BPL TI 24″ Rods

[Aaron Sorensen]

I am looking for some help from anyone who has these.
I am tired of my 3.8oz combination hike / tarp pole.
I am looking at getting the lightest 2 piece carbon pole from Fibraplex and incorporating the TI Rods in the center.
I would like to think that the TI Rod will keep the carbon from bending so bad and eventually break.
The two together will only weigh in at a smiggit over an ounce. With a hand grip I’m looking at under 1.25oz. This is 3X lighter than the my current fiberglass pole.
I only like to use one pole and just rotate it between hands throughout the day. I like some flex for setting up the tarp. If it gets damp at night, the pole just straightens up keeping my 10 1/2oz fully enclosed and noseeumed 1.1 snylon tarp taunt.

[Bill Fornshell]

Your idea will not give you what you are looking for. I just took 10 Ti rods and put them inside one of my Fibraplex tubes. The fit is really tight. Then I took another Fibraplex tube and with a lot of trouble was able to push it over the 10 Ti rods till the two pieces of Carbon Fiber tubes meet. In my judgement there is still to much flex at the joint to work. The BPL Ti rods are to springy if that is a real word.

When I made my 2.8oz each Trekking poles I used Easton Arrow shalfs. To make a stronger pair of trekking pole I got the next size larger Arrow shalfts and made the Trekking poles two ply. This made the Trekking poles 3.2oz each, still very light, cheap to make and are really strong.

I use the standard Leki carbide tip, have adjustable wrist straps, EVA grips and they adjust to two length’s. The cost with all new materials was less than $25 each.

[paul johnson]

Fornshell !!!

Websters 2006 Edition (yet to be released ) defines Fornshell as an adjective most often used as an exclamation of surprise or delight. As such, instead of evoking the outburst “BRILLIANT !!!”, the term “Fornshell !!!” can always be substituted, and in many contexts is the preferred mode of expression of delight.

Fornshell is always used in a very positive tone and is a recently coined term prevalent among the L, UL, SUL, XUL, H[yper]UL backpacking community, most notably among the sub-culture which has grown up surrounding the BPL website.

Fornshell, when used as an adjective, in a non-exclamatory sense, is defined as being most closely synonymous with the term BRILLIANT, and as such shares a similar definition, viz. “distinguished by unusual mental keenness or alertness”, as in “The other day my friend had a Fornshell idea.”

It possesses one cognate adjectival form, viz. “Fornshellishly”, as in “The tarp is made out of Cuben fiber and is made Fornshellishly light” – here used as a predicate adjective.

At this time, it also has one verbal cognate which always is used to describe the act of fabricating an amazing or brilliant synthesis of form and function, and as such its use as a verb can be illustrated by the following example: “Just yesterday, I Fornshelled a[n amazing] pair of very light trekking poles.” – the “amazing” parenthetical addition, above, is always understood by the hearer and as such, if included, is an exercise in redundancy. In fact, in typical usage, the addition of such “helping” words is considered unecessary and in bad form, as Fornshell, and its cognates, are understood to be at the very pinnacle of positively descriptive terminology. In this aforementioned verbal use it functions simultaneously as a verb and an adjective describing the absolutely incredible ingenuity, cleverness, and craftsmanship of the finished product. Therefore, Fornshell is never used in an instance where the finished product is deemed to be inadequate, for any reason whatsoever, fails to be sufficient for its originally intended purpose or does not live up to its initially conceived design.

A second school of grammatical thought regards the etymology of Fornshell as actually preceeding other positively descriptive terms and in fact is the father of them all. This school further hypothesizes that due to the marketing strategies of large companies which for decades have dominated the backpacking market, the use of Fornshell and its cognate forms have fallen into disuse, only recently regaining ascendency as the popularity of the UL backpacking philosophy grows. This school of thought believes that the greek god Hephaestus (known to the romans as Vulcan) – the god of the forge, fire, fabrication/”smithing”, and volcanos – can trace its roots back to a superiror mythical being, which some insist was real, called Fornshell – who was supremely skilled in all manners of craftsmanship in fabric, metal, pottery, and wood. Fornshell is often credited with being the father of fabrication.

Additional uses and examples will undoubtedly be readily forthcoming as its usage expands and increases in popularity.
=================================
Bill,

i hope you don’t mind the above. what can i say. i’m a big fan of yours. no disrespect of your family name was intended. however, if you mind, post back and i will delete everything, but the below questions.

now…about those poles:
how much flex in the finished poles?
if you’ve seen them, how much flex do your poles have cp. to the GG LightTrek and LightTrek+ poles?
how difficult was it to press the smaller dia. pole inside of the larger dia pole?
did you need a press?
did you use any adhesive to affix the tips to the shafts?
was 3.2oz each the wt. w/trekking baskets installed?

[Aaron Sorensen]

Not as long of a msg as Pual’s, but thank’s for the help.
So does it help to stiffen it up at all?
I realy don’t need a super stiff pole for hiking. It just gets its use by holding my hand up and keeping the blood flowing more than anything. I just want it so it doesn’t flex so much in order to do a better job and be adequate with the tarp.

[Bill Fornshell]

To Paul, I am trying to stop laughing so I can type. I believe in the Michal Jordan theory of making points in a basket ball game. Shot at the basket a lot and if you are a half decent player you will make a lot of points. Michael Jordan shot at the basket a lot and that transfered to making a bunch of points. I try a lot of different ideas and hope that most will work out or some part will work well enough to transfer to another idea/project.

Aaron: Try the arrow shafts. They work really nice and are very simple to work with. If you go to an Archery Shop and tell them what you want to do
and tell them you want two sizes of arrow shafts, one size that will slip over the other. The size I used on the outside is an Easton #2512 and the size on the inside is a Easton #2317. The shop will know what these number mean. In a very simple way the 1st two numbers stand for outside diameter and the 2nd two numbers stand for the wall thickness of the shaft or something close to that.

I had a bunch of pictures that show how I did all this at backpacking.net. I can look and see if the thread is still active and post a link if they allow that. If not and if anyone is interested I can see if I can do a copy/paste to another location.

Paul asked:

Q1 – how much flex in the finished poles?
A1 – My poles are 50″ long and I hung the poles between two door and pulling down from the middle I get a drop of 3″ to 3.5″. I would say not much flex.

Q2 – if you’ve seen them, how much flex do your poles have cp. to the GG LightTrek and LightTrek+ poles?
A2 – I have never see the poles you reference. If you have any of these poles try the test I did.

Q3 -how difficult was it to press the smaller dia. pole inside of the larger dia pole?
A3 -The outer shaft is a snug fit. I sanded the inside shafts a little till the outside one would slide on. The inside are connected together about half way and then the outer shaft covers the joint and adds a lot of strength to the poles.

Q4 -did you need a press?
A4 – You might say they are hand tight.

Q5 -did you use any adhesive to affix the tips to the shafts?
A5 – Nope, not necessary. The tips slide on the inner shaft snug and then the outer is pushed down into a small gap and makes the tip to shaft fit very tight. By being able to remove the tip I can break down the poles for packing away or to make them shorter. The poles can be set-up for three different lengths. You need to plan this when you make your poles. You have full length, then the two pieces can be different lengths but need to add up to the full length size. The wrist strap/grips can be removed and put on any combination length you want. The tip can also be added to the new length. The outer shaft gets packed away when using the poles in a shorter length. This works very well for me as I seldom use two poles at the same time. About the only time I adjust my poles shorter is when climbing up and over rocks.

Q6 -was 3.2oz each the wt. w/trekking baskets
installed?
A6 -The weight is with the Leki tips on the poles. I don’t have baskets but I may buy some to use in snow.

[paul johnson]

Thanks Bill. i’m considering trying to duplicate your poles. you’ve given me something to think about and much inspiration. Thanks again.

[David Lewis]

Aaron… I’m no engineer… but I suspect that unless your Ti rod is full length, it’s not doing anything to strengthen your carbon fiber… the whole ‘weakest’ link thing.

[paul johnson]

Aaron,

David is basically correct about the weakest link issue. However, various factors can affect the location of the “weakest link” and the stiffness. If a partial length rod is placed at the point of greatest stress, then it might help the “overall” stiffness. The “weakest link” (point of greatest stress relative to the strength of the materials) is moved to another area which may be stronger and able to tolerate that stress, or subject to a lower stress. also, sometimes doing this will cause more stress at a new location than was experienced before in the unmodified design – that point might be able to handle the new increased stress, or it might not – every design is different. the new “weakest link” area might bend more than it did b/f, but not as much as the prev. “weakest link” point – has to do with distribution of stress/load. each case/design really needs to be subjected to either experimental or analytical analysis by a real test engineer, or a design/analytical engineer.

At longer lengths (e.g. 24″) the BPL Ti rods are much too flexible to be used alone.

[Aaron Sorensen]

Thank’s everyone.
Bill, I understand everything you are talking about. Since I only need 1 pole at least having one that I won’t have to worry about possibly breaking will be nice.

[Author]

Posts