Nice Neck Lanyard

Garmin has a nice neck lanyard for the Etrex series that works great for an ARC AAA or similar. It is only $4.50 and is flattened cord with a smaller attachement point. Works good!
http://shop.garmin.com/accessory.jsp?sku=013%2D00052%2D00

Nice lanyard, thanks. I've taken -- perhaps out of paranoia, or perhaps good sense -- to only wearing landyards with a break-free point. Wish more lanyard manufacturers would include one

Joe

Ditto Joe;

About 25 years ago I had to cut down one of my troops that had replaced his "dog tag" chain with a piece of paracord, and it got hung up on one of the stakes on a stakebed 5 ton truck when he was jumping off.

Fortunately, I was right behind him and pretty quick with a knife, so he only had minor injuries.

In Jump (parachutist) School our cadre sergeants and jumpmasters were always harping on that sort of stuff, telling horror stories. I always thought they were hype until I actually saw it happen. I've been paranoid ever since then too...

I also agree about the breakaway. I wish more manufacturers would have the quick-release on the lanyards. Is there a homemade breakaway that you can make?

Silviron,

Just how "breakaway" is dog tag chain anyway? It's the only thing I can wear around my neck. But then again, I can't cut chain as quickly with a knife.

Looks pretty much like the ones that B@rt & Tardis are selling?

If I get a chance, I'll do some actual tests... But my GUESS is that most of the average size beaded chain-- "dog tag" chain--- stuff has an actual tensile strength of 10-25 pounds under a "sudden snap" and maybe 35-50 pounds if the tension is - s l o w l y - applied... (its going to vary due to construction more than material because it is just metal beads crimpped over little pieces of wires with "squooshed" ends and it is a matter of how tightly the weakest bead is crimpped rather than the tensile strength of the metal itself.)

So, it should be probably safe for teens and adults, but even it could be dangerous for small children....

There is some kind of neat stuff that they make for beaders (people that string beads for necklaces etc.) I forget what it is called... I'll look it up tomorrow... but it is kind of like monofilament line: clear; but very stretchy (~ 30% elongation), and can be had in like 5 lb.,10lb. & 15lb. test .. That ought to be good for even the kiddies.

Silviron,

My wife makes jewelry and used to use the stretchy stuff you describe. She stopped using it as it seemed to break fairly easily. Two situations were happening......it would get cut very easily if snagged on anything, and it wore through fairly quickly. She was using it for making kids bracelets and some adult necklaces. Her opinion was it just wasn't durable enough for the long haul so she stopped using it.

While I was at the hardware store I noticed different sizes of beaded "dog tag" chain. I saw some really small stuff there and that might have a pretty low tensile strength compared to the normal sized stuff you see used for dog tags. It would also probably be more durable for every day use compared to the stretchy stuff.

mike

The stuff I have is called " *NEW* Stretch Magic Jewelry Cord" and is the 1mm diameter size. I have used it for all sorts of stuff and have never had it break accidentally.

It comes in .5mm and .7mm too.

The thicker stuff is too big a diameter for a lot of bead holes, so most beaders use the thinner stuff, which is obviously more fragile, and I think I remember hearing that the *OLD* stuff did break much more easily than the new formulation.

Silviron,

Yes, you are correct. I got curious and dug through some of her stuff and it is the really thin older stuff. If that thicker stuff stretches anywhere near what the thin stuff did folks wearing 10 gallon hats won't even have to take them off to get it on.
mike

In the interest of science and safety, I did a quick test on 4 things: three sizes of beaded metal chain ("dog tag" chain)and on 1mm "stretch magic":

Not a scientific test by any means, No spring scales or stress gagues etc. Just 4 X four pound weights and my hands .

The black 2mm brass bead chain (that I was selling for a while on my ARC Accessories page, and some of you guys bought) held 16 pounds if you applied the tension slowly, but you could kind of sense that it was near it's capacity with just a static load. A slight upward jerk of the hands broke it easily.

The 2.4mm brass bead chain held the 16 pounds easily, and you could kind of bobble it around a bit without breaking, although a moderate upward jerk of the hands broke it.

The 3.1mm nickel-plated steel bead chain held the 16 pounds easily and you could kind of sling it around pretty well without breaking. I had to jerk the 16 pounds quite hard several times to get it to break.

Although the strength of this stuff was about what I imagined, I was kind of surprised at one thing: I expected the little snap links to be the weak point, but they all held and the chains themselves broke.

The 1mm Stretch Magic stuff held 8 pounds ok, stretched by about 60% in lifting the weight slowly and you could kind of bounce the weight gently, and get up to about 80% stretch. With 12 pounds on it, the line broke before it lifted the weight completely from its support. About 100% stretch at the breaking point. So I guess the 1mm stuff has about a 10 pound static tensile strength, but since it stretches so much it could be more useful for some tasks than metal chain, and vice versa.

Oh, they make 1.5mm Stretch Magic cord too. And all four sizes comes in several different colors.

One kind of neat way I use it is to hang my chuck keys for my flex shaft machine, drill press and lathe. They can dangle close to hand, yet out of the way, stretch to where I need them, and never get lost. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Very nifty test! One place where I worked, a gal wore her badge on a beaded chain. She was at the shredder (here it comes) and it got caught in the shredder teeth. We all heard the noise from across the room and started over to help her. Luckily she had the presence of mind to quickly turn the shredder off. It probably would have eventually broke, but man her eyes lit up!

After that, most of the other people stopped wearing neck lanyards for their badges and went back to the clips.

mike

My wife works in the business end of a psychiatric hospital and was issued a breakaway lanyard for her ID badge. Seems someone figured out that you can get stranged with one if a "patient" were to attack you.

Sounds one company is on the ball