Standard Lewis	Lewis With Rollers

Overview

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Standard Lewis
(#89)

Front	Rear

Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired my Lewis from Al Fincham in 1981.

The Lewis is 104 mm. tall, 570 mm. wide, 40 mm. thick, and weighs 195 g. The shell is made from 1.7 mm. stainless steel formed into a U-shaped channel. The aluminum cam appears to be cast. Mine have excess aluminum filling in some of the teeth. The axle pin is stainless steel and is held in place by a spring wire keeper. All pieces are tied together with a thin cord.

The shell is stamped "LEWIS" on one side.

Comments

The Lewis Ascender is a British device. Although I like the shell, the cam on the Lewis is inferior to the Gibbs cam in both design and execution, and tying a cord through the cam eye only leads to a worn cord in time.

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Lewis With Rollers
(#88)

Front	Rear

End	Open for Rigging

Technical Details

I acquired my Lewis with Roller from Caving Supplies around 1982.

The Lewis with Roller is 118 mm. tall, 75 mm. wide, 41 mm. thick, and weighs 259 g. The frame of this ascender consists of two aluminum side plates bolted to an aluminum block with two machine screws and lock nuts. Plastic rollers arrive on the top and bottom machine screws.

One side plate is stamped "LEWIS."

Comments

These rollers are deeply grooved, and turn freely, so they are superior to the ones on my modified Roller Gibbs. The cam and axle pin are the same as those used on the standard Lewis Ascender.

I like the design of this ascender, but find it to be larger than necessary. Size usually translates into smoother operation, so this is more personal preference than objective criticism.

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