Spiking and/or Marking Traveler Ropes

[Keith Duster]

We have a main rag and 2 travelers rigged onto counterweighted arbors in our space. All three have operation ropes with sandbag holddowns that fly with the system. We are struggling to find a method of marking where to stop the curtains on certain spikes by labeling the operation ropes themselves. The problem is spike tape eventually gets caught in the carriers or eyelets and either tears off or gums up the system. The ropes are 1/2" black cotton wrap (I think), brand is ADC. Company had no suggestions.

 

[Amiers]

Open the rope up like a Chinese finger trap and slide some ribbon in the rope.

 

[Keith Duster]

Here is the operatin rope- it is not really 'woven', although it says woven cover - I'll give the unravel and ribbon method a try tomorrow:

http://www.automaticdevices.com/2830-sash-cord-no.-14

 

[Amiers]

Don’t force it you might damage it.

You could thread a needle through it with the ribbon.

You could do some neon spray if you don’t want to pierce it. on newspaper and wrap it so it will grab it. It will eventually fade but it won’t gum up the carrier.

 

[derekleffew]

Whip it! Whip it good!

Use a high viz yellow/orange/white thread (about the size of dental floss) and wrap/stitch for 1/2"-3/4". I'm assuming you're already familiar with "parallel spikes" i.e. one spike on each rope about head high.

 

[maccalder]

+1 for whipping. It has the added advantage that when done correctly it is really easy to intentionally remove, but REALLY difficult to unintentionally remove.

You can get some really cool UV-reactive yarn - which will be REALLY obvious in backstage blues, but not overly visible on the rope which is kind of cool.

The permanent option is to use paint marker.

 

[Keith Duster]

I'll try the whip idea. We use parallel spikes during productions to find 'open/closed' locations, so we would whip each rope. Is this a 1/2" 'up and down the rope' sewing or 'round and round the rope for 1/2" sewing? (No, those are not technical descriptions . . .)

 

[JAC]

It's not sewing at all. Google "whipping rope" and you'll see tons of instruction. Practice a few times before you tackle the traveler hand line; it takes a bit of practice to do nice and neatly.

 

[Ted jones]

I've had a lot of experience whipping lines for racing sailboats. We mark the halyards for full hoist and different tensions.

If your track has backpacks (rear folds), the whipping will probably foul in them. When I teach people to operate their CWT systems, I advocate a needle and knitting yarn thru the control line with no wraps or knots. This would probably work in the track, even one with backpacks. Keep the tails on each side of the line short, like 1/2" or less.

I like the idea of paint or dye on the line, but keep in mind that the line is 100% polyester (I invented it) and certain solvents may be detrimental to it's life.

BTW- In the attachment below, the top and bottom pix on the right show backpacks (rear folds). Their clearance on the line is very slight so that is why i say the whipping may foul with them.

 

[Amiers]

I've had a lot of experience whipping lines for racing sailboats. We mark the halyards for full hoist and different tensions.

If your track has backpacks (rear folds), the whipping will probably foul in them. When I teach people to operate their CWT systems, I advocate a needle and knitting yarn thru the control line with no wraps or knots. This would probably work in the track, even one with backpacks. Keep the tails on each side of the line short, like 1/2" or less.

I like the idea of paint or dye on the line, but keep in mind that the line is 100% polyester (I invented it) and certain solvents may be detrimental to it's life.

BTW- In the attachment below, the top and bottom pix on the right show backpacks (rear folds). Their clearance on the line is very slight so that is why i say the whipping may foul with them.

Million dollar idea since you invented it mark your ropes with a different color every 1 foot. Or create a solution dye that doesn’t harm your ropes.

 

[Ted jones]

Million dollar idea since you invented it mark your ropes with a different color every 1 foot. Or create a solution dye that doesn’t harm your ropes.

Ha!

I came up with a rope weave and construction, not the filament. I'm still not a chemist.

A tracer in the weave might be doable, but 12" OC would be difficult. And then what color would we use since we want a black rope? And which mark, 12" OC do you want to stop at? This one? No! it's three further!

T