known for developing a crack in the head, so check for that and frayed cables. I also heard that even when cracked, pull tests have shown they don't fail because of that, but I took it as a good excuse to buy some new gear. Here's a pic of the crack you're looking for.

This is first generation Chouinard Camalot!

Benjamin Brooke wrote:  I found this Black Diamond #1 camalot last year. I hadn't seen this design with the U-stem before on a BD cam. It appears to be in great shape considering its age...i'm guessing 80s? When I compare it to the C4, this cam has a wider head, but slimmer lobes. Instead of a sewn sling, there is wire which appears to run all the way up, and is mounted to the head of the cam. I don't see any cracks in the lobes or other indication that the cam is not safe. I already have two red C4s but am wondering if its safe to climb on this. I mean, would you guys take a fall on this? My thinking is that it was good enough then, it is good enough now. When I first started climbing a few years ago I had a loner set of camalots with the different thumb press, and I rarely see those around. These I never see. I can't get over how good a shape this thing is in, BD really does design some top notch gear. Any feedback would be appreciated. Thanks.

2nd generation camalot. I have complete set of Gen 1 and Gen 2. Still good to use, providing there is no physical damage to the unit or cable.

When Camalot Jr's came out, BD sold that bottom plastic thumb post and cable protector piece separately.  I bought a few and added them to my old Camalots so I could add a cord or webbing directly to them.  Worked ok, but,. still not great as the webbing or cord would sometimes ride up and get stuck on the plastic on one side of the cable.  

I think if the cable wasn't damaged and you didn't see any cracks in the head, I might be tempted to use the cam.  Or not.  I kinda kept them around as back ups and in case I was ever doing a trip to parallel-crack-land and needed a gob of one size.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vQf0T-J2H44&t=1138s shows 2 of these old u-stem camalots holding 10+ kN.

(no need to resume the thread, just adding the link for future reference)

Bob M wrote: I have a couple of these that are slightly older and have a different plastic sleeve. As mentioned above, they are known for developing a crack in the head, so check for that and frayed cables. I also heard that even when cracked, pull tests have shown they don't fail because of that, but I took it as a good excuse to buy some new gear. Here's a pic of the crack you're looking for.

#2 generation 1 ( @1988) offered 1-4.

I have a set of these and generation 2 and 3.