Introduction: Silence Your Spanner
Jangling equipment is a nightmare when trying to be stealthy.
My birdspotting scope and tripod need to have a nut tightened on a regular basis (thanks to a DIY repair by the previous owner, my dad). I keep a shortened spanner clipped to the tripod with a small carabiner just for this purpose.
Unfortunately, it jangles terribly when I move the tripod around, annoying me, scaring away birds and irritating other near-by birders.
This is my quick solution to the problem, which could also be used by the sort of chap who keeps his tools dangling from a belt.
Step 1: Equipment
Very simply, all it needs is a 5g sachet of Sugru, and a knife to open it.
Check the instructions on the packet for correct handling and use of Sugru.
Step 2: Wrapping
Basically, all I did was roll pieces of the Sugru into small sausages, lay them along the carabiner and the spanner, then squidge them into place to wrap all around the carabiner and around the outside edges of the spanner.
Be careful not to obstruct the hinge and catch of the carabiner!
I only used a single 5g sachet, but it probably would have been ideal to use six or seven grammes. I just didn't want to waste most of a sachet.
I used black for reasons of stealth, but if you are quieting tools that you want to find quickly, then the other brighter colours would be fine.
Step 3: Afterword
The day after this finished curing, I went out for two full days' hard birding in North Norfolk.
It worked.
Although the clip and spanner were not ninja-silent, the noise they did make was low enough that I was the only person who could hear them, and then only because I had my tripod over my shoulder, with the legs beside my ear.
I call that a success.
Participated in the
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29 Comments
10 years ago on Introduction
Wait. What?! Kiteman is English??!! How did I miss that? Another victory for us Poms (or semi-Pom in my case). In YOUR face world: we've got Kiteman. (He said, sucking up to an Instructables Great One).
Reply 10 years ago on Introduction
*chortle*
11 years ago on Step 2
what do you think of the dip/spray for tool handles that rubberizes the surface?
Reply 11 years ago on Step 2
I've never tried it, but other people seem to like it.
Reply 11 years ago on Step 2
oh ok, just figured since you can get a spray on version i figured you may have looked at it or tried it once.
Reply 11 years ago on Step 2
Nope, sorry.
Reply 11 years ago on Step 2
oh ok, i'll probably find a use for some eventually
12 years ago on Introduction
Your title reminded me of this XKCD comic:
http://xkcd.com/666/
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
:-)
12 years ago on Introduction
should have just put some tape around it lol joke
12 years ago on Introduction
Nice update on an age old problem, there are many reasons to silence equipment, especially when your a young person who has been transported to a far away land by your friends and neighbors but in those times we used tape. I know several hunters who also tape up anything that might betray them. Ive seen alot about sugru on instructables but as of yet haven't actually seen any or used it
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Thanks!
12 years ago on Introduction
good on ya kiteman! not a birder, but a concept I will definitely employ sugru for! waiting for my first packet in the mail, hooray!!!
12 years ago on Introduction
I hung out with some birders once. Y'all are insane, going out in subzero (Fahrenheit, not Celsius) temperatures and 30mph winds. I'm never doing that again for a photoshoot.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
LOL
Two winters ago, on a beach in Norfolk, watching a Glaucus Gull eating a dead seal, while snow built up on the side of my scope.
Great day.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
You are dedicated in your watching our feathered friends, and by dedicated, I mean the English (ours or yours) cannot describe the mind-blowing level of absolute insanity that birders have.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Just got back from another two days in Norfolk - only 72 species, thanks to 24 hours of thick fog that wasn't on the weather forecast.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
I didn't know there were that many species!!! (I'm using hyperbole)
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
In the UK, avid listers don't even report their lists until they hit 400 species found in the UK.
Reply 12 years ago on Introduction
Fog is awesome, wonderful in photos if everything falls into composition. However if it were well below freezing (or felt that way) and gusting, I'm sure the fog wouldn't stick around long and you'd get to see more of those birds.