Home-made rope making machine

[RayIN]

Want something to do next winter when you can't get out in the fields?

Rope-Making Machine Plans - Countryside

The machinery for making rope can vary from the simplest to the very complex. I will deal with the basics and anyone wanting to make rope can design these rope-making machine plans to fit their purpose.

www.iamcountryside.com

 

[rumwrks]

So.. when I was a kid I spent untold hours turning the d* rope machine for making horse hair ropes. We mostly used an 189? new-era cast iron rope machine which worked fairly well (except it was mounted to low on the block and you'd bark your knuckles all the time turning it). The new era would only do 3 ply though (plus a floating core which you have to twist backwards from the outer yarns..). So dad had made something very like the Countryside unit for plying higher yarn count ropes.

That design works "ok" for plying.. so like if you had a a bunch of baling twine you wanted to make into ropes, make a hook for a drill to put the initial twist in each of the yarns, and then use that rig to add twist while plying (plying removes twist in the yarns ahead of the ply). If you're planning to use it to add initial twist, or god help you, ply initial yarns from fiber you'll be there ALL DAY (you'll be there all day anyway, but with that rig you'll be there tomorrow and the day after as well).

Also be aware that rope making is very much a two person (minimally) operation.

 

[Williy]

This is like the machine that my grandpa had to make rope from
'binder twine but we never had to seperate like he did in this
video

willy

 

[MossRoad]

When I was in Boy Scouts we made our own ropes with a hand-made wooden machine with metal hooks. On one end the had 3 hooks, and the other end had one hook. They were clamped to tables. We'd run a strand of baler twine from the single hook to one of the three hooks, then back to the single hook. Then back to the same of the three, then back to the single. We'd repeat until we had three strands of twine running from the single hook to each of the triple hooks. So, three runs of three strands, for nine strands total.

Then we'd crank the back of the triple hooks to put a twist into each of the three runs. Once they were sufficiently twisted, we'd crank the single hook end while someone with a paddle that had three u-shaped slots cut into it would pack the three strands down toward the single hook.

Eventually you got a rope of unknown strength, but it looked great and was a lot of fun.

We used it mostly to tie down gear and make bushcraft items like tee pees, towers, flagpoles, Klondike Derby sleds, etc...

Just a couple years ago I found a piece of it in my old Boy Scout stuff. I picked it up and gave it a tug. It snapped! But it was still a fond memory.

 

[sandman2234]

I made hundreds of thousands of miles of stranded rope and cable during my employment at a wire and cable company. Same principal as above, but using steel wires instead. We also had big motors instead of hand cranks, as well as large capstan to pull the wire as it was stranded, which controlled the lenght of the lay.
The 3/4" guardrail cable that some states put down the roadway medians is one example of the cable we made that most people recognize. Another is the cable going from utility poles to the ground to anchor poles (and get in riding lawn mowers way). Prestess concrete cable was our main objective.
David from jax

(Edited Priestress to be Prestress concrete cable)

 

[MossRoad]

... Priestess concrete cable was our main objective....

Think autocorrect did something there or that's a religion I've never encountered.

 

[sandman2234]

Think autocorrect did something there or that's a religion I've never encountered.

Prestress is what it was supposed to say! Thanks, I edited it.
David from jax

 

[MossRoad]

Prestress is what it was supposed to say! Thanks, I edited it.
David from jax

Yeah, I thought that's what you meant to type. But hey, who's to question?