How deep do you seat a closing pin?

[MrHixxx 0]

Fellow Riggers,

I have noticed that some riggers will seat the heel of the closing pin all the way to the closing loop and some will seat it with the heel against the grommet. I wrote Capewell and their response was "The Army does it one way and the Navy does it another." I would like to hear from folks in the field as to how far they seat it in and why if they chose to explain.

thanks, Jon

[markbaur 0]

The tape covering the end of the ripcord pin on a Talon limits the reserve pin to heel-on-grommet insertion. I suspect on some other rigs with a tape pin-end cover (some Javelins?) you'd have to insert a reserve pin at an angle to the ripcord pull to get it to heel-on-loop, which would make for a harder pull.

In cases where it doesn't affect the pull angle, I can't see that it would make much difference.

When did the Army and Navy part ways? Is it only on sport-derived gear? When did they quit using locking cones?

Mark

[mjosparky 3]

I think you are right. The army and navy only use a soft loop on the their sports type rigs. Air crew systems and bail out systems use cones. Most head box ejection seat type system use a steel wire loop with a steel pin similar to a bobby pin.
Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[masterrig 1]

Hey, Sparky!

In all my training, I was instructed to put the pin (through the closing loop) till the lower end of the sweage was against the outer edge of the grommet. I have often wondered if, by getting the sweage on the grommet, if this wouldn't increase the chances of a bent pin, due to the angle of the pin in this situation. The way I do it, there seems to be more than enough pin through the loop to 'safely' keep the container closed. I'll have to 'double-check' Poynter's, but, I believe, this is the way he describes in his manual. Your thoughts...

Chuck

[councilman24 36]

The voting surprised me. In over twenty years of rigging I've never heard anybody suggest that the heel should be on the grommet. This changes the angle and may bend the pin, as mentioned above, potentially adds more friction, and in extreme cases my start loading the hollow swaged portion of the pin. I've often had to correct customers who were reseating their pins too deep. In a quick survey of 4 major rig manuals, none address it but all their photos show the heel only up to the grommet. If some gear manufacturer or other industry source thinks it should be deeper I'd like to hear about it. If these are all riggers voting something has drastically changed in someone's course.

BTW the manufacturer's need to post smaller file size versions of their manuals. Some of these things are monsters, even with the T1 line at work.

I'm old for my age.
Terry Urban
D-8631
FAA DPRE

[MrHixxx 0]

Yes, I agree with keep the blade flush against the grommet for ease of pull and less stress on the blade. However, I noticed on the CWO3-01 bulletin on test #1 the pin is seated all the way up to the shoulder (I meant shoulder rather than heel when I wrote the poll, my bad).

Thanks for your responses, Jon

[riggerrob 558]

I always seat reserve ripcord pins with the shoulder up to the edge of the grommet. No point in going any deeper.
Anyone silly enough to seat a ripcord pin's heel inside the grommet will experience a dramatic increase in pull force.

[mjosparky 3]

Quote

Hey, Sparky!

In all my training, I was instructed to put the pin (through the closing loop) till the lower end of the sweage was against the outer edge of the grommet. I have often wondered if, by getting the sweage on the grommet, if this wouldn't increase the chances of a bent pin, due to the angle of the pin in this situation. The way I do it, there seems to be more than enough pin through the loop to 'safely' keep the container closed. I'll have to 'double-check' Poynter's, but, I believe, this is the way he describes in his manual. Your thoughts...

Chuck

I agree, to go past the blade is just asking for problems without any gain.
Sparky

My idea of a fair fight is clubbing baby seals

[NightJumper 0]

Is this a trick question? I insert the pin to the manufactures specifications. In absence of a specification I insert the pin only to the point that allows 100% equal distribution on the blade by the grommet.