We have a Carabiner!

No pictures because I just finished putting the gate on it and I'll probably try for a patent but it's sitting here in front of me. The first ever (to my knowledge) keylock or notchless wire gate! Seeing as how it's made of out plastic I would guess the strength rating is about .1 kN (22.5 lbs) maybe even .05 kN. Also the geometry doesn't match up perfectly so the CAD file will need to be cleaned up and modified. 

The point is: carabiner manufacturers beware! I'm going to rock your world. 

Carabiner, Kalenian Award

I started working on the carabiner last night. I'm going to have Russ do a rapid prototype of it instead of trying to machine it because clamping it down would be rather difficult. It's not done yet but close. 

Why am I doing this? I mean I'm behind in my class work and my research is not going as fast as planned. There are several theories floating around that people have told me about why I'm working on this but I don't know. I just feel like I'm wasting time. Of course I'm having a lot of fun wasting this time and it's very rewarding. I'm learning about manufacturing and business.

Yes, we (I, whatever) are trying for the Kalenian Award. The winner gets $25,000 over 18 months and $5,000 in free legal services (about one patent).