Dad's block & tackle

[Moses Yoder]

I remember using the block & tackle for many projects during my childhood. Dad had it before I was born; it probably came from an auction somewhere. All of us remember it with fondness; I had to bid up to $150 to get it at dad's auction. When I got it home and moved it around to photograph it evidently a pin was missing and the shaft that holds the top pulleys in place fell out; needle bearings all over.

I asked for advice here on Sawmill Creek to make a new pin rust to match the old tackle. I ended up removing the galvanized coating with a white vinegar soak overnight then soaking the pin in urine for a little bit and hanging it to rust. I did that last Sunday morning and this morning (Sunday) the pins were nicely rusted. I only needed one but rusted three in case of error. The rope ends were in terrible shape as well; I watched some video on youtube and learned how to whip finish the ends and this morning began the process of re-assembling it.

You can see here the pulleys and needle bearings before assembly. There is no flange on the inside of the pulleys.

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Here are the rope ends in the condition I received them.

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I filled the hole in the pulley with grease and pushed all the bearings into it; this worked good, and I reassembled the pulleys and put the pin in. I threaded the rope through and whip finished the ends. I hung the tackle on a hook from the ceiling and hung the extra rope on the wall.

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[Jim Koepke]

Your pictures show I did not understand what you were asking in your thread about cutting the rope and whip finished ends.

I thought you were making a clean end on a blind eye.

Even with what you are doing you may want to Google > crown knot <. It makes a nicer end on a rope that doesn't fray.

jtk

[Andrew Bangs]

Moses, what you've done looks great.

That's a good idea, Jim. A crown knot and then back splice (google will find great animated instructions for that, too) and then put the whipping over the 3 ends to hide them. Ends? What ends?

[Moses Yoder]

Your pictures show I did not understand what you were asking in your thread about cutting the rope and whip finished ends.

I thought you were making a clean end on a blind eye.

Even with what you are doing you may want to Google > crown knot <. It makes a nicer end on a rope that doesn't fray.

jtk

Thanks Jim, very interesting. Comparing the before & after of what I did I am pleased with the results but the crown knot would definitely have been better. This is the first I have ever heard of it. I have another rope in need of some work and will probably try it on that.

[Ryan Mooney]

If you're going to tie and end knot a manrope is less likely to come undone than just a crown.
http://www.animatedknots.com/wallcrown/

It has an even bigger downside (or upside depending on the desired outcome) than the crown over whipping in this use case though in that whipped ends are much easier to pull through. Whether that's a good or a bad thing of course depends. Most historical ships work like this would have been a form of whipped end (technically they'd mostly have been pointed).

Your whipping job looks pretty nice.

[Mike Allen1010]

If you're going to tie and end knot a manrope is less likely to come undone than just a crown.
http://www.animatedknots.com/wallcrown/

It has an even bigger downside (or upside depending on the desired outcome) than the crown over whipping in this use case though in that whipped ends are much easier to pull through. Whether that's a good or a bad thing of course depends. Most historical ships work like this would have been a form of whipped end (technically they'd mostly have been pointed).

Your whipping job looks pretty nice.

+1, FWIW. Mimimum characters...

[lowell holmes]

I have Dad's Cargo Blocks and 70 feet of 1/2" nylon line. Being an old sailor, no crown knots are appropriate.

The ends are whipped with wax coated nylon thread made for the purpose.

Just another perspective :)