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Custom Molded Steps for Climbing and ROS

I was surprised that in the “Calling all Ameristeps users” thread, no-one came up with a 3D printer Ameristep clone. If I had access to a printer, that is the design I would copy.
 
Well guys I did some testing Friday, and it actually perform pretty well. Here are my take aways:

1) The step really didn't pull away from the tree as I expected, but it did rotate a but which I didn't care for. Would the ameristep design eliminate this?

2) The step we made was at a straight 90 degrees. We will need to make it at 95 degrees.

3) The size was perfect. I loved the extra space for my feet. I had a a bullman step on the same step and it was night and day difference.

4) I haven't try the swaider and knaider technique yet, so unsure how well it supports that climbing up a tree.

5) Last, I did end up breaking the step. I broke it only when I jumped up and down on the step with my whole weight trying to break it on purpose I weigh 180 lb so I didn't think my way it was a good test for the stuff we're broke is right where we expected. We plan on adding a gusset there and making more material there.

More to come from V2. We expect to have some by the end of this week!

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I think you want your weight to be applied close to where the step would pivot in contact with the tree, and the strap further away from it. This makes it so that small motions of the foot portion require large motions of the strap portion, so the foot moves less.
 
CZMark said:
I was surprised that in the “Calling all Ameristeps users” thread, no-one came up with a 3D printer Ameristep clone. If I had access to a printer, that is the design I would copy.
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I looked into it. Slow and expensive.
 
CZMark said:
I was surprised that in the “Calling all Ameristeps users” thread, no-one came up with a 3D printer Ameristep clone. If I had access to a printer, that is the design I would copy.
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I have looked into it. There are a lot of strength limitations with 3D printed parts. The technology is improving constantly though so it could be possible. Maybe someone knows more than me.
 
redsquirrel said:
I have looked into it. There are a lot of strength limitations with 3D printed parts. The technology is improving constantly though so it could be possible. Maybe someone knows more than me.
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Your exactly right. That's why we went down the route of printing our design and silicone molding it.

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Hey guys! Not a huge update for this week, but I do have some teaser pictures for you all. We weren't able to get the physical step molded and in our hands, but we were able to get the design wrapped up and a FEA analysis completed! The load applied where the arrows are at is 500 lbs. Hopefully early next week we will have some steps to test out!!
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Ok guys did some testing tonight. I was very impressed with this new version. My favorite thing about it was the spikes on the side that faces the tree. They dug into the tree, and helped keep the step from rotating. We may scale it down a bit though and start making some more!

Ps I couldn't even brake this sucker, even though it was 3D printer!
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What it the measurements? What's you closest guess on a price on something like that?
 
My bad about the measurement, look back in thread and seen them. Looks cool!
 
Seeing the size of the step and how close the strap was to the step I was going to say you are going to have a hard time getting it tight enough. Then I see your ratchet. Shouldn’t be a problem. What size strap is that? That is definitely a good looking step.
 
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JASmith said:
What it the measurements? What's you closest guess on a price on something like that?
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Haha I figured somebody would ask what the measurements were. Let me know if you need some more clear pictures of the measurements. Right now I have no clue what the price would be. We may be willing to send the design out though if anybody wanted to 3D print their own steps.

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EricS said:
Seeing the size of the step and how close the strap was to the step I was going to say you are going to have a hard time getting it tight enough. Then I see your ratchet. Shouldn’t be a problem. What size strap is that? That is definitely a good looking step.
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Yeah, I don't have one of those COD buckles. So I'm not really sure how tight it needs to get without a ratchet strap. I can try a strap like a lone wolf versa strap though to see how that compares to the ratchet strap. Also thank you, we appreciate the thanks!

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Hey guys need a little guidance. My buddy and I were talking about what if we decided to start selling these steps. Should we go through some sort of certification, or just sell them to people on here and say "Use at your own risk." Just not sure how we would/should proceed. We started with the intention to just make some steps for ourselves, but have heard from multiple other people that they are interested.

We still have some tweaking to do till we nail down our proposed finish product, but just something we're curious about. We just want to understand what hoops we would need to jump through to bring this to the market. I couldn't find anything by the guys selling squirrel steps about the certification they have done, if they have done any.

Thanks again everyone for the constructive feedback! Excited to help the saddle community!!

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Aksisu11 said:
Hey guys need a little guidance. My buddy and I were talking about what if we decided to start selling these steps. Should we go through some sort of certification, or just sell them to people on here and say "Use at your own risk." Just not sure how we would/should proceed. We started with the intention to just make some steps for ourselves, but have heard from multiple other people that they are interested.

We still have some tweaking to do till we nail down our proposed finish product, but just something we're curious about. We just want to understand what hoops we would need to jump through to bring this to the market. I couldn't find anything by the guys selling squirrel steps about the certification they have done, if they have done any.

Thanks again everyone for the constructive feedback! Excited to help the saddle community!!

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I would talk to a lawyer if you have one to be sure you’re on the up and up


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SwingingGator said:
I would talk to a lawyer if you have one to be sure you’re on the up and up


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yeah I agree with that. You have people using these 15+ feet in the air. If someone dies and you don't have any way to back it up, you'd be screwed
 
Aksisu11 said:
Hey guys need a little guidance. My buddy and I were talking about what if we decided to start selling these steps. Should we go through some sort of certification, or just sell them to people on here and say "Use at your own risk." Just not sure how we would/should proceed. We started with the intention to just make some steps for ourselves, but have heard from multiple other people that they are interested.

We still have some tweaking to do till we nail down our proposed finish product, but just something we're curious about. We just want to understand what hoops we would need to jump through to bring this to the market. I couldn't find anything by the guys selling squirrel steps about the certification they have done, if they have done any.

Thanks again everyone for the constructive feedback! Excited to help the saddle community!!

Sent from my Pixel 2 using Tapatalk
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First thing you need to do is setup an LLC. Someone is going to ruin it for those of us just trying to help out the community. Better to lose the business in a lawsuit than get sued personally. I'm still working on getting insurance, terms and conditions, etc. For testing, I'm doing my own destructive testing to make sure I'm comfortable selling them to others. To get into certification, etc., its going to really start driving the price up. Gonna keep researching as I go. Check with Tethrd to see what they had to go through - that's a different story altogether though since the saddle is your life support system. If that fails, goodbye. For SquirrelSteps and DoubleSteps, these are to be used while you are tethered in or connected to the tree. Good luck with your endeavor!
 
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