DIY River Crampon Boots

[Dalton Terrell]

Took this inspiration

And this equipment

To end up with this:

Not as elegant as the Patagonia counterparts but they may work, will report back after a few wears.

Dalton

[GSFeder]

Dalton -- 

Nice.  I'm interested to hear how they work. I'd be concerned that you're only walking on the screws and not the bars unless you countersink the screws.  Not that screws are bad traction -- that's what I added to my felt bottom boots. 

Cheers, 

-- Greg

Sent from my iPhone

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[Dalton Terrell]

I am a little worried about that. If the screws sticking out negatively affect the traction, I may try to countersink the plates using just the tip of a large drill bit and some different screws that will recess.

Dalton

On Thursday, July 19, 2012 1:38:17 PM UTC-4, GS Feder wrote:

Dalton -- 

Nice.  I'm interested to hear how they work. I'd be concerned that you're only walking on the screws and not the bars unless you countersink the screws.  Not that screws are bad traction -- that's what I added to my felt bottom boots. 

Cheers, 

-- Greg

Sent from my iPhone

On Jul 18, 2012, at 9:26 PM, Dalton Terrell <daltonb...@gmail.com> wrote:

Took this inspiration

And this equipment

To end up with this:

Not as elegant as the Patagonia counterparts but they may work, will report back after a few wears.

Dalton

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[Dalton Terrell]

Well, it's evident I'm not Yvon Terrell:

After a single morning of fishing, most of the screws pulled out and I lost most of the plates. Traction was frankly amazing, leagues above felt or studded rubber on wet, dry, or slimy rock. So I decided to head back to the drawing board and buy a countersink and another plate of aluminum:

Now I have about double the number of screws, which are 1/8th inch longer and countersunk. If they don't stay in now, it might be time to pony up for the real deal.

[Nick Swingle]

Dalton,

I'm intrigued by your DIY effort and may try to emulate it depending on how the countersink versions fare.  Do you (or anyone else here) have any experience w/ the Simms Alumbite cleat? They cost significantly less than the Yvon specials, so much so that effectiveness comes into question.

--Nick

[Dalton Terrell]

Nick,

No experience with the Simms cleats, but those look interesting. I'm guessing Richie has used them or has customers with feedback. If you already have a drill, those are about the same price as buying a new saw blade, drill bit, countersink, screws and 3 ft of 1" x 1/8" aluminum bar. 

I was giving this a try before replacing my well worn boots with rubber soles that have become less than sticky and I don't think the upper has enough life left to warrant a resole.

Dalton

[Aaron O]

You guys now have me thinking about converting an a pair of old waders I have that have the rubber booties built in.   I have not used them at all due to concerns with tracion but if Dalton's version 2.0 works, I may give it a try.  I'm only concerned that the bootie soles may be too shallow to screw into.  I will have to look into it.

 

 

[namfos]

I think maybe you should seat each screw in some epoxy in the sole of the boot and let it cure thoroughly with the next iteration.

On Sunday, August 12, 2012 6:41:12 PM UTC-4, Dalton Terrell wrote:

[Dalton Terrell]

Another update: I had the boots out on the upper Potomac Saturday and Sunday, all 10 of the plates are still in the soles. The addition of more/recessed screws seemed to drastically help. Surprisingly, the traction was not as good as with the sheet metal screws sticking out, I may add some more screws to see if this helps.

Another modification that may be worth making would be to recess the actual plates into the sole slightly. I don't know how well this would work, but maybe a dremel to cut the tread where the plates sit would prevent grass/fly line/etc. from getting stuck between the plates and sole. Don't own a dremel, so I think these are going to be left as is for now.

Dalton

[Carl Zmola]

Dalton,

I've been following this thread with anticipation.

I have been trying to use sheet metal screws without a crampon as studs
in my boots. The sheet metal screws add a lot of traction, but they
just don't hold in the tread.

If you can thread your crampon, you could add bolts to the crampon but
still have the heads of the sheet metal screws recessed. That might help.

I'm beginning to think the cost of a new pair of studded wading boots is
not that big a deal.

Carl

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