tributesinwood

First Attempt at Rope

I spent a few minutes today making some rope that will become Buford’s laso that will hang on the cedar rail.  By the way, just try to type “laso” without auto-correct turning it into “also.”  That sentence took a while to complete.

Anyways, I picked up some 18 gauge wire from the hardware store and twined three strands into rope.  I took about three six-foot lengths of wire and put one end of the three strands in my battery operated drill chuck.  I then took each of the strands and wrapped them individually around a nail held in a vice on my work bench.  By using this nail method, I was able to stretch tight each of the individual strands so that the end result was that all three strands ended up being equally tight.  Then I just slowly operated the battery to twine the strands into rope.  I saw this idea on Lynn Doughty’s site some time ago and have been itching to try it.

I can’t remember if Lynn used a nail to wrap the individual strands around, but it seemed to me the only way that you can ensure that you don’t end up with one of the strands being more slack then the others before you start winding.

I think it turned out pretty well.Then I grabbed a cream coloured enamel spray can that I had in the shop and wound the rope around it so that it coiled.  I thought that it would be easier to spray paint this way.

When the cream coloured enamel was dry, I brushed some dark brown paint ( surprisingly the same colour as my garage doors)   over the full length of the coil.  Then, before the paint dried, I wiped it off leaving the dark brown in the recesses of the wound rope.  Looks a bit like a rope doesn’t it?