What seems to work for me in metal, and worked on my plastic devices, some of which I modified, is a large ring with a minimum gap between the cage and base ring. For me, it allows night time width expansion, without my balls escaping during the day. It took a while for everything to adapt to the snug gap, but I haven't had a wayward nut, or had to miss days due to damaged skin. Short cage. 5" ring, minimal gap. What's your personal setup? Small ring, large gap? In between? What works for you?
I’m very similar. 50mm base ring, short cage and a pretty small gap. I don’t get any burn that I would otherwise get from a tighter base ring. Yes it does travel away from my body with an erection but to me that’s no big deal.
Had trouble with that myself. 35mm ring cage tight snug smaller steel. Held snug but hinge on ring would rub. 40mm steel much more forgiving but balls slipped through gap. Ground pins slightly and added body weight to close gap some. Conclusion, scary comfortable cage three days now.
5cm long cage... 45mm ergonomic ring... stainless steel.. small gap... it’s fine... no burn (I only ever had that with circular rings...).... stealth lock, no pinching... again... only problem is the pulling everything up in the middle of night... oh and the stealth lock could sit better, occasionally feel the sharp corner of the flat sticky out top of the brass lock when I’m at the wrong angle... it sits great, while driving you can forget it’s there... it’s small enough not to be noticed through clothing... pretty good really... day 23 and still ok... (I had one day in a small really uncomfortable cage which didn’t last 24 hours, therefore I don’t count - comfy cage put straight back on after the bad one was off - therefore 23 straight days in the good one!!
The shorter I went, the more comfortable it became, I'm on a 50 mm A-ring non-ergonamical. On longer cages I was able to use a 45mm A-ring, but if your compressed more I needed a more roomy A-ring. I've tried once to escaped to see if it was possible with my custom cage and was able too escape, but I really had to squeeze my balls and was uncomfortable and very close to being painfull to attempt to get everything through the gap between the cage and a-ring, so I didn't try it again. I might contact steelworxx again the future just to get me a 45mm A-ring, escaping this smaller remaining gap would be impossible. Full specs on my custom steelworxx cage Total length 45mm (gap between cage and ring 12mm - which is standard with steelworxx) Cage diameter 35mm A-ring diameter 50mm Also got an optional urethraplug which can be screwed on and is about 55 mm in length so it goes about 10mm past the A-ring