Rope making machine

[KnotNow!]

Hi Cyprian,
  I am glad it his working out for you.  I just remembered there are knotters who enjoy a skill called "split ply braiding" the base material being 4 strand twisted cordage (small for the intended purpose... not rope at all).  No ready supply is available so the braiders make it themselves.  The machines used are quite nice and could easily make larger cordage (still maybe only 8mm or so but plenty of ideas to grow from).  I don't want to hand off someone's email but PM or EM me and I'll link you to a very skilled split ply braider... if you wish.

[squarerigger]

Hi Cyprian,

Just wondering - a machine is something that does work, right?  How about the Boy Scout's spinning/twirling stick?  It probably has a better name than that, but I know that it is extremely effective and a very simple principle, that of twirling a stick with the cord around the end of it.  Here is a link to their site:

http://usscouts.org/scoutcraft/BoyScoutRopemaking.pdf

Hope this helps!

SR

[Willeke]

Lindsey,
did you follow the links I gave in reply 4?
If not, find the other scout link and follow that too, it is a like machine, just slightly different.
The link you just gave is also in that reply  But if you have simple machines I missed so far I would be glad to see them.

Willeke

[Fairlead]

Hi Lindsey,
I have always known the "Boy Scout twirling stick" as a "Foxer" - used in days of yore to make up foxes from yarns.
I turned one up on the lathe many years ago and was only demonstrating how it worked this past weekend at the Inland Waterways Festival on the Thames near Reading.
Although foxes are two strand, I have made three strand with it in a similar way to that shown in your link.

Gordon

[squarerigger]

Thanks Willeke and thanks also to Gordon,

Sorry I missed your post Willeke - I did not mean to repeat something already said.   Gordon I did not know that foxes term came from the stick known as a foxer!  In the US a fox and a nittle or nettle are the same thing; a piece of yarn wound in a figure eight and finished with a clove hitch, with the starting end then being pulled out to "supply" the piece being made, typically for macrame or hitched bottle coverings.  How was the Festival?  Did it rain or were you blessed with better weather?  If I find any simpler machines I'll let you know...

Lindsey

[Fairlead]

Lindsey,
From "Knights Modern Seamanship" 10th edition (the only US Seamanship manual I have)
Naval Terms and Definitions: " Fox - Two yarns hand twisted or a single yarn twisted against its natural lay; used for light seizings" (hence the twisting tool named a 'foxer')
No mention of nettles in there - But from Nares Seamanship (UK) 1897
Foxes - "Short yarns laid up by hand - laid up left handed".
Nettle Stuff - "2 or 3 left handed yarns laid up right handed" (used as clew lines from the ring to the hammock - hence the name 'nettles')
I use the figure of 8 twist over the thumb and little finger a lot (especially when whipping/serving the Pilot Cutter handrails) and was taught how to do that in my naval training at HMS Ganges - not with line, but morse and murray code paper tape! - so that it would feed through the autoheads without twisting and snagging.  No name was given as far as I can remember.

Gordon

[Fairlead]

Photo of my "Foxer"

[Willeke]

I did make photos of one of my 'rope making machines' today.
It is rather simple, home made with simple tools, but it works.
(There should be a plank under the single hook block, I still have to add it, now you have to hold it manually.)
The counterweight on the moving part is a plastic 2 liter milk jug, with a handle, that can have any weight from a few gramms to 2 kilo's when using water, today I used about half a liter, so it was about 500 gramms, (near one pound).
Instead of a top I used a branched stick, it is in one of the photos. Worked better for the children, they understood it and could handle it well.
It is a willow branch that I cut some years back, I have used it several times and it still works perfect.

Willeke

[asemery]

and another rope twister.  Tony