Horrible choice. What is sold as para cord has a poly jacket and will be shredded by the sun in short order There may be a nylon para cord somewhere but it is not what most of these "surplus" places sell. BTDT.
Regular nylon seems to hold up pretty well on my boat and it is in the sun 12 months a year.
I guess there are lots of aftermarket knockoffs of the 550 paracord. The true cord that meets mil spec should hold up well. I have had some up around
10 years holding up a wire around 130 feet long between trees for 2 of my ham radio wire antennas.Here is what is said for the true paracord. a.. ? FEATURES OF THIS MIL-SPEC PARACORD 550: 100% Nylon, EIGHT (not seven!) removable twisted inner strands, each made up of THREE (not two!) twisted inside strands. Includes a visible Manufacturer's Colored Identification Marker Strand of either GREEN or YELLOW. Preshrunk, and will not rot or mildew. Resists ultra-violet light, abrasion and tangling. Average breaking strength is in excess of 600 pounds. b..
Yes!
Why steel?
What does "coated" mean?
Would it not rust?
Yes. I would hang the clothes at the window, and then roll the line down and reverse that flow to bring the clothes back.
That's why it doesn't matter how high the line is, except to point out that you can't reach it from the ground.
I have 1,000 feet of the black parachute cord!
That's a great idea, but it seems to be too thin to hold a typical clothespin.
Does line that thin (about the thickness of a dress shoe shoelace) work for clotheslines?
Dunno. All of mine grow like weeds.
My point exactly. A white oak grows straight up with a very straight grain. That is why they love it for flooring. Red oak is very similar. You can split white oak for firewood with a hatchet.
That is why I suggested braided nylon up around note 2 or 3.
5/16 would hold a clothes pin nicely and be easy on the hands when you were rolling it in and out. If you use the pulley and weight to tension it you will have a lot of capability to handle stretch and sag.
Well, it is in central Florida on the ridge so the "soil" is sand with some organic material in the top 6" or so. They are maybe 5' above the water level in a nearby pond but water surface level can go up and down like a yo-yo...I've seen it vary as much as 9' from one year to the next; that's abnormal but 3' year to year isn't.
The thing is, both trees are at the same - or close to same - elevation growing in the same soil. And close together.
Nah, both are live oaks but a lot of Florida live oaks are hybrids.
It will still rust but the clothes would be protected from rust stains.
I've lived in a house with a clothes line on a pulley running to a pulley on a tree 30 feet away. Even at 30 feet, there was a lot of tension on the line and a lot of sag. It meant carrying a basket of laundry upstairs and leaning out a window to work. Working that way was a little slow, and there was always a risk of falling out. Hanging large items was tricky, and it would mean a lot of tension on the line when a large item was moved out 15 feet. The open window would let in cold or hot air.
I've got a couple of posts 30 feet apart in the yard. The crossbars can hold 4 lines. That's quicker, safer, and more convenient than a pulley upstairs. I wish the posts were closer; at 30 feet, there's a lot of tension on the posts.
The posts are obstacles to mowing and recreation. The house with the upstairs pulley also had an umbrella-style dryer in the back yard. That's the quickest, most convenient, and safest. You stand in one place with the basket on a portable table. The speed is a blessing if it's starting to rain. When you don't need it, you collapse it and lean it in a corner.
I went to Home Depot today, and they had a 1/4" package labeled "clothesline" made up of polyester/polypropylene at $18.21 for
200 feet.The only thing they had larger than 1/4 size was this almost empty roll of 5/16th cotton/polyester "All Purpose Clothesline" at $0.19 per foot:
Or, would you go with the 1/4" nylon/polyester next to it?
Unfortunately, the *only* pulleys Home Depot had were plastic:
I would like a six-inch pulley (to keep the two lines apart) but the biggest I could find was four inches in diameter, in plastic (which, I think, won't last a year).
The largest steel pulley I could find was half that width!
BTW, do you just *knot* the two ends? Or is there a graceful way to connect the two ends so that they can go through the pulley?
I just realized the pulleys only have enough room for the rope itself.
Do you *knot* the ends?
If you knot them, they won't go through the pulleys.
Also, do you use bigger pulleys (ot keep the ropes apart)?
What would protect the clothes from rust stains if the wire rusted?
BTW, here is nylon coated wire:
The coating in which the wire is incased. Like the jpg you linked.
Vinyl, not nylon.
If the rope is 3 strand twist it is easy to splice. Ditto if it is a 4 strand plaid. If it is braided, forget it.
Use four pulleys mounted horizontally, two at each end...you can mount each pair as far apart as you want.
However, what you want to do seems pretty infeasible to be. Yes, you can hang a "chinese anchor" to tension the lines but if you hang much - especially sheets and towels - you are going to need a HEAVY weight.
My bad. Vinyl coated wire.
At first I thought you were joking, but when I saw the coated wire in the store, I realized you were serious.
Besides the fact it will last forever outside in the sun, what is the advantage of the wire over the rope?
Good idea!
Then I could use the two-inch steel pulleys, since the actual width of the pulley wheel wouldn't be what is keeping the two ropes apart.
I didn't understand why a clothesline isn't feasible.
Nobody goes from a window to a tree?
That, I've never done!
I didn't even know you _could_ splice a clothesline rope.
I'll have to look up how, once I buy the right type.
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