Hi Dafish,

It is possible to splice 3.5mm Dyneema. I bought a set of fids from Whitworths (~ $130) which has a small fid which although is slightly too big can be used with a little patience to good results. I managed to splice a short pigtail with a loop at both ends with a little persistence and patience. I was very pleased with myself

DM

Here is a pic of an end I spliced for use as a replacement leader line. Look Mum, no stitching

Credit to Rumblefish for the Splicing lessons! We now can splice any Dyneema into any line we need for customizing and improving stuff.

Thanks for that...too bad I don't need half the fids in the kit.. Eighty odd bucks for one or two fids is steep, but really I can't see any other way to do loops. If I had a sailboat I am sure the others would come in handy, but I can't see myself doing that any time soon.
There was a good video posted here a while back of somebody using a fid to make the loop, it was very informative.
Thanks for the company that sells them!

There was a post about a year ago which had a link to a paragliding website (I think) that had small plastic and steel fids for about $6.... I can't seem to find it now though.

I made my own fid from a biro which was painfull but ended up doing the trick.

Brien said...

Sorry about the $130 Darren.

Hey Brien,

No need to be mate, I splice regularly using 3.5mm and 5mm Dyneema as well as other stuff around the place. The Fids are just tools of the trade for me and they help me get a good neat job with less fuss.

I've also used a modified biro on the 5mm stuff before I had the fids, it did a good job but was hard work and took ages.

No need to spend the money on fids if you don't use them regularly. For one off's, a wire or biro or straw or whatever will do nicely.

Cheers,

DM

All great advice guys, thanks for that. Now, on to the job of keeping this Rev2 flying at least for one more season!
Cheers all!

A telescopic car ariel pulled apart will give you 5 different sized fids and don't bother cutting the top at an angle as the rolled in edge that is on one end slides up the dyneema like a bought one
I also jam the end of the dyneema in the back of the tube with the solid top piece of the ariel to feed it through