Bib Hanger Design/Reliability Issues

Here are the scans of my BibHanger (posted to this thread as requested/suggested)

The scans show the stripped thread and the epoxy repair to the BibHanger.

Here are scans of my current solution and a possible solution for hanging heavy.

At the moment I’m still getting gains at a relatively low weight so the c-clamp solution is working out okay. My concern is what to do if I have to hang heavy to continue gaining.

Maybe a deconditioning break is the answer, but if I could find a way to create the wells in either side of my BibHanger it’d give me the option of increasing the weight.

Mr. F,

I have got to ask this, how many times have you read this?

http://www.bibh … oduct_guide.htm

A couple of times. Why?

Describe the time line of the destruction of your hanger please. What happened first?

Mr. F.

The top screw of my Bib Hanger also stripped. I replaced it at least twice. Also, the well that the hex nut for the top screw sits in slowly chipped away. Eventually, the hex nut would turn in the well when I tried to tighten the top screw, preventing the hanger from tightening. Bib dealt with this by replacing the plastic sides, which I thought was a generous solution.

Still, it makes me question whether the Bib is really built to take many on/off cycles, especially when one uses extremely tight hanger settings.

When it initially broke I didn’t know it’d broken (explanation below) so I’m kind of using hindsight to describe what happened. My apologies if it doesn’t seem too clear— I only really figured out what had happened after it had broken.

1. I reached forward across my desk to get something while I was hanging and the catch on my desk-chair gave way sending the seat, with me on it (weights attached), dropping forward about five or so inches.

With hindsight it seems that the jolt broke the thread somehow (crossed the threads / threaded the screw) but at the time I didn’t realise that this had happened.

2. I continue hanging but now when I’m twisting the wing-nut to tighten the hanger it’s locking-up on the broken/threaded section of the bolt, and as a result it’s presumably causing the hex-nut to turn in it’s housing, ripping up the housing (I don’t know this is happening because I just assume the wing-nut’s stopping because the hanger’s tight enough)

At around this time I email Bib to describe the problem hoping he can diagnose the problem and that I can get a replacement tightening-bolt. Bib suggests I find a replacement screw in a local hardware store, so I detach the fastening screw and try to take the hex-nut off of the bolt at which point I discover it’s broken (I can’t get the hex-nut off)— I try the wing-nut and find I can only screw it down to the point where the hex-nut was sticking. It’s at this point that I realise the wing-nut’s been sticking on the broken thread, which is why I’ve had so much trouble tightening it to hang the heavier weights.

3. I figure I can repair it myself so I take a small plastic cuff from an old monitor-speaker screw and screw it onto the tightening-bolt to use as a shim so that I can tighten the hanger without the wing-nut reaching the broken section of thread— this works for a while until the hex-nut finally tears through enough of it’s housing for it to freely spin every time I try to tighten it.

4. So I decide rather than try and locate a new larger hex-nut and new bolt I’ll just glue the existing hex-nut in place with epoxy-resin to stop it turning so that I can tighten the hanger.

5. I’ve got the plastic shim in place on the screw and the hex-nut glued in place with epoxy-resin and I resume hanging, but the force I’m turning the wing-nut with when I’m tightening the hanger causes the thread to strip.

6. I buy a c-clamp to tighten my BibHanger and have been hanging with it ever since.

In hindsight, when the catch on my desk-chair gave way, it may have damaged a section of the thread inside the wing-nut which might have cut through the thread on the tightening-bolt, but there’s no way for me to say for sure if that’s what happened or if I was just ‘over-tightening’ it. (personally I think I was trying to get it too tight— I probably should have paid more attention to the guidelines at the Bib-hanger website and less to the heavy-hangers on the forum)

I know the guidelines say not to ‘over-tighten’ and I know it’s not Bib’s fault that the catch on my chair slipped and I’m really not trying to make a big deal out of this, I’m just sharing my experience.

I released Bib of all responsibilities with regards my own safety when I bought the BibHanger and I understand that it broke due to both chance and my own ineptitude when it comes to mechanics (and yes I really am that useless when it comes to mechanical things)…in short— it broke and I broke it further trying to repair it, but since gluing the hex-nut in place and stripping the thread I really feel there’s no way I’d personally be able to tighten a BibHanger enough to hang 9lbs out of the box (i.e. in the configuration in which it ships)

Mr F., please, go buy yourself a new bolt, nut, washer and wingnut. Your hanger looks fine. Don’t worry about duplicating the thread pattern, just find a nut that will fit the nut well and then buy the associated bolt, washer and wingnut that all go together. It should work fine. If not, let me know what’s happening and we’ll take it from there. Here’s a couple of posts:link 1, link 2 that address what I consider the most optimal configurations for the BIB and a few other tips.

Modesto, when I had my problem with my BIB, Bigger told me that I had one from an earlier set of molds that had the washer well configured too narrow at the top (the two tips), which caused deflection of the tips when the clamp was tightened, particularly when tightened really tight (and I tighten REALLY TIGHT…because I’ve got the bottom screws backed all the way out, I HAVE to) and accelerated abrasion of the well as the washer would tend to slide up, instead of staying put. That’s exactly what mine was doing. Maybe you’ve got one from the same set of older molds. I can tell that Mr. F.’s BIB is from the newer set of molds. And it looks fine. I agree with you about the washer well on the BIB, its not as robust as the one on the Starter. I pestered Bigger about that for a while, and he said, he’d get around to re-tooling the molds to make the BIB have a more Starter-like washer well, but I guess I didn’t pester enough…maybe he’s due for another pestering :) . Anyhoo, in my experience, the difference in terms of gripping power between the old mold version and the new mold version of the BIB are significant, at least a high bolt tightness and at high weights.

OK, I just saw your last post. If the nut is spinning in the nut well thats no good. I still think chucking the whole closure hardware and getting a new set is the way to go. You might want to think about using an exacto knife to cut the nut well to the dimensions of the next size larger nut, so that it can be held firmly, but still be released outward. Both are desirable qualities of the nut/nut well aspect of the BIB.

Xenolith— thanks, you have no idea how much of a relief it is that someones finding it funny— I’m beginning to feel as if I’m on trial here…me v.s Bib’s good name. :(

The thing is the existing hex-nut is glued in place with epoxy-resin. Is there anything that’ll eat through that stuff?

Ultimately, it seems to me that it’d just be easier to find a way to make the wells on either side of the BibHanger— that way I’d also be hedging my bets when it came to finding a heavy enough screw.

To be honest with you MM right now I couldn’t rule out damage to the wing-nut thread as a possible cause for the bolt being stripped, so I coldn’t say conclusively either way as to whether I might be able to hang heavy using a BibHanger or not.

To be honest with you, if I didn’t think I’d end up stripping the thread on a new BibHanger I’d seriously consider buying a new one, but I don’t want to gamble the cash on the hope that I wouldn’t just end up breaking it again.

Right now I am getting good gains at a low weight so it’s not such an issue— I’d be more comfortable finding a way to attach the larger c-clamp to the sides— I know it’ll work and it’ll probably be a lot less expensive than a new BibHanger.

All I can say about getting that nut out is, if you really want it out, you’ll get it out. Try threading bolt through from the opposite (outside the hanger) and leveraging it enough to break the bond. I think you’re looking at reforming the nut well one way or the other, so I wouldn’t worry too much about deforming the well.

Dude, you did something screwy to hose up your hanger the way you did. You can fix it. It’ll then be fine. Just don’t do the screwy thing again. We’ll make sure you don’t.

Or you can do anything else you want. I’m here to help if you want me to.

Xenolith— thanks… that makes me feel a lot better.

Right now I’m going to stick with the c-clamp set-up while I’m still making gains at low weights.

If I need to hang heavy I’m guessing that after all of the above I should be able to replace the screw pretty easily.

If I can’t figure it out I’ll certainly PM you for guidance.