Cables?

[BHOFM]

Has anyone ever made their own cables?

I have a dozen or so 20lb spools of .030 stainless wire.

I made up a short, two feet or so six strand using a
drill and hook and a homemade die! It seems to work
fine, you just need to keep tension even and move the
die at an even pace!

It looks good and we tried to break it, it held 800lbs with
no noticeable stretch! We broke the test rig at around
1600lbs!

[Landlubber]

BHOFM,

Yes many areas of the world make their own cables with a drill or collet head motor, it is certainly a reasonable way to do it, but generally speaking far more costly......to what purpose do you suppose to use them?

[BHOFM]

We have the wire, no cost! We have the time, retired!

Stays on the boat we are working on!

The nice thing is one end is done, with the thimble
installed when you make them! The loose ends are
twisted inside the cable!

I would make my own rope if I could figure a way to do it!

No one in their right mind would let a clock maker build
a boat!

http://www.freewebs.com/woodwondderboatworks/

[SamSam]

There ought to be someplace on the internet that would illustrate how to make rope! My dad showed me how to make yo-yo strings when I was young! Rope is done the same way! For a three strand rope, you take three strands and secure the ends in a vice or something! Make an apparatus that will twist the three strands equally but separately! Twist separately until they get twisted up fairly tight! Put the three strands together and then let them untwist together! As they untwist they will will curl around each other! Viola! You have a piece of rope!

As for the apparatus contraption, what my dad did for the yo-yo strings was take one string and fold it in half. The loop end was secured. That loop was the end the axle of the yo-yo would fit in. Two pieces of tie wire a few inches long were bent on the ends to form hooks to which the two string ends were eventually attached. A small block of wood had two holes drilled about 2" apart and the wires inserted through it. Each wire was then bent 90 degrees sideways and then back up to form two small cranks. The crank handles were then inserted through another block of wood the sames as the first. With the strings attached to the hooks, the first block was held while the other one was cranked, which turned both wires simultaneously. A three strand or more rope would have three or more heavier duty cranks, arranged around a circular block.

As for your cable, I don't think it's the same as wire rope. Maybe it works but I have visions of broken strands and bloody hands. Something I've done a lot when the need arises is put two ends of long pieces of tie wire in a vice, put the other two in a drill, pull them sort of tight and turn on the drill. Try it, it's pretty neat!

[TollyWally]

I made rope years ago in an experiment following the directions in an article in the old Mother Earth Times. It was about putting the plastic twine that binds hale bales to good use. I forget the details but in my mind the gizmo SamSam describes sounds familiar. I conducted the experiment, made 10 or 20 feet of cheap weak rope with a quick and dirty device I faked in 5 or 10 minutes. I remember thinking it would be useful if you had an ongoing need to dispose of baling twine.