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Replacing a Rope on a Trapeze
Recently I was asked to replace one of the 1" cotton ropes on a trapeze that had started to untwist. This carbon fiber trapeze was made by Don Carson and was otherwise in excellent condition. The rope did not have an a wire rope core, and the owner wanted the rope replaced with a new one. While your trapezes may not be made exactly the same as this one, I feel that if you ever find yourself needing to replace a rope, this issue of The Flywire might be of some help.
What you need
I replaced the damaged rope with a 1" diameter three-strand twisted cotton rope purchased from VerSales. Based on information from another vendor, this rope has average breaking strength of 3,000 pounds. The color is a creamy white - not bright white. Since the owner wanted the length of the ropes to be adjustable, using a mid-shipman's hitch, I began by cutting an 18-foot length of this rope.
I also needed a rope fid (which I had constructed from PVC pipe), a roll of vinyl electrical tape and a sharp knife.
Prepping for the job
The first step was to remove the fabric elbow cover (this one used Velcro to hold itself on), and the padding around the splice. Don had used some fabric strips and foam sheets that were taped in place. I carefully removed these and set them aside so that I could reuse then when I put it back together. Then, I removed the old rope. I was left with a stainless steel screw-pin anchor shackle that was attached to the trapeze bar by nylon webbing. This is where the new rope would be attached.
Making an eye splice
I began by putting a piece of tape around my cotton rope, one foot from one end. I then untwisted the three strands, up to my tape mark. I then put tape around the ends of each strand to make it easier to tuck the strands when I made the eye splice. Then, I put the untwisted end of the new rope through the body of the shackle and began making the eye splice.
I made five tucks with each strand. This gave me a very secure eye splice. Next, I cut-off the remaining portions of each strand and taped down the ends, so that I had a nice finish to the splice.
Note: Being able to make an eye splice in three-strand twisted rope is a good skill for any aerialist. It is not difficult to learn, but it does take practice to learn to make the splice strong and good looking. There are many good videos on the Internet to help teach you how to make an eye slice, so I will not include instructions here. Also, you can purchase an inexpensive rope fid (the Sea-Dog Stainless Steel Splicing Fid) for $7.99 at Bass Pro Shops and other marine stores.
If you are just starting to learn to make eye splices, I suggest you start by splicing eyes in 1/2" nylon rope. You can purchase this rope locally at any big box store. Once you are are pretty good with making eyes in this rope, you can graduate to 3/4" polyester (Multiline II) rope. Once you are good with that, you should be able splice almost any type of three-strand twisted rope. Remember to go slowly and concentrate on making the strands tight and lay flat.
Reassembling the elbow
Now that the splice was made, I needed to put the fabric padding back in place. Don used the strips of cotton fabric around the shackle to pad it and give it a more rounded shape, similar to the splice. I put these back into place.
Two more pieces/layers of fabric wrap around shackle and the eye splice to add more padding and to begin to give the elbow a tapered shape. These are secured in place with more tape.
Next, foam sheets are put around the shackles. These extend down around the trapeze bar itself. Again, these pieces are taped into place with electrical tape.
Note: Don used duct tape instead of vinyl electrical tape for this purpose. Any good tape should work fine for this job.
All of these layers of cloth and foam, provides a great deal of padding around the hard metal of the shackle which will make it comfortable for the aerialist to hang from the trapeze's elbow by one leg.
Next, the cover is put back into place and secured with the Velcro.
Finishing the end of the rope
Finally, I tied a mid-shipman's hitch near the top of the rope. A mid-shipman's hitch is a prusiking knot similar to a tautline hitch, which will allow the user adjust the length of the line. This was important to this user since this trapeze is used a a school with performers of different heights. I will discuss these knots in more detail in 2016 - more on this below.
If the user had wanted an eye on the end of the rope, I would have stretched the rope, carefully measured and marked it, and then made an eye splice similar to the one I made around the shackle.
Conclusion
It is not unusual for a trapeze rope to get damaged or to just get so dirty that the user wants it replaced, so learning to do simple maintenance on a trapeze, like replacing a rope, is a good skill to have. Replacing this rope took me less than 45 minutes and it looks and feels like new.
Next Month
In the next issue, I will have a "followup" to last month's issue on Freestanding Aerial Rigs, and discus a freestanding aluminum tripod rig made in Canada. I will also start an ongoing feature called "Knot of the Month." In each issue this year (excluding this one) I plan to discuss how to tie at least one knot, and how it can be used in aerial rigging (or at least how I would use it). So, by the end of the year, if you practice these knots as I discuss them each month, you should have at least a dozen knots that you will know how to tie and use. Sounds like fun to me.
Finally, if you would like to suggest a topic for a future issue of The Flywire, please email me at delbert.hall@gmail.com.
Safe rigging.
-Delbert
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