DIY ropes _ Question?.

[GuyH]

I hang sections of rope that comes with the kits, with a weight (usually just a spring clamp), wet it, and let it stretch out the kinks from the flat card it came on, and also relieve any twist. I tried using a rope walk and found that the tension on the spindle was critical to making rope. The right tension was very light compared to what I expected.

 

[Signet]

... I watched Olha video and her ropes behave, in my opinion wonderfully, no twisting, twirling or knotting into themselves....

I've tried the small tying of kit-included rope, wrapping multiple times around my finger using Olha's instructions, and marveled at how her rope slides smoothly into place and while tightened, while mine knot and catch and have to be cut off. I think it's witchcraft. It's exactly like when I was a kid, playing Roy Rogers, and couldn't twirl a lasso, while professionals have rope that seems to stay in a circle. :-(

No help for you here, I'm afraid, but Paul and others appear to be leading you down the right path. Even my inexperienced eye felt your rope was way too tightly twisted, although as Paul said, it will look more so with only 2 strands.

 

[Daniel20]

Hello, I'm just seeing this post and I use a vertical rope maker with a weight I tie off at the bottom. After spinning up my rope and tying it off, at the bottom, I always take off the weight and let it drop without the weight while still tied at the top. Any overtwist always spins itself out at this point then remove off the machine and its ready to go.

 

[peter6172]

I used Domanoff's V3 rope walk and found that untensioned polyester thread bobbins made no difference with the twist I was getting from the end product. The individual bobbins were all fed from the same source thread using the same sewing machine to load the bobbins.

I have not put them in the oven yet however I did put the first 10m over the 5 storey balcony with a weight on the end and let the rope dangle for a bit. This seemed to ease the twist and the final rope looked better. Tensioning the bobbins on the machine should produce a similar result in theory. It hasn't completely eliminated the twist but I will try the oven for that.

I have made some cotton based rope putting tension on the bobbins by tightening the securing screws so the bobbins ran against the felts. The rope looked better straight off the reel but the main issue is how does one get the tension even on the three bobbins.

I feel it's all a bit of trial and error until one gets a 'feel' for what works and with what one produces.

 

[peter6172]

This thread brings up some very important questions for novices.

I use 3 strand Polyester Gutermann thread as my base thread for rope.
1. Should this thread be unravelled/untwisted before loading onto the bobbins and then twisting into rope? The fact that I do not could be a reason for the uneven tensions in the rope I am producing.
2. Is using 3 stranded Gutermann thread directly in the bobbins in effect making me create cable rather than rope?
3. Would using multiple single stranded threads on each of three bobbins (eg. using 3 single threads wound onto each bobbin - 3x3) make better quality rope with less twist issues?

 

[ConsNZ]

This thread brings up some very important questions for novices.

I use 3 strand Polyester Gutermann thread as my base thread for rope.
1. Should this thread be unravelled/untwisted before loading onto the bobbins and then twisting into rope? The fact that I do not could be a reason for the uneven tensions in the rope I am producing.
2. Is using 3 stranded Gutermann thread directly in the bobbins in effect making me create cable rather than rope?
3. Would using multiple single stranded threads on each of three bobbins (eg. using 3 single threads wound onto each bobbin - 3x3) make better quality rope with less twist issues?

Well Peter, some good points to question and seek answers for. I've watched the Domanoff videos but in my case the homemade ropewalk is based on the Steef66 design and that used by Olha. Perhaps issues arise regardless what machine is used and it comes down to practice and experiments, ongoing and ongoing.