I had a go at making an electron ladder once by the 'pin and resin' method. My first attempt I must have not mixed the resin correctly as if you stood on one rung for long enough you could use it as a sort of slow descender. The second attempt was much better :)

I had a go at making an electron ladder once by the 'pin and resin' method. My first attempt I must have not mixed the resin correctly as if you stood on one rung for long enough you could use it as a sort of slow descender. The second attempt was much better :)

I've been using a homebrew electron ladder for years; 20 yeas ago when I was in Saudi we scrapped a load of 1970's Gas Chromatographs. Their circuit boards were held on aluminium slider rails (light-bulb-moment). The rails were drilled, pinned to steel wire and glued and my ladder was born. Still use it to this day! Mint

MARK

they should be good for as long as you and I are around!

I suppose that I am a funny old sod but when I incorporated CMT and acquired Cwmystwyth mines I liked to think that I was doing something useful for future mine explorers and my work would be there long after I was gone.

I wondered about other work, the Talybont ladder shaft. The dread that at some time in my life when too old to be able to do anything about it, I would hear news of it all falling in.

Well, it wont do it now.

And Cwmystwyth, well, I tell about that when its finished, but if anyone goes in there watch out for the RSJs ready to go in.
Well this is a team effort, and I owe a debt of thanks to my good friends for getting the damn things in.

Roy, its a precious thing that you do, and, I for one am glad that you do, it keeps places open for us to see, Rave on my man!!!!!!!

Jim,
Just to reinforce what Roy posted on electron ladders !
I used one in Greenlaws, half way down a 30ft pitch and the ladder, wire broke on one side!
I managed to go down it and climbed out the hole I was in!
However the snarl of it breaking remains with me still.
In the 1960's it was standard practice to make electron ladders, usually getting them finished off professionally by an engineering firm fitting C links to their ends.
At that stage it was also recommended that at the end of the u/g activity, the ladders should be soaked in lanolin dissolved in an appropriate solvent.
I think that this practice has been abandoned hence the problems with old electron ladders.

As a slight aside....

has anyone considered the use of 41x41 slotted Unistrut for ladder use....

Just curious as I use it almost daily and in its h/d form is pretty robust, galvanised and already has the holes for rungs drilled.. in 3m or 6m lengths


http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/112353937239 

I also frequently dispose of offcuts....

Jim,
Just to reinforce what Roy posted on electron ladders !
I used one in Greenlaws, half way down a 30ft pitch and the ladder, wire broke on one side!
I managed to go down it and climbed out the hole I was in!
However the snarl of it breaking remains with me still.
In the 1960's it was standard practice to make electron ladders, usually getting them finished off professionally by an engineering firm fitting C links to their ends.
At that stage it was also recommended that at the end of the u/g activity, the ladders should be soaked in lanolin dissolved in an appropriate solvent.
I think that this practice has been abandoned hence the problems with old electron ladders.

Thanks John,

I passed on Roy's points to elder brother, not that I think he was planning much usage anyway, but certainly when John was looking after them he maintained them with (obsessive?) care.