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
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.
Take Care!
Frank
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.
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.
Wolfie,
Hats off to your brilliant quote below your post. Made me laugh. Thanks.
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.
dragonriversteelGo 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
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
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.
BTW: Some of the guy's in this thread are no longer with us.....RIP...
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.
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.
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
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