David Madison / Sunday, February 16, 2020 / Categories: Meeting Ideas Making Rope Making rope and whipping the ends of the rope is a great hands on activity for a troop meeting. Rope make is an old-school Scouting skill. It was one that intrigued me as a Scout, but had its challenges. We used a paddle with hooks made out of metal clothes hangers to twist twin into rope. While that tool worked, it was slow and challenging to keep the twin from twisting the wrong way. So... Scouts would loose interest quickly. I thought at the time, there must be a better way. My son watches a lot of you-tube. It seems to be the craze for this generation. In his exploration of the youtubers that are out there, he has stumbled on one who breaks down fun projects to a step by step process. His name is 'The King of Random'. In my opinion, he is one of the better youtubers out there. And, as he states in this video, he was a Scout tooo. Here is a link to a video that he made which instructs on how to build a better rope jig out of common items you can pick up at the local hardware store. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddenqErLL0Q For a recent troop meeting where the Scout planning team wanted to make rope, we built 4 of these units. It really did help hold the scouts attention and make it easier to make a rope. The materials cost about $30 per jig. Here is the list of materials for 1 jig: 3 3 – ¼” 5” eye bolts with hex nuts 3 3 medium fender washers 3 3 large fender washers 9 9 lock washers 6 6 hex nuts 3 3 casters with plastic wheels 15 1x6x6 lumber board 14 2x2 4 4 - Wood screws long enough to go through 2” 2 - 7.5 inch – 1x6 1 – 8.5 inch – 2x2 1 -5.5 inch 2x2 Bike tube Previous Article What Every Scout Should Know Next Article Mining for Diamonds Print 2423 Rate this article: 5.0 Tags: Rope Making Scouting TypeFamily ScoutingScoutingVenturingSea Scouts More links Rope Jig - The King of Random David MadisonDavid Madison Other posts by David Madison Contact author Please login or register to post comments.