Rope Walk

11-Jan-11

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Three things are needed for a civilization to advance: fire, the wheel and rope. I was curious about how rope was made and after some research, I decided it would be fairly easy to build a rope walk to twist rope. I used plastic gears and bearings that I salvaged from garage door openers and built a wood frame to hold them. I can wind seven strands at a time, although 2, 3 or 4 are the easiest. It is difficult to keep equal tension on more strands. The opposite end is a swivel that is attached to a movable weight to keep tension on the strands while winding. The rope will rotate as it is being wound and will also shrink about 10% of the original length.

The basics of rope making are rotating the strands all the same direction (ie clockwise) while rotating the tail end of the rope the same direction. Keep the strands separated with a rope wrench as they are being wound. A heavier weight will make the rope much stiffer. To make a thicker rope, use small rope as the strands and twist them the opposite direction they were originally wound. This can be done as many times as desired until you reach the thickness you want.

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