Thoughts..

The Occre kit "Santisima Trinidad" includes 4 different sized rope, a closer look to these shows that the quality of it is "ok", but is not really impressive

So my thoughts went to make my own ropes, I searched the web to find out what is actually needed for making your own ropes and got a lot wiser.

I found several "homemade" ropewalks out there and some websites with some descriptions/explanation of rope making, after reading all this I decided to give it a try..

Güttermann

After some digging and recommendations from others I decided to find a 100% polyester thread from the manufacturer "Gütermann".

The manufacturer has several options to choose from (and unfortunately not all of their series can be purchased by consumers).

After some considerations and availability i decided to try the treads from Gütermann "M292"/ Sew all Thread series which is available in different lengths (50-100-200 and 500m)  and the "M252"/ Miniking series available in 1000m only

From the color chart it was not that easy to find the correct shades, but I finally decided to try-out the following color numbers "000-Black", "722-Sand", "694-Redish-Brown", "696-Dark Brown" and it seems like i have chosen the right shades.

To be motorized or not ?

I noticed that some of the ropewalk "out there" where not motorized, these where not the onces i even considered for this project.

I had saved a couple of motors which were used in an broken & old adjustable height desk and I believe they were perfect for this project, At least they didn't had to many RPM's, although the disadvantages might be the needed voltage and the funny looking shaft and wires.

But whatever motor will do the job..

Whirls design

To create strands from 1 or several yarns a device called whirls is needed.

For this project I decided to create a ropewalk which makes ropes with 3 strands.

It should be as simple as possible, so in my mind I already figured out what I would need to make the whirls to work and I build it more or less from material I had lying around in my basement/scrapbox, except for the three toothed pulleys and the toothed belt itself.

The bearings I used are from worn-out wheels from a pair of in-liners and the size fits almost perfectly with the "spacer M4 M-F"

I decided that 1 bearing could do the job, and "glued" them (and the spacers) in place with CA-glue.

To keep it as simple as possible I fitted the motor on a bracket, and used brackets as well to mount the construction onto the baseplate.

I only needed to use 2 wires of the motor (the 3 others are used to count the RPM of the motor).

With this simple design the whirls are DC motor driven and turn smooth & synchronously. Amazing what CA glue is capable of J

Looper

After twisting the yarns into strands, an "looper" is needed to create the actual rope,  this motor should always run in the opposite direction as the whirls and it should be moveable.

Again, I didn't wanted to spend too much time to build this looper and kept it as simple as possible. Again I build it from material I found in my "scrapbox" ..

I used office chair wheels, and to mounted them on a bracket. I cut off their shafts and drilled/cut a M4 threath 

Simple but efficient, "Strips" for fitting the motor onto the bracket, and a homemade "adaptor" and CA-glue to attach the hook.

To keep the strands separated during twisting of the yarns, i created this arrangement as separator.

Top

Another part needed for a ropewalk is a "top", this device has the purpose to keep the strands separated during winding of the rope by the looper.

It is normally mounted on a movable construction, but to keep the design simple I will skip the “movable construction” in this project 

Note: When skipping the movable construction it is advisable to find a material for the top with a relative low weight  so it is still possible to manufacture long ropes.

With the top shown I have made app. 7 meter long ropes without any problems.

"On Track"

When twisting the yarns into strands it is necessary to know if the yarns themselv are "Right Handed" (RH) or "Left Handed" (LH) twisted. The whirls needs to rotate in such way that it will wind up the yarns instead of unwinding them.

Because of this winding process the strands will become shorter, this is the reason why the looper has to be moveable.

To keep the looper "on track" during traveling I used a curtain rail fixed on an app.2 meter long floorboard. With this max travel distance of  the looper, rope lengths of 6-8 meters should be possible.


Note:
The yarn i decide to use from Gütermann has 2 fibers and is "RH" twisted.
To find out if a rope is "RH" or "LH" the next illustration can be used.

 S=Left Handed (LH) and Z=Right Handed (RH)

Counterweight

During the travel of the looper it is imported that the strands are kept reasonably taut, for this i use a rope and a bucket and natures gravity.

The rope is attached to the looper and a on the other end i attached a bucket which can be filled with the needed counter weights to achieve enough taut.

Electrical connections

What remains is the electrical connections, i wired the motors in such way that the whirls & looper are always running in the opposite direction  of each other, The direction can be changed by using the "R-AR" switch.

By using 2 contacts of a relay, a Diode and a Capacitor it makes it relatively easy to change the motor direction when needed. Besides this direction switch I installed an on/off switch close to each motor, these switches will start the individual motors. 

Here's the realization of the above diagram.

Testing the ropewalk

First Test-run...

For this test I used 4 individual yarns on each whirl

All of them ending (via separation) on the looper

After winding, 3 individual strands are created. (the looper has travelled app. 1/3 of the total thread length)

Strands, now ready to become a rope

The top in position

Top is travelling during activation of the looper motor without any problems

First result..

Examples

I did a few tests to find out how many yarns where needed with the type of thread i use.

This type of rope has different names Hawser Laid or Twisted Rope.

another series of tests.

This time i used already made Hawser Laid ropes on the ropewalk as individual strands, this gives an even more rope like feeling and visualization. it is called Cable Laid 

Again Hawser & Cable Laid

pictures explain more than words..

Hawser Laid

Cable Laid

 the cable laid rope is "LH" & the hawser laid rope is "RH"