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Chockstone Forum - Gear Lust / Lost & Found

Rave About Your Rack Please do not post retail SPAM.

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 21
Author
rope cleaning with a twist
surfinclimb
24-Jul-2009
8:30:08 AM
I know that there are previous threads about this but my work ropes are FILTHY and there are 5 of them.
I got thinking of alternatives to hand washing.
1 home washing machine: NO the wife will kill me.
2 Industrial washing machine: NO for some water saving reason it put about 3 inches of water in the bottom and the ropes didn't even get wet.
3 Take it to the car wash, daisy chain and pressure wash it.
4 Use the soap scrubber at the car wash and use that first before the pressure washer to get it real clean.
I'm a bit concerned that pressure washing might push the dirt from the sheath into the core. I also dont know the P.H of the soap in the car wash so I'm a bit worried about damaging the rope. The flip side with the soap question is that with this litigious society no company would be stupid enough to use aggresive soaps for fear of hurting someones hands or expensive paint job. Any ideas

mikl law
24-Jul-2009
8:42:22 AM
put them in the bath with some very mild soap and trample them. Leave for an hour or two. pull each rope out into a bucket scrubbing along the rope as you go. Then rinse them all. Dry slowly out of the sun

The good Dr
24-Jul-2009
8:54:11 AM
On 24/07/2009 surfinclimb wrote:
>I know that there are previous threads about this but my work ropes are
>FILTHY and there are 5 of them.
>I got thinking of alternatives to hand washing.

Daisy chain your ropes first prior to cleaning. You will not end up with pristine looking ropes once cleaned, but they will be an improvement.

>1 home washing machine: NO the wife will kill me.

Be careful with agitator type machines as the rotation of the blades can damage the sheath.

>2 Industrial washing machine: NO for some water saving reason it put about
>3 inches of water in the bottom and the ropes didn't even get wet.

Industrial machines are the best option. Just make sure the water levels are appropriate and that you are using the correct detergent.

>3 Take it to the car wash, daisy chain and pressure wash it.

Pressure washing is not a good option as the unknown water pressure may damage the rope sheath (pressure cleaners with the right settings can scabble concrete so imagine what it can do to a rope!!)

>4 Use the soap scrubber at the car wash and use that first before the
>pressure washer to get it real clean.

Bad idea, as the detergents are an unknown.

We use washing machines on our ropes when required, often without added detergent. It is important to then hang the ropes up to dry them properly.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
24-Jul-2009
9:06:07 AM
I have had success with extremely dirtied ropes (caving), by anchoring an in-line descender to a snag in a flowing* stream, and dragging the rope through the device (sometimes up to three or four times!), to get the worst of the dirt out.
It is easier to do this if the rope involved has been rough and ready style sloushed around in the water beforehand, to remove excess crust/mud!

After the underwater abseil they actually come up pretty clean, but if needed, you could later finish with the washing machine treatment?



(*Be careful the excess rope doesn't drift off downstream and get tangled...)

User ID, ... surfinclimb.
Hmm.
~> Chain the rope, wear it backpack style, and go for a surf!
A big day will thrash clean your ropes quicker!! Heh, heh, heh.
rockranga
24-Jul-2009
9:32:36 AM
Pay a kid $20 to hand wash 'em....lol
Paul
24-Jul-2009
9:49:12 AM
Go to the laundramat, use their washing machines, run a few cycles of just water through first to get any chemicals out. Top loader washing machines will create less rope tanglews than front loaders.

dimpet
24-Jul-2009
9:49:37 AM
http://www.knick-knack.com/howto/climb/build-a-climbing-rope-washer.html
surfinclimb
24-Jul-2009
11:16:30 AM
Trying to avoid the task of hand washing with a scrubbing brush 5 x 60 mt ropes Mikl. I am wayyyyy lazy
The $20 option sounds o.k and the first 2 ropes would probably come up pretty good. It would be a downward spiral of quality after that.
I think the surfing ideas the best one so far and with 5 ropes tied to my back slowing me down a good washing (thrashing) would no doubtedly be the result.
Might have to find a cheap 2nd hand washing machine.
Any other thoughts about the car wash Ideas? the pressure is fairly mild.

Rupert
24-Jul-2009
12:25:51 PM
Anything that forces grit into the core of the rope is a bad idea. If your cleaning efforts get the outside of the rope clean and push a quantity of dirt in towards the sheath then I suggest its worth trying something else. Be kind to your rope and give it a nice warm bath - oil burners, music and candles are optional.
surfinclimb
24-Jul-2009
12:37:49 PM
On 24/07/2009 Rupert wrote:
Be kind to your rope and give it a nice warm bath - oil burners, music and candles are optional.

I think the good wife might get a little jealous about that and I'm quite sure that she would not tolerate me playing bondage games (Tying in)

gremlin
24-Jul-2009
1:18:38 PM
Bah! Your wifes no fun at all!

Rat Man
24-Jul-2009
5:31:25 PM
I did about 10 years of rope access and I used to just take them to the Laundromat. Rinse a BIG front loader with an empty wash first just in case the previous user decided to bleach their jeans or something dumb. Daisy chain the ropes up and stuff them in - you can chuck your sneakers or climbing shoes in too, it helps. Just don't load too much in. The more the rope flaps about the better. Put them on a cold wash. if you're feeling rich do it again. Pull it out and take them home, untangle them in the bathroom and loop over a clothes horse in the bath to drip dry, takes a couple of days.mop the bathroom floor so the missus doesn't whine too much. They won't look new, but they'll look and feel much better.
Rope manufacturers allow the use of pure soap flakes, but use sparingly and rinse well.

I've heard lots of variations over the years; Use 'Sport Wash' (for sleeping bags and such) if they're dirty, add fabric softener or hair conditioner (what!!) if they've gone stiff. But the mentioned system works well and is easy to do.
Christian
surfinclimb
25-Jul-2009
9:31:40 PM
I got thinking of a device I could make that would help me wash my ropes after looking at the water based rope washer and I devised my own contraption.
It is 100 mm PVC pipe with 4 nail srubbing brushes screwed into it internally in a cross design. The gap in betwen the 4 scrubbing brushes is about 5-7 mm.
This allows the rope to pass through in between and get scrubbed by the bristles on all sides. It works an absolute treat. I have already washed 2 ropes this arvo and I have never seen my ropes come up so good. So much better than a washing machine or hand scrubbing.



IdratherbeclimbingM9
25-Jul-2009
10:05:44 PM
Good one.
~> Necessity is the mother of all plagiarism!

How do you hold it still (due the large diameter), while passing the rope through it?
~ hold it down in a tub?
~ take a bath with it and sit on it?
~ use it outside trapped under a weight with a running tap/hose?

contactgav
25-Jul-2009
10:26:37 PM
what a great idea.
get a patent on that before it's too late.
they'll be 150 bucks a pop at paddy palin by christmas!!!!

muki
25-Jul-2009
11:08:43 PM
On 25/07/2009 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
>Good one.
>~> Necessity is the mother of all plagiarism!
>
>How do you hold it still (due the large diameter), while passing the rope
>through it?
>~ hold it down in a tub?
>~ take a bath with it and sit on it?
>~ use it outside trapped under a weight with a running tap/hose?

I'd just run the rope out of a tub/bath and through a one way pulley, the wet rope weight would hold it
down, with one hand you could pull the rope through, while with the other, you could do the scrubbing.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
26-Jul-2009
7:14:53 AM
Ahh. I reckon I have it now, ... after thinking about it some more.

You don't try to hold it still at all!

The operator kneels or squats beside it and push-pulls the rope through it with one hand either side, that way any particularly dirty bits could be run over several times, and the 'lift' of the device is controlled by the tension in the rope.

If wearing wet weather gear you operate it standing up!
Let the weight of the device 'slide' back/forth on the wet rope, while occasionally dunking it (laundry tub), and finish with a final dunk-rinse in clean water.
surfinclimb
26-Jul-2009
8:06:48 AM
On 25/07/2009 IdratherbeclimbingM9 wrote:
How do you hold it still (due the large diameter), while passing the rope

Big hands help a lot!!
I am thinking of screwing down a strap of webbing on the outside that you can slide your hand under it to make a more secure grip for my mates with smaller hands.
I operate it by chucking all the rope in a bath with soapy water in it, I sit on the bath edge in my shorts with my feet in the water, one hand pulls the rope the other hand holds the scrubber. If I get a real dirty bit I just put my foot on one end of the rope to hold it in place then manually give it a few passes with the scrubber.
I then rinse it with another bath of water and it comes up clean as.

I thought I might beat the Paddys xmas rush and so am now taking orders for my non-pateted rope scrubber* for the never to be repeated price of $99.95 plus postage and handling.
(or build your own in 5 minutes for about $10)
Samuel
27-Jul-2009
6:35:32 PM
Does any one read this far down ?

If you use a front loader with out the spin cycle, and put the rope in a gauze bag or pillow case.
No probs. ie Doesn't hurt the machine. Or you could just take them through a canyon.

IdratherbeclimbingM9
28-Jul-2009
11:43:51 AM
On 27/07/2009 Ropeline wrote:
>Does any one read this far down ?
>
Yes.
... Probably more folk than you would realise.
~> They are all addicted to Chockstone!

 Page 1 of 2. Messages 1 to 20 | 21 to 21
There are 21 messages in this topic.

 

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