Splice Shock Cord to "Rigid" Cable?

[SteelToe]

Has anyone tried splicing shock cord to the common spliceable ropes used for guy-lines & such, as a way to get a flexible, lightweight, but still pretty strong rope assembly? I am working on an idea that involves a strong cable being pulled through a hem-channel easily under load, while a section of elastic at its end works to pull it back taut when unloaded. So long as the exposed end of the exterior of the splice is whipped (which would also serve to lash it onto the shock cord inside) and maybe also some stitching along the length of the splice to keep it from "inch-worming" its way out, it seems like you could get a neat, "smooth" connection between the two materials.

My purpose is a sort of stretch-side device that puts a tension-bearing cable along either side of the hammock body, but which only stretches at its midsection, so things tied to it near the ends won't shift around as the user climbs in or out. But the concept also seems like it could be useful for guy-lines, at least in cases where the shock cord is strong enough to carry the load directly. I know my shock-cord/para-cord guy line assemblies are somewhat tangle-prone because of all the knots on them.

Another idea would be to run a foot or two of elastic down the center of a spliceable cord, stitching/whipping one end of the buried elastic, bunching up 6" or so of sheath over the elastic, then cutting/burying/securing the other end of the elastic inside the rope. When tensioned, the elastic will stretch until the sheath straightens out around it, at which point the sheath carries all the load. When relaxed, the elastic will pull the sheath back into its bunched-up state (maybe, depending on friction). Sort of like a coaxial daisy chain of elastic & webbing. Or rather, how shock-cord works to start with, but with a much, much stronger sheathing braid. Maybe a better idea to simply ask Dutch to have a supplier weave us some slippery shock cord using UHMWPE yarns?

[SilvrSurfr]

You obviously like shock cord a lot more than I do! I have no use for it anywhere - don't like its performance in cold weather.

[Cruiser51]

You mean something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVVpA_AJb5M

Brian

[SteelToe]

You mean something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dVVpA_AJb5M

Brian

Bingo! Well, that's one of the ideas I had, at least. The first was to let the shock cord run past the end of the splice so it could be exposed (mainly so a cord lock could grab it, since cordage is usually too slick for those)

[HandyRandy]

Jeff makes a case for the advantages of an external approach here:
https://youtu.be/RQCqE4HiL40

[SteelToe]

Maybe I missed something, but it sounds like his issue with it is that weak shock cord is being used. If 1/8" cord is crammed into the cordage (by going to larger cord, no doubt) it seems like it'd work fine, but be a little heavier. Maybe splice the thick cord section to a smaller one to complicate things further as a compromise?

Dyneema-sheathed shock cord still seems like a better solution.

My application is simply used to keep the cords from bunching up inside the side channels, so I bet the 1/16" works just fine. I guess I'll have to check it out, since it seems it ia definitely possible to join the two cords this way.

[DrPhun]

You could do something like this using shockcord:
https://hammockforums.net/forum/show...sy-chain/page3

[SteelToe]

That's pretty slick! I think the trick there would be that the 'short/straight' part the loops splice through would need to be elastic, and I don't know if the elastic cords can be internally spliced (I'm guessing no, since they are full of elastic bands)

[DrPhun]

Yeah, I think you could have knot on the end of the elastic, then go inside the Amsteel, go down the middle an inch or two in a bury, exit the Amsteel, then the stretchy part shorter than the Amsteel, the do the same thing again. You would get the full strength of the Amsteel then

[SteelToe]

Okay, so basically like my full-bury idea, but jumping in/out of the Amsteel along its length so as to provide access to loops?

For my application, the "slippery/smooth" exterior is the driver, so a full-bury seems like it'd work better, but that 'daisy chain' scheme would allow you to hook or larkshead/prussik stuff onto the slack Amsteel loops without impeding the ability of the assembly to stretch --I can see that having its uses