I just built a couple of Marion Poff designed Guyot bail hangers and thought I would share a couple of things to help you out of you are thinking of making your own. First and foremost the credit goes to the aforementioned fella in the design which I think is a fine one at that hence the reason it is the one that I chose for my gear. I thought I would post a few things that I considered to be helpful in putting it together.
The galvanized wire that I used is the 1/16 like in the original design and runs about 23 cents per foot.
You can usually find (especially at Ace Hardware) a package of Cable Clamps and Stops that comes with two of each which is enough to do one bottle for about 1.70 per package. The cable clamps are the one with two holes in it to make the loop and the stops are the single hole item to create the stop portion.
You can use a decent pair of diagonal wire cutters or something similar to make the crimp and cut the wire and is something that most of us have around the house. They do make a special crimping tool but it is unnecessary for the 1/16 crimps. WHEN YOU DO CRIMP WITH THIS PARTICULAR TOOL CRIMP THE SAME LINE FROM BOTH SIDES AS THE ANGLE OF THE CUTTER MOUTH WHEN OPEN WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO FULLY COMPRESS BOTH SIDES AT THE SAME TIME. I also find it to be more secure to crimp two lines on the cable clamps (one towards each end) and one dead center on the stops.
When trying do decide on how much cable to cut and start with consider this..If you cut a piece that is 37 inches long once put together and secured around the bottle in the hanging position (empty bottle) that will give you about 12 inches from the rim of the uncapped bottle to the top of the bail hanger. If you want yours shorter or longer then that just deduct or add accordingly.
I won't go into detail explaining how to put it all together as I think the other posts explain that quite well, as you are simply looping the wire around itself on both free ends to create a secondary loop. I will however give you a few things that helped along the way in actually putting it together.
When you are trying to figure out how large to make the loops on each end so that the stop can just make it through (when you want to remove or place it back on your bottle) just keep in mind that once you compress the stop with your pliers or crimper you will make it oblong similar to the shape of the loop making it easier to pass through; so if it is just a little difficult to pass it through before it is crimped then once crimped it should be about perfect.
I found it easiest to figure out where I wanted to place my stops by actually building both closed loops on the bail WITH THE STOPS ALREADY ON THE WIRE BUT LOOSE AT THIS TIME then placing the hanger loop around the bottle and playing around with how tight I wanted it around the neck trying to find a balance of security and easy removal. Once I liked where the stop was I then marked the wire with a pointy sharpy marker then removed the bail assembly from the bottle, put the stop back in position and crimped it. Trying to crimp while around the neck of the bottle can prove to be a little cumbersome. Once I had the first stop crimped in place I put the hanger loop around the bottle again and played with the second stop position which will allow you to fine tune the whole setup. Remember you only need enough slack to remove one side at a time. In other words when your are trying to manipulate the bail in order to remove it from your bottle you are able to pull the entire bottle hanger portion around the neck to one side to be able to slide the stop through the loop in order to get the slack to remove it from your bottle. All in all I found you can slide the stops in quite a bit and have it fairly tight around the bottle neck and still be able to get it off with a little finger work.
This system that Marion came up with is super cool and I think it will be quite durable. When you don't want it on your bottle you can coil the bail up (it has a natural tendancy for this anyway) and nest it in your GSI cup beneath it or stow it away in your pack.
Hopefully this helps a few of you in construction of your pimped out Guyot.
The galvanized wire that I used is the 1/16 like in the original design and runs about 23 cents per foot.
You can usually find (especially at Ace Hardware) a package of Cable Clamps and Stops that comes with two of each which is enough to do one bottle for about 1.70 per package. The cable clamps are the one with two holes in it to make the loop and the stops are the single hole item to create the stop portion.
You can use a decent pair of diagonal wire cutters or something similar to make the crimp and cut the wire and is something that most of us have around the house. They do make a special crimping tool but it is unnecessary for the 1/16 crimps. WHEN YOU DO CRIMP WITH THIS PARTICULAR TOOL CRIMP THE SAME LINE FROM BOTH SIDES AS THE ANGLE OF THE CUTTER MOUTH WHEN OPEN WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO FULLY COMPRESS BOTH SIDES AT THE SAME TIME. I also find it to be more secure to crimp two lines on the cable clamps (one towards each end) and one dead center on the stops.
When trying do decide on how much cable to cut and start with consider this..If you cut a piece that is 37 inches long once put together and secured around the bottle in the hanging position (empty bottle) that will give you about 12 inches from the rim of the uncapped bottle to the top of the bail hanger. If you want yours shorter or longer then that just deduct or add accordingly.
I won't go into detail explaining how to put it all together as I think the other posts explain that quite well, as you are simply looping the wire around itself on both free ends to create a secondary loop. I will however give you a few things that helped along the way in actually putting it together.
When you are trying to figure out how large to make the loops on each end so that the stop can just make it through (when you want to remove or place it back on your bottle) just keep in mind that once you compress the stop with your pliers or crimper you will make it oblong similar to the shape of the loop making it easier to pass through; so if it is just a little difficult to pass it through before it is crimped then once crimped it should be about perfect.
I found it easiest to figure out where I wanted to place my stops by actually building both closed loops on the bail WITH THE STOPS ALREADY ON THE WIRE BUT LOOSE AT THIS TIME then placing the hanger loop around the bottle and playing around with how tight I wanted it around the neck trying to find a balance of security and easy removal. Once I liked where the stop was I then marked the wire with a pointy sharpy marker then removed the bail assembly from the bottle, put the stop back in position and crimped it. Trying to crimp while around the neck of the bottle can prove to be a little cumbersome. Once I had the first stop crimped in place I put the hanger loop around the bottle again and played with the second stop position which will allow you to fine tune the whole setup. Remember you only need enough slack to remove one side at a time. In other words when your are trying to manipulate the bail in order to remove it from your bottle you are able to pull the entire bottle hanger portion around the neck to one side to be able to slide the stop through the loop in order to get the slack to remove it from your bottle. All in all I found you can slide the stops in quite a bit and have it fairly tight around the bottle neck and still be able to get it off with a little finger work.
This system that Marion came up with is super cool and I think it will be quite durable. When you don't want it on your bottle you can coil the bail up (it has a natural tendancy for this anyway) and nest it in your GSI cup beneath it or stow it away in your pack.
Hopefully this helps a few of you in construction of your pimped out Guyot.
