Nirvana

Some time ago I read up on making a ropewalk. The important part is that the three or four threads making up the rope have to be spun independently. It required three sets of gears.
 
Along comes my grandson and his KNEX ‘tool box’. This toy is great for youngsters who have some interest in building things. It is a modern version of the ‘erecto set’ I used to have. I scratched my head and decided to use the various gears and shafts to build my ropewalk.  
The pictures below probably explain the details better than I can in words.

 
 
The end to the left is the sled which has to be able to slide in the track. A string with the grey pulley has some weights hanging down to keep an even tension. Notice a little crank at one end. That was quickly replaced with an electric hand drill. Likewise another hand drill spun the other end.
This worked fine and I made lots of rope.
 
The problem was, however, that I have to be able to turn both ends as I am making rope. I would give one end a few spins, stop and go to the other end. One reason they call this a ‘rope walk’, I guess. Sometimes my admiral would help me, but she is not always available. So back to the KNEX tool box.
 
 
I jury rigged one end with a large and smaller gear driven by a variable speed hand drill. Notice the twister tie on the trigger. Now I can ‘control’ the speed, use a switch at the other end to operate the drill while I was holding a hand drill at the far end.
Still not good enough. KNIEX has several types of electric motors. I mounted one on top of the moving sled, hooked it up with another set of gears.
 
 

 
Now I stand back and watch the action without touching anything except the switches. Besides, the results are much better with a more uniform twist all along the eight foot length of rope.

Per - As I said in the State of WA (where we both live) you must get a permit to build larger than 200 sq. ft. This is why I have 12 X 16 interior space but I have 16 by 18 total building size. As 42rocker mentions I added a 6 foot covered porch. I can sit on the porch and do any sanding and in the past I have setup a table on the porch for spray painting. But I have found that the permit process isn't quite as bad as I thought. So go for it! Submit your design to the county. Besides for all my effort to be legal and avoid permitting I found that when I installed power I needed a permit anyway. Not to mention the plumbing.
 
The siding on my shop is better quality than the house. It is guaranteed for 50 yrs and the roof for 30.

Thank you Wayne, I found it under the "More Reply Options"
 
I went to my local "glass shop" had two sheets of 1/8" plexi-glass cut to order in this case 30"x48"
Perfect for the main portion of the building table.
This way, I can have one plan underneath a protective glass.
It's easy to change the plans as they just slide in-between the two sheets.
Some one in the old type of forum was using this way.

My Atari 512 STFm gave up on me, that with the bandstation and non number modem, otherwise I would be in the game!
In another sentence, I have it going and with automatic updates.
Thank you all for the support and down grading of PC units.
Now it really works. Double
 

Jim may get tired of my saying this but he deserves the credit. I have a bit of a unique story regarding his service. I currently own the Sander and the Table saw. and like everyone else I can say I haven't owned a finer power tool.
 
One Christmas recently a family member tried to give me a very thoughtful present. A feather board for my Table saw. Unfortunately they bought the feather boards for the Micromark saw and Jim does not offer feather boards. When I explained the situation to him he told me to ship all the pieces to him. He took the Micromark pieces and adapted them to his saw. I now have the only custom made feather boards for a Jim saw made by Jim!

Apart from the excellent build quality of his machines, the single other quality that sets them apart is his service.  As another example, I purchased one of Jim's earliest ropewalks.  While the build quality was great I rapidly became very frustrated with the quality of the rope it was producing.  We corresponded for some time and Jim was quite patient.  It became evident that trying to sort the problem by email was not going to work out, so Jim asked me to return the machine (at his cost) for him to have a look at.  Now remember I live down under so this was not cheap   In his words " I can't have a customer on the other side of the world unhappy with the product".
 
It turned out one of the pulley belts had stretched (was too slack) and was causing inconsistent lay up of the rope.  Jim returned the machine to me (again at his cost) and all is working fine now.  Not too many companies would go to that extent!  I have every machine Jim has built and none have let me down yet - that is simple testimony of the quality of his products.
 
Jim you can pay me later - two crates of beer should do it  - sorry folks being flippent - just a very happy customer!
 
cheers
 
Pat

Floyd, do I notice you have gotten your house sold?I am more than happy to come over with a rig and remove the workshop.:-)