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The Bassett Metal Studios Belay Spool is designed solely for rescue situations where lowering heavy loads is a possibility. It is far to heavy to be used as a normal climbing belay device, although it could be used in some class situations.
The spool is a 63.5 mm (2-1/2 in) aluminum cylinder with two 8.5 mm stainless steel roll pins that act as rope guides. The side plates are 5 mm aluminum bolted to the spool with 3/8 inch (9.7 mm) Allen-head cap screws. Each side plate has a slot and a second cap screw passing through a slot and into the spool. This arrangement limits the amount that the two plates can pivot to 45°, for a total of 90° with respect to each other. Although not strictly necessary, it does make the spool somewhat easier to rig. The second cap screw is set with enough clearance that the side plates pivot smoothly.
The spool functions as one would expect, just open the spool by rotating the side plates, wrap the rope around the drum (separating the coils with the pins), close the side plates, and one is ready to lower. It works very smoothly, as one would expect from a spool. The large contact area keeps the device from overheating as much as many others do, and the large radius helps ensure minimal rope damage.
The Single Rope Technique Rescue Belay Spool is a similar device.
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The production model incorporated two improvements over the prototype. The least significant is that the side plates are made from 2.5 mm stainless steel instead of 5 mm aluminum. This improvement is primarily cosmetic. The second is more substantial. The round drum was replaced by a square drum with rounded corners. The cross section can best be described as a 51 mm square truncated by a 62 mm circle. The resulting spool has even better handling qualities than the original. It runs as smoothly if not more so, and it grips better when catching a falling load (I still don't know why rescuers want to drop their patients - maybe that is why they call them victims?).
The production model is slightly heavier than the prototype or the Single Rope Technique Rescue Belay Spool, but since no one was going to carry this thing backpacking anyhow, the extra grams don't really matter. For the rescue community, this device is excellent.
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©2007, Gary D. Storrick