Make your rope on a rope walk

Don Case said:
I'm having a bit of trouble making some small rope. Maybe someone has had a similar problem and can bail me out. I got some Skala 240 Tex 12. I'm trying to make ratlines so I need to make a 3x1 rope which would be .007" or 3/8" in 1:48 scale. That's actually a little small that's beside the point.
I can't seem to spin up a 3x1 rope with this stuff. I can spin a 3x2 of the same thread but the 3x1 just knots up or (usually) breaks. I just doesn't seem to want to spin. I don't have a motor on my tailstock so that may be part/all of my problem. Any ropewalkers have any ideas? Is it just too small to work?
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I use serafill and there is the same problem with 2x1, 3x1 or 4x1. The problem is the thread. With 2 threads in one strand turning RH no problem but with a single thread in one strand like 3x1 RH gives a problem. But I solved it by turning it the other way around and make LH rope of single thread strands. Just give it a try
 
Steef66 said:
I use serafill and there is the same problem with 2x1, 3x1 or 4x1. The problem is the thread. With 2 threads in one strand turning RH no problem but with a single thread in one strand like 3x1 RH gives a problem. But I solved it by turning it the other way around and make LH rope of single thread strands. Just give it a try
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I believe Stephan is correct. You have to either 'un-turn' the source thread or create left handed rope.
 
Thanks for the quick replies. I just tried that and it didn't work (yet). I got a lot of knots in the final rope. I checked the strands fully twisted but not yet making rope and there was no knots but as I twisted it to form the rope it got knots. It seems that if I have enough tail weight (tension weight) to stop knotting there is too much tension for it to twist into rope. Do you guys both have tail stock motors? In order for it to start twisting into rope I have to shorten it by a bit over 15% and that seems to be too much. I can't get it to start twisting at 10%.
 
I use a vertical gravity-based system. The lighter (thinner) the rope, the less weight I would suspend.

With a gravity system I would never shorten more than 15%, and rope could be formed (spin itself) with very little 'shortening' - but the rope was simply too loose (the sweet spot for thin rope was 10% and for thicker rope closer to 15%).
 
This Skala thread seems to be so stretchy that it doesn't build enough torsion. It also wants to break once it's twisted up tight. The thing that's strange is that 3x2 goes OK. Like you guys say the single strand thing just has some problems. I just tried to emulate a tail stock motor with a cordless drill but it wasn't on a cart so trying to get the tension right was next to impossible. That and I needed one hand for the headstock motor and one for the thimble so I had to get my wife to run the drill. Too many places to mess up. It broke right in the middle. It must be like Paul says, too much friction. I have about 6" of bathroom chain(lamp ball chain?) as a swivel and I did try using a couple of feet of thread as a swivel but no joy. I have the Serafil Tex10 so I think I'll try to make some 3x1 from it to see if I have better luck. I thought I'd already made some but I can't find it so maybe I'll break some new ground.
Thanks for your help so far. It's nice to bounce things off someone else.
 
Don Case said:
I'm having a bit of trouble making some small rope. Maybe someone has had a similar problem and can bail me out. I got some Skala 240 Tex 12. I'm trying to make ratlines so I need to make a 3x1 rope which would be .007" or 3/8" in 1:48 scale. That's actually a little small that's beside the point.
I can't seem to spin up a 3x1 rope with this stuff. I can spin a 3x2 of the same thread but the 3x1 just knots up or (usually) breaks. I just doesn't seem to want to spin. I don't have a motor on my tailstock so that may be part/all of my problem. Any ropewalkers have any ideas? Is it just too small to work?
Click to expand...
Hi Don, if you're using a vertical rope maker try using a lighter weight at the bottom.
 
I tried the Serafil and it worked but I had to go to 20% to get it started. So I tried again with the Skala but with less tension weight. Success!! As I did the initial twist I monitored it to watch for knots and when I got to 20% I started making rope and it worked. I'm only using 58 grams of tension. I still have to try a second time to make sure this wasn't a fluke. Then I guess I have to try 2x1. I thought about going vertical but my walk has been working so well and I can make 11' of rope a try. Unless I went out in the rain I could only get maybe 5' with vertical.
 
Second try didn't work. Close, but no cigar. The first half, the tailstock end, was good but the rest has a few knots and bumps. I'm wondering if I'm not getting even tension on the threads. That may explain the random successes and failures. With an odd number of threads you have one strand by itself and with such thin dark thread and old eyes maybe I'm screwing up. Does anyone have a clever way of equalizing the tension on the threads. I've been looking at the sag from head to tail but maybe that isn't accurate enough for such thin thread.
 
The last three times worked. Don't know what I did. So now I have about 75 real feet of .007" rat line rope. Since it's all ratline rope I will be using it in 6" lengths most likely so I will be able to piece out some more from the failures. This will be used for the topmast ratlines and I will probably use 3x2, which is .013" for the lower mast ratlines.
 
Don Case said:
The last three times worked. Don't know what I did. So now I have about 75 real feet of .007" rat line rope. Since it's all ratline rope I will be using it in 6" lengths most likely so I will be able to piece out some more from the failures. This will be used for the topmast ratlines and I will probably use 3x2, which is .013" for the lower mast ratlines.
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Well done.
It is better to use it for all the ratlines, because there is no difference in thicknes of the top mast or the mast ratlines. They have all the same thickness. The ratlines are one of the thinnest ropes on a ship. They are just used to climb along the shrouds.
 
Don Case said:
I'm having a bit of trouble making some small rope. Maybe someone has had a similar problem and can bail me out. I got some Skala 240 Tex 12. I'm trying to make ratlines so I need to make a 3x1 rope which would be .007" or 3/8" in 1:48 scale. That's actually a little small that's beside the point.
I can't seem to spin up a 3x1 rope with this stuff. I can spin a 3x2 of the same thread but the 3x1 just knots up or (usually) breaks. I just doesn't seem to want to spin. I don't have a motor on my tailstock so that may be part/all of my problem. Any ropewalkers have any ideas? Is it just too small to work?
Click to expand...
I use these little motors with a 12v supply. I forget the ratio, they are about 120 rpm after going through the plastic 1/1 ratio gears in the Headstock" so I'm guessing ether 100 or 200 rpm motors. I wind up with the lay, (I have a changeover wire connector if needed), keeping the ropes apart with the dolly at the far end. I let the end "tailstock" slide along to between 10-12%, stop the first motor then switch on the final motor and "walk" the dolly back up to the start.
The motor connectors are just the brass bits inside plastic connector blocks
 

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Steef66 said:
Well done.
It is better to use it for all the ratlines, because there is no difference in thicknes of the top mast or the mast ratlines. They have all the same thickness. The ratlines are one of the thinnest ropes on a ship. They are just used to climb along the shrouds.
Click to expand...
I'm looking at Steels "Table of Standing and Running Rigging" for 16-14 guns and he shows 1" circumference for the topmasts and 1.5" for the lower masts. Unless I'm reading it wrong. It is kind of blurry but it shows 1" for the topmasts and 1" and a fraction for the lower. Look under "shrouds" for "ratling"

122-ShipOf16-14Guns

maritime.org maritime.org

123-ShipOf16-14Guns

maritime.org maritime.org

This didn't make a lot of sense to me either as a mans weight doesn't change just because he climbed a little higher.
 
Dr Syn said:
I use these little motors with a 12v supply. I forget the ratio, they are about 120 rpm after going through the plastic 1/1 ratio gears in the Headstock" so I'm guessing ether 100 or 200 rpm motors. I wind up with the lay, (I have a changeover wire connector if needed), keeping the ropes apart with the dolly at the far end. I let the end "tailstock" slide along to between 10-12%, stop the first motor then switch on the final motor and "walk" the dolly back up to the start.
The motor connectors are just the brass bits inside plastic connector blocks
Click to expand...
That's interesting. I only have one motor and I keep it running as I slide the "dolly" along. I'm going to watch some more ropewalk videos.
 
English ships are indeed a little different. But keep in mind that 1" is about 0,007 inch diameter on scale and 1,5 inch is about 0,010 inch diameter. 3x2 with 0,013 is to thick. Better keep them the same. The effect will be better visible.

Olga got a very good video.
 
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