With natural fiber ropes. Like Hemp we used castor oil once a year to keep it from dry rotting and maintain the core. Most new ropes have synthetic cores now.
What Tim said, plus the wires in the rope do rub against each other a bit every time they bend over a sheave or around the bullwheel, so they need some protection there.
Thank you for the info. I enjoy learning about this. When did the migration over to synthetic cores take place? How many of you mechs and techs out there still have natural fiber ropes on your lifts? I’m wondering if the less humid climates like Colorado and Utah and Arizona and New Mexico might have had to oil them more often?
No, we don’t oil them any more often than anyone else. Remember oil doesn’t evaporate like water does.
Synthetic and solid-core ropes have been around for a while; it was a long transisiton from natural-fibre cores through synthetic-fibre and even now it’s up to the end user to spec what they want in a rope. I doubt you can get one with a hemp core anymore, but maybe. We actually have two with hybrid cores- basically a solid layer bonded over a synthetic-fibre middle. We also still have a couple with hemp cores.
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In the Instagram post it says they “lubed the haul rope” what exactly does that mean?
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With natural fiber ropes. Like Hemp we used castor oil once a year to keep it from dry rotting and maintain the core. Most new ropes have synthetic cores now.
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What Tim said, plus the wires in the rope do rub against each other a bit every time they bend over a sheave or around the bullwheel, so they need some protection there.
LikeLike
Thank you for the info. I enjoy learning about this. When did the migration over to synthetic cores take place? How many of you mechs and techs out there still have natural fiber ropes on your lifts? I’m wondering if the less humid climates like Colorado and Utah and Arizona and New Mexico might have had to oil them more often?
LikeLike
No, we don’t oil them any more often than anyone else. Remember oil doesn’t evaporate like water does.
Synthetic and solid-core ropes have been around for a while; it was a long transisiton from natural-fibre cores through synthetic-fibre and even now it’s up to the end user to spec what they want in a rope. I doubt you can get one with a hemp core anymore, but maybe. We actually have two with hybrid cores- basically a solid layer bonded over a synthetic-fibre middle. We also still have a couple with hemp cores.
LikeLike