Front View: Closed

Top View

Open for Rigging

Technical Details

Geary Schindel gave me this box at the 2023 NSS Convention.

This box is 75 mm. wide, 145 mm. high, 75 mm. thick, and weighs 414 g. It is a double channel chest box consisting of a 6.7 mm. aluminum back plate, a 3.2 mm. extruded aluminum box channel, a 16 mm. horizontal roller mounted on a 5/16-18 x 3-–1/2" UNC bolt, and four 9.75 mm. vertical side rollers, each mounted on a 1/4-20 x 2"UNC bolt. The vertical roller bolts extend past the back of the box channel into holes in the back plate. Two 1/4-20 x 2-3/4" UNC bolts with wing nuts hold the channel against the back plate. The back plate has 49 mm. tall vertical slots for attaching the box to a chest harness.

There are no markings on the box beyond those on the bolt heads.

Comments

Geary made boxes like this one as an alternative to the BlueWater box. Like the BlueWater, this box opens by unscrewing two wing nuts, which allows the channel to move away from the back plate, making room for the rope or sling to escape. I find this to be rather cumbersome. The bolt heads on the back of the box tend to dig into one’s chest, but since the box is pulled away from the chest while on rope, the pain not as bad as one might expect.

Geary's design improves on the BlueWater box in two ways. First, the side rollers keep the rope and sling away from the sides of the channel where the edges could cause excessive wear. Second, extending the roller bolts into the rear plate, helps keep the channel box from rotating on the back plate.

Geary did not split the horizontal roller. Since the loaded sling and rope move in opposite directions, at least one of them must slide rather than turn the roller.

Geary used heavier plates than the BlueWater box. Along with the extra weight of the four additional rollers, this makes his box one of the heavier chest boxes, even weighing more than the Gossett Blocks.