tips for web threading

[BabyDuck]

give me yours, please.

i'm redoing my sidemount harness, and i'm not getting along with the webbing. it's not a new issue for me, but i thought i'd see what y'all got. please give your best hints and tools and tricks.

dry? wet? needle nosed pliers or some other tool? burn to a point or unburned until it's where you want it? equal cursing & praying or 2:1 curse to pray ratio?

thanks!

 

[rjack321]

dry
if you use a soldering iron or similar along the end you can create a tapered point which won't jam as it goes through tri-glides etc.

 

[kanonfodr]

Bring a friend: you never adjust dive gear solo!!!

Oh, and I don't pray but I do have an equal curse:threats:encouragement ratio (normally)

Peace,
Greg

 

[lowviz]

Perseverance.

Pot of very hot water (no children around), Pyrex measuring cup, wood clamp, deadfall soft-face mallet, Visegrip pliers, awl with rounded point, silver magic marker, block of wood.

Grab one end of webbing with wood clamp and stand on it. Grab other end with Visegrips. Use a glass measuring cup to carefully pour hot water on the area of webbing in question and then pull into place. Alternate [hammer and block of wood/ hot water/ pulling] to convince the webbing to really weave tightly. Mark with silver marker. Keep donning the partial work and inspect the fit in a mirror, all too easy to get one side bigger/smaller than other. Use the awl and hot water to loosen your work when you have to re-adjust things.

Flame polish the webbing ends with a torch and squeeze while still hot with something like Hand Seamers with Forged Steel Jaws :: Malco Products, Inc.

Easy? No. Worth it? Oh Yeah!

 

[TSandM]

I think you have to burn the edges right after they are cut, or when you use the pliers to try to pull it through something, it just frays. But if you burn it and while it's still soft, pound it flat, it makes it a lot easier to pull through things.

 

[Blackwood]

I make my cut at about a 45° angle and burn it, then I tend to pull it through with needlenose pliers.

Beyond that, the single best piece of advise I can offer is this: start threading it through from the shoulders rather than one hip. Doing it that way decouples the left from the right, so if you need to add length to the left, you don't have to shove it all the way over from the right.