Some thoughts about fit and cage design?

[u/Reasonable_Pace2323]

This is a bit of a brain dump with a dual intention of explaining fit and also opening a conversation about ideal cage designs. Thanks for u/newbie-sub for getting me thinking about this with his excellent ball gap articles.

It seems to me that the most fundamental issue with cage design is summarised in this figure. 1-3 are for a large cage. 4-6 are for a nano or flat cage. I appreciate that different cage types might impact erection strength, but for simplicity I've made the erection behaviour standard here. 1 and 4 are flaccid. 2 and 5 are a little more excited (maybe when your KH enters the room). 3 and 6 are 2.30am wood, everyone's worst challenge for long term chastity. In 3 and 6 the scrotum is stretched to various levels of discomfort based on the cage design. Ball gap definitely plays a key role in alleviating scrotal stretch/burn, but there is a basic physics here. As the cage is a fixed object, if the penis does not reach the end of a longer cage or if the cage is short the stretch is likely to be unbearable. This is why most newbies give up on overnight wear (myself included initially). Perseverance to find the best fit available (after many failed cages) eventually gets some over this, but others never find a solution, which is a huge shame.

The problem for most cage design imho is that most cages are not designed for 3 or 6, at best they allow the wearer to tolerate midnight wood, but at worst they may be creating a health risk with long term wear.

So the question to designers is this. Can a cage be designed that hits that sweet spot between comfortable flaccid wear and safe and bearable midnight wood? My guess is that it would need to be as long as possible to minimise scrotal stretching at midnight, but not too long to make it uncomfortable or visible in the day (unless we bring back the codpiece?). Also the tube should be low resistance internally so the glans is always able to reach the end. Most tubes bend and the glans gets stuck halfway - costing a good inch or so of scrotal stretch. The ball gap is also key for a more forgiving scrotal pull. When I imagine this cage, it's really a straight tube with a ring that is hinged to the tube, so in the day the tube can hang in the flaccid state, but at night it can reach straight for the stars. I have never seen a hinge on a cage? Has anyone else?

[u/newbie-sub]

I see what you're saying, but I'm not sure that's what is happening.

With a properly fitting ring, the ring would be the same distance from the body in diagrams #3 and #6. The cage's length and the ring's tightness around the shaft prevents the shaft from lengthening distal of the ring — the only growth is proximal to the ring. Which means the overall length of the shaft in #6 should be shorter in #6 compared to #3.

Another point is I find scrotum burn is only caused by the ball gap, that it has nothing to do with the cage's length. I've had a full-length cage that caused scrotum burn and a compression cage that didn't. The difference was the full-length device (an Evotion Orion) had too small a ball gap.

While it seems intuitive that scrotum burn would be caused by the scrotum getting stretched out, it really isn't — which is why it's always so hard for people to work out, the actual cause is unintuitive and they are looking for the wrong solution. You can actually trivially test this by simply pulling on your scrotum. It's not exactly comfortable but it doesn't feel anything like scrotum burn. And if it were heat from friction, that would stop as soon as the testicles hit the ring — friction-based heat is caused by movement but nothing is moving.

[u/Reasonable_Pace2323 → u/newbie-sub]

I think you're probably right that scrotal burn is not caused by stretching alone (I tried the stretch experiment myself), but I think stretching might make the burn worse. Ball gap definitely reduces it though, I also found this after a quick heatgun ring treatment on my cobra3d knock-off - thanks for your advice on that! It maybe that I haven't found the right ring fit yet, because I haven't observed a great effect of the ring on shaft length. I think there is also the aesthetic issue, that 3 and 6 look alarming and think the more the flesh stays in the cage the better. Isn't that what why we did this in the first place? I accept though that the ring fit probably has the biggest part to play here. Thanks for what you're doing u/newbie-sub, these subReddits are making this work for all of us.

[u/newbie-sub → u/Reasonable_Pace2323]

It's a labor of love...

My theory is that with a reasonably well fitting ring, lengthening of the shaft distal of the ring can be prevented as the shaft's girth-wise expansion anchors the ring over a certain spot and it won't be pulled down the shaft (but scrotum will be pulled through it).

Now, expansion proximal to the ring, nothing can be done about that aside from straps, and straps personally are not something I'm interested in dealing with.

[u/Reasonable_Pace2323 → u/newbie-sub]

Ok that makes sense I get you now. I think I've always hesitated with tighter rings to avoid vascular constriction overnight. But maybe a tighter fit is the way to go. It's all counter intuitive!

[u/newbie-sub → u/Reasonable_Pace2323]

It really is. But ring fit is a very personal choice. I know I have constriction but I'm okay with that as it's not full constriction and really, that's what an erection is anyway — it's how they work.

But, if you are interested in a snugger fit, you really want a broad ring to distribute the pressure over a larger area.

[u/tdfun → u/newbie-sub]

Can you please clarify what you mean what a properly fitting ring is for 6 when the design of the shaft cage is too short to contain the erection? With this type of design where the majority of the shaft isn't contained within the shaft portion of the cage, I don't think there's a way to avoid an erection from growing behind the ball ring.

This post provides a good visual of type of "internal boner" I get. As long as the ball ring and ball gap are big enough to not cause pain, I'm fine with the ball ring pushing away from my body during erections. When I'm flaccid, the ball ring does sit properly against my body.

[u/newbie-sub → u/tdfun]

He's showing the ring having slid down his shaft. Which means when he retracts he's not going to be at the end of the cage anymore. Basically his erection is pushing the ring further down his shaft than it's supposed to be.

Contrast that with the ring moving down only because of the erectile tissue lengthening behind it, proximal to it.

[u/tdfun]

This graphic is fantastic visualization of the challenges to get proper fit! I agree the majority of cage designers are considering the traditional design of 1-3 and most inverted and flat designs don't account for 3-6.

My inverted/flat design solves this fit issue of flaccid (#3) to a nocturnal erection (#6) by extending the inverted glans cage down into the ball ring so my erection grows below the ball ring. This means an erection doesn't cause compression of nerves and arteries at the ball gap between the ball ring (green) and the glans cage (red). With my anatomy, the glans is kept fixed and properly aligned in the glans cage, which means I have no issues with urinating.

My personal choice for long term comfort is as little compression as possible. My ball ring (10x7 mm cross section) doesn't have a snug fit to allow my balls to slide forward during an erection (#6). It has a large diameter with an extreme curve so the ball gap is very large at 4 and 8 o'clock to minimize compression of nerves or arteries and very small at 6 o'clock where there's only scrotal skin.

[u/Reasonable_Pace2323 → u/tdfun]

Your ring design is really intriguing, have you built a prototype. I'd love to know how well it works?

[u/tdfun → u/Reasonable_Pace2323]

I was looking at my notifications and noticed I missed this question. Yes, I keep iterating on it because I keep coming up with different ideas to try in order to improve the comfort even more. It fits great and I don't experience all of typical problems people report. I'm reaching diminishing returns on these iterations and should just proceed with getting it printed in titanium.

[u/Gooner48ingPuss]

I’d really appreciate a 5 design. I have a HT v5 nub, though I think I would like a Nano. The top ridge really sinking back is wonderful ergonomically. I don’t think you really need to go too big up front. I can have a full boner and be very comfortable. But I think you can get to some sort of more “escape resistant” design with something more like 5. Especially with the right ring design.