I used what I think was button thread, perhaps suggested by my mother. The spool's label shows it to be "100% polyester thread (225 yds.) manufactured by the American Thread Company, Stamford Ct. 06905"
I built the crane in 1970 or '71, although it did languish in a shoebox for about 20 years. However, the cables show no sign of fuzzies, even though it's been on the layout since then.
Wayne
dragonriversteelI'll do a bit more digging & see if I can find a sorce for buying Musky Master fishing line.
Looking at other brands of braided black fishing line I found quite a few similar items.
https://tinyurl.com/ya86ekr6
I think I'll cast my net wide and reel in a few just to try them out.
Thanks for pointing me in the right direction
Ed
gmpullman dragonriversteel Go to Amazon. Type in Musky Master fishing line. 18 LB test should do the trick. My Amazon must be different? All I got was a bunch of tee shirts and one DVD on Muskie fishing plus ONE brand or fly-fishing line at a hundred bucks a spool. Muskie Line by Edmund, on Flickr What am I doing wrong? Cheers, Ed
dragonriversteel Go to Amazon. Type in Musky Master fishing line. 18 LB test should do the trick.
My Amazon must be different?
All I got was a bunch of tee shirts and one DVD on Muskie fishing plus ONE brand or fly-fishing line at a hundred bucks a spool.
Muskie Line by Edmund, on Flickr
What am I doing wrong?
Cheers, Ed
Hi Ed,
Nope you're not doing anything wrong. My mistake was not checking Amazon first before blabbing off.
It seems they don't have any in stock. You can order from Cortland directly. I bought three spools five years ago. These are the braided lines in black.
This fishing line is spot on for heavy duty wire rope in my humble opinion.
I'll do a bit more digging & see if I can find a sorce for buying Musky Master fishing line.
Patrick
Fear an Ignorant Man more than a Lion- Turkish proverb
Modeling an ficticious HO scale intergrated Scrap Yard & Steel Mill Melt Shop.
Southland Industrial Railway or S.I.R for short. Enterchanging with Norfolk Southern.
Chutton01,
Well Black is ''standing rigging'' on the older sailing ships, that's the rigging that is permanent. Used for the masts and such for support and it was usually tarred. Here is a link, (should You want to use) that I used for all My ship building parts. I used to build wood sailing ships.....one of My other vices:
https://www.modelerscentral.com/fittings/rigging-cord/
Browse through that site, you will find many other things that can be used on a Model Railroad layout or scenes.
Take Care!
Frank
BTW: Some of the guy's in this thread are no longer with us.....RIP...
gmpullman ONE brand or fly-fishing line at a hundred bucks a spool.
I guess you need more cranes.
We have a store near the Chesapeake Bay, called Anglers. They respool fishing rods. I'm sure they would give you a deal on 2' of line.
Henry
COB Potomac & Northern
Shenandoah Valley
dragonriversteelGo to Amazon. Type in Musky Master fishing line. 18 LB test should do the trick.
Thanks for the responses so far, but keep in mindI have revived a years-old thread, so the shop crane build that started this thread was from 2009 and not my project.I posted a few responses myself back in 2012, and I even mentioned the waxing of thread, which worked OK on static displays but not so much on active "wires" (e.g. roll them up and down).
zstripeWhen I build a model that need's any type of cable, I'll use either K&S music wire, Ship building rigging, which has a coating on it to eliminate the fuzzie's and EZ-line depending on model: The tugboat in the photo, the black line at the rear and on the mast, is two pieces of music wire to form a loop. The lifeboat is ship rigging line that is actually looped around the pulley's and the boat can be lifted by pulling on the cables.
The tugboat in the photo, the black line at the rear and on the mast, is two pieces of music wire to form a loop. The lifeboat is ship rigging line that is actually looped around the pulley's and the boat can be lifted by pulling on the cables.
Wolfie,
Hats off to your brilliant quote below your post. Made me laugh. Thanks.
loathar I'm building this Walthers overhead crane.http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3102I'm having trouble stringing the hook lines. I've used waxed thread and that lycra sewing thread, but the hooks don't have enough weight to hold the lines taunt. I'm almost ready to try an .006 guitar string. (no local source for brass wire) Any thoughts on using this or any other ideas??
I'm building this Walthers overhead crane.http://www.walthers.com/exec/productinfo/933-3102I'm having trouble stringing the hook lines. I've used waxed thread and that lycra sewing thread, but the hooks don't have enough weight to hold the lines taunt. I'm almost ready to try an .006 guitar string. (no local source for brass wire) Any thoughts on using this or any other ideas??
Go to Amazon. Type in Musky Master fishing line. 18 LB test should do the trick.
I use this product for all my HO overhead cranes. Easy to reeve the overhead crane drum & hook block.
Hope you give it a try.
When I build a model that need's any type of cable, I'll use either K&S music wire, Ship building rigging, which has a coating on it to eliminate the fuzzie's and EZ-line depending on model:
The tugboat in the photo, the black line at the rear and on the mast, is two pieces of music wire to form a loop. The lifeboat is ship rigging line that is actually looped around the pulley's and the boat can be lifted by pulling on the cables. The lifeboat is weighted to keep the lines tawnt. I had to replace the plastic davits with brass rod because the weight would bend the plastic davits. The line holding the tires is also ship rigging which is stranded line:
The line on the excavator is EZ-line, put on with just a little sag, the bucket actually keeps it tawnt:
The wrecker has a combo of EZ-line and music wire. The booms have music wire in a loop, the EZ-line is the lifting cables that also keeps the tongue up with the chains.
All pic's may be clicked on for larger view.
The sewing thread from a fabric store works best. You can either do a quick pass over a candle to remove the fuzzies or pull it over wax to “glue” them down
Wolfie
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
Don't know what the original line looked like, but you might want to investigate upholstery thread as a substitute. You can get a spool of that at JoAnns Fabrics, and it is not very expensive when you use a coupon.
I am officially reviving this thread, as I have a question as 5+ years have past.I have a Walthers American Crane kit which I am finally building, but the thread with it has disappeared (of course). I don't recall the thread looking all that great to begin with. Since I will actually use the thead to crank up/down the boom/hook for posing (unlike the M-88 I mentioned years ago, which is a static model), I am wondering what people have used to replicate the crane cable in use (meaning no fuzzies or other wear after a use or two).Obviously EZ line is out (being stretchy and all), not sure about real wire, and the polyesther thread I've seen in the big-box stores looks pretty poor...
What you need is a balanced braid fish line in order to control the twist. It's pretty expensive and I have more than I need and it is about 1" in HO scale. Send me an E-mail with your address and I'll give you some,
Gudenuph@gmail.com
Geohan
farrellaaI used some plastic coated stainless cable from Hobby Lobby for other applications and is a great item to have; but, it doesn' t bend too well and most likely wouldn't go around the pulleys.
I used some plastic coated stainless cable from Hobby Lobby for other applications and is a great item to have; but, it doesn' t bend too well and most likely wouldn't go around the pulleys. I have this same crane kit and laid it out in my car repair/ scrap facility before layiing the track. I may use some .010" phosphor bronze wire I get from Tichy Train. I use it on coaling tower models for the cable on the counterweights and it works great. I paint it after bending and fitting. I use a pair of radius bending pliers to make the curves to fit the pulleys. They are straight sections of wire about 10-12" long.
Nice job on your crane! Hope mine cones out as good.
-Bob
Life is what happens while you are making other plans!
Hobby Lobby sells some metalic looking thread that appears to have a twist in it like braided metal cables use on cranes. I used it on my crane car and other places I want "metal cable."
OK, OK, you're right - I got out my craft chain and it is indeed (real size) 12 links to the inch, which we usually equate to a six-foot figure...so this make the links in HO about 6 inches each - like you said, probably ok to have 'around', coiled but not much use for anything else.
So it's back to the drawing board. My other thought on this is to tighten some lengths of thread between a couple of screws, then spray them with low-luster acrylic paint, cutting them to fit for installation. A light sanding might smooth out the 'fuzzies'.
bigpianoguyI've got some really fine 'craft' chain that I got at a dollar store about a year ago on a whim; I'm thinking that this will be the time to use it. I've probably discarded the original packaging but I'll try to get a comparative pic up soon to show its scale.
So, the craft store chain is approx 1 link = 4.8inch, while A-line is 1 link = 2.1inch - even the A-line chain represents a hefty chain, and the craft-store chain is pretty much out of scale.for HO. But, it looks good enough coiled up representing tow chain and whatnot.
Yeah, go ahead, blame the new guy. And it's true - I am finally getting around to assembling my version of the model but couldn't remember where I'd seen those (these) great photos. A quick search, & voila - but I had to bookmark it, so - it's alive!!!
This is a good thing - I need all the help I can get. I've got some really fine 'craft' chain that I got at a dollar store about a year ago on a whim; I'm thinking that this will be the time to use it. I've probably discarded the original packaging but I'll try to get a comparative pic up soon to show its scale.
And it IS 'big' piano guy; retired after 40 years as a professional pianist, I always found it challenging folding my 6'7" frame under & around, the piano...(is this the only size this comes in?)
Well, since piano guy was nice enough to bump this thread, I have read that bees-wax can be used to cut down the fuzziness of thread lines - I have weight on both ends of the guy-lines of a mobile derrick I built (well, OK, it's actually an HO scale "Roco Minitanks" M88 recovery vehicle that actually turned out fairly well, and I sure as heck ain't going to put an open flame anywhere near that). Searching turns up some suggestions on defuzzication, but since this thread is alive, any others that work?
Excellent.
I thought about trying to hit them with a lighter. I might try that if I get brave enough.
canazar -It's a pretty EZ kit. Beware though, it got a big foot print! 12"x9". It barely fits where I want to put it.
Looks great! I have thought about building something like that for a team track area I have. Well done, great weathering. Looks like it was well worth the effort.
Best Regards, Big John
Kiva Valley Railway- Freelanced road in central Arizona. Visit the link to see my MR forum thread on The Building of the Whitton Branch on the Kiva Valley Railway
Looks good. The fuzzies on the thrread could be burnt off with a candle by carefully moving the thread over the flame, but this is best done before rigging. A lighter may work now that it is done but is risky. The fuzzies don't appear bad now, but what about dust accumulation?
Finally got to take some pictures of the finished crane and lines.
I don't think it turned out too bad.
Thanks. I finally got some brand of black thread I had laying around to work. I weighted a long strand of it and hit it with some spray starch. It has more fuzzys on it than I like, but you can't see them unless your 3" away. I just need to hit the lines with some weathering chalk and I'll post some pics of it. Thanks for all the ideas!
With regard to coloring the fishing line, I should have said "India ink" instead of acrylic paint. Sorry, Geohan
On my operating clam shell bucket (scratch built in HO) I finally found some braided fly fishing line of braided construction that takes acrylic paint and was limp enough for operation and more importantly did not twist. Of course the bucket weighs more than a hook. In addition to the suggestions above you might make the hook out of lead and/or crimp a split shot lead fishing weight just above the hook just like the prototype hook ball. The fly fishing line is quite expensive for the minimum amount. If you wish to e-mail me with your snail mail address I'll send you some. Gudenuph@gmail.com
FWIW, Geohan