Making a rope ladder with your own hands is done quite often, because such a design can become a convenient fixture in the household. When folded, it takes up very little space and can be completely indispensable when the marching structures cannot be used.
Recommendations on the choice of material for the manufacture of a rope ladder
Do-it-yourself rope ladder can be made on the basis of rope and steps; some craftsmen adapt shovel cuttings for the manufacture of such designs, which can be purchased at construction equipment stores.
For the manufacture of this design, you can use tubes made of plastic. Can be used elements made of an alloy of metal, but in any case it is necessary to use durable workpieces. No matter what material you intend to use, there should be no sharp corners in the elements that could interfere with the movement of the person.
DIY rope ladder, as a rule, is made of wooden bars, which form the basis of the steps. It is necessary to choose those bars that have a thickness of about 7 mm. The cross section of the blanks can be round or square. It is important to choose the right rope for the manufacture of stairs, which can be natural or synthetic.
Rope selection
If you choose natural fibers such as cotton, hemp or linen, the design will be durable.
Synthetic materials like nylon or kapron are considered more practical, as they are characterized by increased wear resistance. In addition, they are resistant to stretching. Among other things, such materials are resistant to all kinds of solvents, including alcohol, gasoline or turpentine. Synthetic materials will not lose their qualities, even if wet. When a rope ladder is made with your own hands, a parameter from 7 to 10 millimeters can be used as the optimal rope thickness. If you use such ropes, they will not cut their hands during use, and will also be reliable.
Ladder options
A suspended staircase should not have a length of more than 15 meters, while the distance between the steps should be equal to 35 cm. Due to the fact that such a staircase is considered portable, its weight should not exceed 20 kg. It is preferable to equip such a design with stops that prevent contact with the wall. The length of the stops can be equal to the limit of 11-22 cm.
Making a ladder by tying a rope around the stairs
Do-it-yourself rope ladder, which will be versatile, can be made only after you manage to find a strong rope. It will need to be cut into two parts, each of which should be equal to 20 meters.
You will need
wooden slats in the amount of 7 pieces. The length of each should be equal to 35 cm, while the thickness can vary from 3 to 6 centimeters. It is necessary to prepare a thick coarse thread, as well as power tools, namely a jigsaw and a drill. In the process of work, it will be necessary to use wooden elements that can be processed with fine-grained sandpaper. And to make it convenient to work on wood, you will need a saw, as well as a construction knife.
Technology of work
Shanks that will perform the functions of steps should be interconnected via two ropes. The surface of the prepared cuttings must be polished in advance.
This will prevent scratches and splintering. The length of the rope should be calculated in such a way that after tying the knots the ladder will be two times shorter than the original length of the rope.
Before you make a rope ladder with your own hands, you need to consider that it will be necessary to exclude the unraveling of the ropes during the work. Their ends must first be scorched for this. Such manipulations can be performed using a hot knife designed to cut material. It is possible to exclude the opening of the rope by another alternative method, which involves wrapping its ends with thick thread. At the next stage, you can begin to work.
Before you begin to tie the crossbar, at the end of each rope you need to tie a loop with a diameter of six cm, this is necessary in order to be able to hang the ladder. Now you need to take the first step and tie a rope on it. The rope should be fastened using the technique of knitting a self-tightening knot - it will ensure high-quality fixing of the crossbar. It should be remembered that if the step is fixed using such a unit, then there is always the possibility that the steps can slip. In order to exclude this, grooves must be made along the edges of each crossbar.
Crossbar Handling
A rope ladder (hanging) with your own hands can be made in such a way that it will last a long time. To do this, its wooden elements need to be coated with paint. You can use for this a special composition that is able to protect the wood, but it is worth remembering that this manipulation can make the crossbars slippery.
Ladder recommendations
If you are thinking about how to make a rope ladder correctly, then you can be guided by the rules of the work presented in the article.
At the next stage, stepping back from the edge about two cm, you need to make incisions with a knife - their width should be 1.5 cm, while the depth is equivalent to three centimeters. Of these, after that it will be necessary to form grooves that have rounded edges. Having retreated from the first step about thirty centimeters, you need to tie the second crossbar. Using the same technology, it is necessary to strengthen all the other steps until the staircase reaches the desired length. Before you finally tie a tight knot around the crossbar, you need to make sure that the elements are strictly parallel to each other. This need is due to the fact that it will be very difficult to remodel the unit after. In the end, you should get a ladder whose length will be 11 meters.
Alternative staircase manufacturing
Before you make a rope ladder, you need to decide what design features it will have. So a ladder can have crossbeams that have openings of a through type. If you decide to use this method of manufacturing the stairs, you will need to prepare the crossbars using a special technology, making holes in them. Through the holes and the ropes will stretch - this will allow you to assemble the ladder in one single design. In this case, you will need to use wooden beams that have a square section. The length of each element will be 40 cm, and for the bundle you will need to use a nylon synthetic rope. In each workpiece with a deviation of 3 centimeters from the edges, holes must be made, the diameter of each of which should be equal to 1.5 cm, while a drill should be used.
After you have made holes on one workpiece, you need to make sure that they correspond to the parameters of the rope.
In the process, when you create a rope ladder with your own hands for a well, you need to perform the above manipulations and carefully process the crossbars using an antiseptic composition. Prepared in advance nylon rope, the length of which should be equal to 10 cm, must be cut into two parts. The edges in this case should also be treated with a harsh thread, but hot steel can also be used.
Construction assembly
When the children’s rope ladder is done with their own hands according to the above technology, in the next step, at both ends of the rope you need to make loops and tighten the knots well. The free ends of the rope must be pulled through the holes of the first crossbar. When assembling, you need to fix the crossbars between the bars that are nailed to the board. The long residue should be folded into a loop and raised above the crossbar, and then wrapped around a rope knot. Ultimately, you should get a step that is secured between the two nodes. Using the same technology, it is necessary to assemble the remaining steps.
Making stairs without a crossbar
Before you make a rope ladder with your own hands, you should consider that if there is no time to carry out a structure that has crossbars, you can make it in another way. A rope will be used as steps. In this case, it is tied in loops. A similar weaving technique is different in that the result is a knot. It will be possible to put legs in them, which will allow you to transfer the weight to the loops and relax a bit. If you are thinking about how to tie a rope ladder, then you have to use the so-called burlak loop, which is quite simple to do. To do this, twist the rope so that it turns out something like a figure eight. The lower tails of this element can be stretched, and the upper part of the loop can be stretched into the formed circle. Then the loop can be untied to use it for other purposes.
Making a rope ladder is much cheaper to do on your own, and not to purchase in a store. In addition, you can make the design the right size. Good luck!