Gears for a wooden rope maker

[tombear]

Hi Folks
ive poked about the net and had no joy so can any one point me towards a full sized drawing I can print off to make the gears for a three strand rope making machine?

Also could any one recommend decent wood to make the gears from?

Ive my Axminster electric fret saw all ready to go as I fancy making some linen wick from some thinner stuff. The wife's happy to plait it but I quite fancy a bit of rope making?

Atb

Tom

 

[JohnC]

I used this program

http://woodgears.ca/gear_cutting/template.html

for making the cogs on a project like this, it worked (after a fashion), but I used thick plywood and it wasnt really robust enough. better quality solid wood should work....

 

[calgarychef]

When I was still in canada I saw a windmill with wooden gears and the fellow who made it 100 years ago had used birch that he had buried in a manure pile to season...the windmill is still going strong and the gears aren't worn a bit! I'd think that if you used high quality plywood for your gears it would work well. You could also use uhmw plastic, it's the same stuff used for some cutting boards and many industrial applications, not to be confused with pvc which is also used in cutting boards. That's not too traditional but would work very well indeed. I think the problem with using wood is some of the gears would have the grain running in the right direction but others would be cross grain and could break quite easily, that's where the plywood would come in. keep us informed I'm interested to know how it works out for you. Incidentally my uncle used to make all his own rope with the old metal rope maker, I always wondered where that contraption go to .

 

[grey-array]

If you can get your hand of some of the stuff GreenHeart in My opinion is the way to go, it is also called Ironwood but be carefull with that nickname seeing the fact there are over 80 species that have that nickname.
And why Greenheart I hear you ask, wel its as its nickname tells increadibly hard and has and oil within itself that lubricates the structure on which it is used, for the same reason gear from japanese submarines in WW2 were made from this wood
you can also find this wood under the Lignum Vitae if I am not mistaken, you'dd best use that name Lignum Vitae, meaning wood of life ( why I still dont know...)
And its is not that expensive either its about 2,5 times more expensive as ash, so not that bad at all.
Hope that helps
Yours sincerely Ruud

 

[Colin.W]

When we restored the water mill at Wookey we used apple for the pegs on the transverse gears and oak for the main gears. we made a large segmented circle consisting of 3 layers so as not to have any teeth with short grain. the teeth were cut with a hand held band saw, a scarey piece of kit. because the gear wheels were 12 inches thick we had to hire one with 18inch jaw. it was like the one in the workshop that someone had turned upside down, taken the stand off and bolted a handle onto it

 

[Hugo]

Interesting Ruud.
Some of the sea defences in Sussex are made from GreenHeart it lasts for decades under water, I have found that it gives out splinters easily, probably from long exposure from the elements.

If you can get your hand of some of the stuff GreenHeart in My opinion is the way to go, it is also called Ironwood but be carefull with that nickname seeing the fact there are over 80 species that have that nickname.
And why Greenheart I hear you ask, wel its as its nickname tells increadibly hard and has and oil within itself that lubricates the structure on which it is used, for the same reason gear from japanese submarines in WW2 were made from this wood
you can also find this wood under the Lignum Vitae if I am not mistaken, you'dd best use that name Lignum Vitae, meaning wood of life ( why I still dont know...)
And its is not that expensive either its about 2,5 times more expensive as ash, so not that bad at all.
Hope that helps
Yours sincerely Ruud

 

[grey-array]

I guess the high exposure to salt also adds greatly to the splintery nature of those posts sticking out of the water,
And the reason why greenheart was used for submarines is even more interesting, it would make the submarines about 4 times more silent when they moved under water. seeing the fact the metal geared ones could sometimes easily be picked up by sonar yet the with the greenheart serving as gears and even as propshaft it would absorb all the "clicky clonky" noises and therefor making it much harder to detect underwater, which as you can imagine can be quite a feat ^^
I heard the Americans eventually even copied this method for some of their subs. really interesting stuff ^^

 

[Stoker37]

Ive made a couple of rope machines for my scouts to use. Both have been reasonably successful but have require a bit of tweaking to get them running just right. I used birch faced ply on both occasions and have been pleased with how it performed. They were made a couple of years ago and have had some serious hammer but the ply seems to be standing up well.

 

[tombear]

Thanks for all the input there, the cog designer looks just the job! I do believe that I have some Russian birch ply somewhere that I will have a go with. The guy who gave it me emphasised the Russian so i guess it means something? Anyhoo its a bit thin so I will double it up.

Going to finish a balsa plane I am working on first (a Condor Clipper as it happens) so it may be a week or so before I get them done but will post a pic of the finished device when finished)

Thanks again

Tom

 

[JohnC]

Inspired by the thread, I went back to the bits I'd made and tried again..

I went back to the cogs and cleaned them up and used thicker axles made from old tent pegs and some thick fence wire..

The centre peice helped to stop the cogs binding...

I still had the hand crank and traveller from before, and used thin garden twine...

No pics of us using it, as we were both busy, but it worked ok, one kept the tension on the crank and
guided the traveller along, the other turned the main piece and tied off the rope/cordage...

we only made about 5' or so, but it worked ok, pretty pleased with it...

I think a more robust maching would handle tighter turns and be able to produce heavier rope...

 

[S.C.M.]

any more pics?

 

[JohnC]

This is the "handle" side of the machine.. There is a nail sticking out that a small sleeve fits over and its turned that way.
not the neatest, but the bolt assembly I had planned didnt fit...

 

[S.C.M.]

Very neat! Now I just need to make yucca string faster, then process it into rope. Making yucca fibre takes a lot of bashing though, and my rolling technique isn't the best

 

[dancan]

Thanks for putting up the pics !

 

[Stew]

Hornbeam would be a logical choice for cogs but availability is going to be limited.

Persoanlly, I think ply is a sensible choice - the alternating grain layers will add strength. I would be tempted to add an extra glue wash to cut teeth if it looks to be flaking/splintering at all.

 

[tombear]

Outstanding! I need to get on with making mine, once the backlog of other projects is whittled down some. That's really inspiring!

Atb

Tom​

 

[dwardo]

Hornbeam would be a logical choice for cogs but availability is going to be limited.

Persoanlly, I think ply is a sensible choice - the alternating grain layers will add strength. I would be tempted to add an extra glue wash to cut teeth if it looks to be flaking/splintering at all.

The common name i knew for hornbeam was "cog wood" so makes sense

 

[asemery]

If you want to see a wooden gear rope maker in action go to the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival. I will be there with my Pa Dutch fish nets.
The link to the slide show shows photos (click on lower right to see it full screen) from last years festival including the hand crank (on a sled) at the tail end and the wooden gears at the twisting end. Tony
http://www.goschenhoppen.org/photo-slideshow.html

 

[seajohnkayak]

If you want to see a wooden gear rope maker in action go to the Goschenhoppen Folk Festival. I will be there with my Pa Dutch fish nets.
The link to the slide show shows photos (click on lower right to see it full screen) from last years festival including the hand crank (on a sled) at the tail end and the wooden gears at the twisting end. Tony
http://www.goschenhoppen.org/photo-slideshow.html

Greetings, do you have additional photos of the large wooden geared rope making machine? Would appreciate seeing them if possible.
Am a volunteer and new to rope making. Am interested in making a large wooden geared rope making machine four our river heritage center in Petaluma, California.
Suggestions where i may find plans or instructions for making one would be appreciated.
Regards,
john