Taking matters into my own hands...

Hi all,

I have experienced simply ludicrous difficulties, one after another, trying to sort out of a decent climbing rope with no luck. If I found what I wanted, they were out of stock, or didn't ship to my country Western Australia location.

Eventually I got sick of this and decided to sort it out myself.

Below is my new portable climbing rope. It took about an hour and a half to braid 4x15mx9mm ropes together into one 5mx36mm capped with the heaviest o-ring I could find in my local boating store (to hang in a portable fashion by looping through itself).

Total cost-- less than $30.

No, you wouldn't want to be doing anything too crazy with it, but for a few metres up with a soft surface below? Perfect. I'll put it over a nearby swing set, and will have to do laps up and down to meet Coach's rep count.

It is a touch thin, but I can't tell if that's going to actually be a problem, because I can't even grip my coffee cup properly after braiding tightly for so long I can pullup on it hanging from beams outside, but no chance of actually climbing. The o-ring is rated for tons, so the only issue I should have is taking care of it, and making sure I don't hang it anywhere rusty.

I totally just ripped off this page;

http://www.instructables.com/id/Braided-climbing-rope/

Nice show of initiative Jon.

Nice one!

Cole Dano said:

Nice show of initiative Jon.

It was going to have to happen sometime; I can't believe what people charge for a rope but I am starting to need one.

Hopefully this is fine for what I want, but if necessary it can be cheaply re-made with an extra strand for thickness (this is just a touch under 1.5 inches, not sure if its enough to make much difference). Certainly quicker and cheaper than sending back a product that was not as advertised.

Thank you for posting this Jon.

Great job, I may have to copy that one day.

I know how your hands feel - Some years ago I made my own rope ladder, by splicing short lengths of rope acting as steps into two parallel ropes, 15 meters in length. That involved 90 splices, and a good number of winter evenings, but the result was way better that what was available to buy...

Kid at the top is my son Jakob @ 4 y.o.

Ravn said:

Great job, I may have to copy that one day.

 

I know how your hands feel - Some years ago I made my own rope ladder, by splicing short lengths of rope acting as steps into two parallel ropes, 15 meters in length. That involved 90 splices, and a good number of winter evenings, but the result was way better that what was available to buy...

 

Kid at the top is my son Jakob @ 4 y.o.

 

Wow, that's a bit more serious than mine! This was just a case of having an afternoon free and getting annoyed by having nowhere to rope climb. Slow going because my right index finger is still a little swollen up and tender around one joint, and also I haven't done this before; I think it would only take an hour if one is handy like that.

Great solution!

Ah it's the same rope splicing technique from ITS tactical (found a link on your link.) I've had that tutorial saved on my computer for a year now, just waiting for the spare cash to put together a rope of my own.

Given how cheap the whole thing was, I'm assuming you didn't use paracord.  What kind of rope did you use?

Bipocni said:

Ah it's the same rope splicing technique from ITS tactical (found a link on your link.) I've had that tutorial saved on my computer for a year now, just waiting for the spare cash to put together a rope of my own.

 

Given how cheap the whole thing was, I'm assuming you didn't use paracord.  What kind of rope did you use?

I'm not even 100% sure, it was marketed as 'outdoor rope' and was pretty much pulp fibre wrapped in reasonably strong cotton/hemp style fibre. I don't know if I'd trust a single strand with my bodyweight, but eight of em braided together? No issue.

If I were to do it again, knowing how simple and effective it is, I'd spend a little more to do it with 3 sisal 14mm lengths, good for grip etc, easy to find locally. I guess manila is the gold standard, but as long as I'm rope climbing in some way shape or form I figure I'm ahead.

Is it really so hard to obtain rope?  I did not realize this.  What about from boating/sailing suppliers?

BTW, your rope looks lovely, great job!

Edited to add:

Holy batsmokes!! Ropes are expensive.  I had no idea.     Will look over the tutorial for future reference, thanks for posting it. 

CrazyMomJ said:

Is it really so hard to obtain rope?  I did not realize this.  What about from boating/sailing suppliers?

BTW, your rope looks lovely, great job!

 

Edited to add:

 

Holy batsmokes!! Ropes are expensive.  I had no idea.     Will look over the tutorial for future reference, thanks for posting it. 

No problem Being in Western Australia and in a small town, it's hard to find much in the way of range, and ordering online comes with crippling shipping. This will tide me over while I'm here and until I arrange/need something of higher quality.

Jon Douglas said:

No problem Being in Western Australia and in a small town, it's hard to find much in the way of range, and ordering online comes with crippling shipping. This will tide me over while I'm here and until I arrange/need something of higher quality.

This is why I'm never moving back to Australia.  No Amazon, and no free delivery...  I couldn't live like that again.

Perhaps soon the Makerbot revolution kicks in, and we'll be able to 3D print our ropes

Bipocni said:

This is why I'm never moving back to Australia.  No Amazon, and no free delivery...  I couldn't live like that again.

We have Amazon.com.au , but no free delivery. If I were in Melbourne or Sydney I'd have no trouble finding gymnastic equipment, but the west coast is another story, especially when you get out into the countryside.

Jon Douglas said:

We have Amazon.com.au , but no free delivery. If I were in Melbourne or Sydney I'd have no trouble finding gymnastic equipment, but the west coast is another story, especially when you get out into the countryside.

True.  Until you changed your location to Geraldton, I had no idea there was anything other than Perth out there.  Have you ever looked at a road mad of WA?  There's just this huge blank spot in the middle, at least a thousand kilometers across....

Ah the price you pay for living in the crappy local of countryside.

Having some of the best surfing beaches in the world ten minutes walk from my house (and feeling very safe to walk to it in the middle of the night) sweetens the deal a bit I don't like to spend too much time out here at a pop because I get bored, but there are plenty of worse places to be

Jon, thanks for this. In future steps with Foundation works will be a must, right?   . Of course, it is Rope Climb; some rope we've to have.

And great work!

Jon Douglas said:

Having some of the best surfing beaches in the world ten minutes walk from my house (and feeling very safe to walk to it in the middle of the night) sweetens the deal a bit :

:-0 there are sharks out there!!!!

Very good idea! I have similar problem... Ropes are very expensive and there is no gym with rope in my city. So I improvise. I'm using sheet from my bed I put it through ring and I get miniature "rope" 

mrpraktic said:

Very good idea! I have similar problem... Ropes are very expensive and there is no gym with rope in my city. So I improvise. I'm using sheet from my bed I put it through ring and I get miniature "rope" 

On the upper realm of shady there. My kinda stuff .

Jon Douglas said:

Having some of the best surfing beaches in the world ten minutes walk from my house (and feeling very safe to walk to it in the middle of the night) sweetens the deal a bit I don't like to spend too much time out here at a pop because I get bored, but there are plenty of worse places to be

Yeah but I here it's pretty sharky over there.

edit:  Haha I didn't see latestarters response before I threw mine up.  The shark rumors must be true

Funny you guys should mention sharks, a surfer just got taken off Gracetown yesterday. It doesn't happen often, just often enough to keep the tourists scared and give them something else to talk about than, say, the cricket.

Hey Latestarter, how are the Ashes looking now?

Jon Douglas said:

Funny you guys should mention sharks, a surfer just got taken off Gracetown yesterday. It doesn't happen often, just often enough to keep the tourists scared and give them something else to talk about than, say, the cricket.

Hey Latestarter, how are the Ashes looking now?

Ouch!