Make your rope on a rope walk

[OlivierF]

Is it possible to make rope nice and tight like this and have it softer. This is like annealed copper wire. I may have trouble getting it to look natural.

Nice looking cable Don. I experienced the same stiffness when using synthetic thread so I switched to cotton thread. Cotton seems to be much more pliable. My go-to thread is DMC Cordonnet and I get it here. https://hhtatting.com/product-category/threads/dmc/

 

[Dubz Modelling World]

To get the synthetic thread cable more soft just put it in an oven for 5 minutes at 170 degree Celsius.

cheers

Dirk

 

[Steef66]

To get the synthetic thread cable more soft just put it in an oven for 5 minutes at 170 degree Celsius.

cheers

Dirk

I agree with Dirk, after baking the rope it's much more soft.
here you can read how I do it

Make your rope on a rope walk

I did a lot of research on how to make rope on a rope walk and build my own rope walk. I love to share my experience with you. The quality of the rope delivered in your kit is not always of high quality. Fluffy, badly made so that you can better use it to tie up your old paper than to rig your...

shipsofscale.com

almost the same way. Also take in mind, I believe it was an advice of Dirk. 5 min for thick rope but thinner less time.

Edit: It was BenD who mentioned it.

Make your rope on a rope walk

Hello Stephan, Not sure what your source thread budget is...but I was using Gutermann E151 (and E121) for my ropes. Finding that in the US was difficult so I had a Polish builder (Matt) purchase some and send it to me when he traveled once to the US. I bet you can find it in Europe. A forum...

shipsofscale.com

 

[Don Case]

I cook all my rope. This one was actually cooked twice. Once when it was just rope and again when it became cable. I think it's twisted too tight but I can't get that nice crisp look unless I twist it that tight. Unfortunately since a lot of us made our own ropewalks the word "tight" is hard to define. I only use one motor unless I'm twisting very small stuff, like 3x1 tex 10. When you just have a single motor you are relying on low friction to determine when it starts twisting so I think that's a big factor in my stiff rope.

 

[OlivierF]

I cook all my rope. This one was actually cooked twice. Once when it was just rope and again when it became cable. I think it's twisted too tight but I can't get that nice crisp look unless I twist it that tight. Unfortunately since a lot of us made our own ropewalks the word "tight" is hard to define. I only use one motor unless I'm twisting very small stuff, like 3x1 tex 10. When you just have a single motor you are relying on low friction to determine when it starts twisting so I think that's a big factor in my stiff rope.

I also made a rope walk using a single motor and relying on the weighted side to spin when friction builds up. I use a size 0 fishing swivel (Amazon) that has very low friction so it even works on small stuff.
If interested here’s a link to a short video of my ropewalk in use. (YouTube)

 

[Don Case]

I tried a ball bearing fishing swivel and it was pretty good but the best I've found so far is a 6" length of light switch chain. Key chain, you know, that stuff with the little snap on connector.
This stuff. It worked really well. More might even be better.

 

[Uwek]

A very interesting and informative topic

 

[Steef66]

 

[lakedaisy]

Thank you Steelf66.
HERE is the gearbox if anyone is interested.

 

[Y.T.]

To me the Domanoff's rope making tool is good enough and serves all my purposes. Horizontal rope making tools look too complicated (and expensive) for me.

Rope making machine. VR. Vertical type. | ShipWorkshop.com

Simplest, fastest, easiest, compact, no skills needed, instant results. It is a small but powerful tool for making professional ropes for your model. (Check this video on YouTube for how it works. Turn on subtitles.) The VR Rope making machine, ropewalk, is intended for making professional ropes...

www.shipworkshop.com

 

[dockattner]

To me the Domanoff's rope making tool is good enough and serves all my purposes. Horizontal rope making tools look too complicated (and expensive) for me.

Rope making machine. VR. Vertical type. | ShipWorkshop.com

Simplest, fastest, easiest, compact, no skills needed, instant results. It is a small but powerful tool for making professional ropes for your model. (Check this video on YouTube for how it works. Turn on subtitles.) The VR Rope making machine, ropewalk, is intended for making professional ropes...

www.shipworkshop.com

This is the exact tool I used for the rigging of the Vasa. The only problem was I could only make 6-7 feet of rope at a time...

 

[Steef66]

To me the Domanoff's rope making tool is good enough and serves all my purposes. Horizontal rope making tools look too complicated (and expensive) for me.

Rope making machine. VR. Vertical type. | ShipWorkshop.com

Simplest, fastest, easiest, compact, no skills needed, instant results. It is a small but powerful tool for making professional ropes for your model. (Check this video on YouTube for how it works. Turn on subtitles.) The VR Rope making machine, ropewalk, is intended for making professional ropes...

www.shipworkshop.com

That's a lot of money for a vertical ropewalk. The machine Ohla use which that I build from mdf on the first page is build for under the 100 euro. I build the vertical for around the 30 euro. Expensive? I don't think so. In Amsterdam when there is at 28 of the next month the show like last year, we show this machine, which is now build by 4 people just for around 90 euro.

And with a horizontal machine you can make rope as long as your room is. Up to 10/15 meter.

 

[Y.T.]

This is the exact tool I used for the rigging of the Vasa. The only problem was I could only make 6-7 feet of rope at a time...

This length is all I ever needed so far. As to how expensive it was - not important for me. Much cheaper and working so much more straight forward compared to horizontal rope walk tool.

 

[AntonAtanasov1]

Hello, I'm relatively new to this wonderful hobby and I'm still learning and have a lot of questions. I can find answers to some myself, but I can't to others. One of them is given on ropes made of polyester Gütermann Е121 thread I put beeswax on ropes made?
Аnd my other question is why a rope made of polyester has elasticity and when I pull it it stretches a little... what did I not do right or is it so?
The rope is 0.60mm - created from 3x4 Gütermann Е121
Thanks in advance for your time

 

[Loracs]

@AntonAtanasov1, I'm making all my ropes with Gutterman Mara thread. I never beeswax them. I don't think you should.

I made ropes from 0.25mm up to 2.2mm, and all of them will stretches a little. As you mentioned, ever so slightly for short runs, a little more for longer. Roughly, 1cm for a 40-50cm length. The thread by itself is not elastic at all. However, after weaving it will "unwind" a little if you pull on it. I bake all my ropes... but still a little unwinding when under tension. I just learn to account for it while rigging.

 

[Fish&Chip]

If I can put a grain of my salt (is it english ?). You have the streching ability from the microstructure and the macrostructure. For the microstructure, the chemical composition affect the streching force in one internal level, per exemple if you encounter hydrogen bonding between fibers. On the macrostructure, it play on another level. So, the quality of the surface will play on the friction force that influence the shearing between fibres from one thread and another one. Cotton surface is more amorphous, so more contact by friction force is allowed and polyester is more uniform and may be proponed to shear between threads when force is use by pulling the two ends of the total rope composed of multiple thread.

Yeah, anough verbiage for me, I hope my english is good enough to be understand.

 

[BenD]

Hello, I'm relatively new to this wonderful hobby and I'm still learning and have a lot of questions. I can find answers to some myself, but I can't to others. One of them is given on ropes made of polyester Gütermann Е121 thread I put beeswax on ropes made?
Аnd my other question is why a rope made of polyester has elasticity and when I pull it it stretches a little... what did I not do right or is it so?
The rope is 0.60mm - created from 3x4 Gütermann Е121
Thanks in advance for your time

The Gutermann E threads are actually a little stretchy, It's not a bad thing. Beeswax is unnecessary as this thread has no fuzzies to tame down.

If you have any other questions just ask. I use E121 daily.

 

[AntonAtanasov1]

Thanks everyone for now. If I have any other questions I will ask again

 

[johnv]

Just another note, one of the things I found difficult with building my own ropewalk in Aus, was to find plastic/metal gears at a reasonable price, without being Chinese-less-than-quality , or paying an absolute bomb. Anyone point me somewhere? I have modified the "Domanoff", I purchased said product, didn't work for me producing multi-threads, so I modified it with new gears, as the originals disintegrated. Anywho, I'm very happy with my setup, I would like to know where can you buy gears etc. Cheers.

I recently made my ropewalk using metal gears for model cars. They are excellent quality, from AliExpress. For the looper I purchased 5 gears 64 teeth, module 0.6, for $AUD28. Plus 2 motors, switches (forward/stop/reverse), two AC to DC variable voltage transformers, ball bearing wheels. Total was less than $AUD100. Tried Chinese polypropylene yarns but they are too fluffy. Gutermann 4 or 5 times more expensive, but definitely superior. A bit of a learning curve to get tensions and S/Z directions correct, but happy with results. Yet to try heating the rope as described earlier in this forum. if the tensions in twisting the yarns are balanced by the tension in the opposite direction when twisting the strands, and the rope is then hardened (held under higher tension so the threads bite into each other), they do not unravel.

 

[Stuart Little]

Excellent reference, thanks Stephan. I am also experimenting, the hardest part is finding the gears, I've got LEGO gears epoxied to the shafts but yours look more substantial, where did you get them?
I'm also trying to home in on just a few differnt colours, here's my sample sheet, trouble is it cost a couple of pounds to by the spool and you might decide it's no good. LOL G means Gutermann thread and the number is the colour. It might not come out correct on the computor but I'm leaning towards 696 for standing rigging and 464 and 722 for running but then again !!!!

When I made my rope walk, I got the 'plastic cog' wheels off ebay, from Proops Brothers Ltd. Item # S7094 50T x 4mm bore & S7092 30T x 4mm bore. Hope this helps. I also used 4mm thrust bearings on the shafts.