Organizing ropes

I put them in individual zip lock bags and label the bag. The thing is that the line comes in a variety of forms. Wrapped on spools of various sizes, bundled loose, wrapped around cards. I just have a little plastic tub full of bags. I also buy line on a project-by-project basis and even then, by phase of the project. The good stuff costs a lot.

I remember when ship modelers made their own "rope walks" to make cable.

So for a sailing war ship, I'd buy the cannon breech rope and the anchor cables. Get all that done, then buy the standing rigging. Get that in and buy the running rigging.

The same is true for eyes, deadeyes and blocks.

Otherwise you go and buy $ 500 worth of stuff and it sits around for years until you get to it.

Bill

To store spools of cordage  I think I might turn to an alternate hobby - fly tying.  Google fly tying spool rack for examples of spool storage.  

Alternately check a fabric store such as Joanne's for spool rtorage

There will be one drawback.  Neither approach will have a model manufacturer's logo affixed. 

Ditto to Ed's post above. My wife is a seamstress and has spool racks to keep her threads sorted by colors. She got them at Joanne's Fabrics. Check them out.

Stay Safe.

Jim 

When I was building ships when I was in school, I would use plastic boxesdesigned for holding those spools.  My mother had a couple for her sewing machine and I got one from her.  They would hold the soppol vertically in their own little spaces and could easily be pulled out, and had a clear lid.

Amazon has all sorts of things like these and your local craft store should too.

Hi Joe:

       I use both types of storage. A fly tying rack for the spools and for the newer ones a sewing/embroidery spool storage box, One available at Cabela's( Fly Tying) or online and Joannes for the embroidery box. This box is my second, I wore the first out!

I keep spolls lose in a workbench drawer.  Spollholders would be nice but I have so much junk on racks already I don't have room for more, so I put up with ocassional tangles.

I save old spolls for putting loose pieces.

I have designed a system that I hope will meet my needs, it has two parts, the active part that will hold the ropes in use with the particular model being build accessible, but out of the way and the same time neat. The second part is to keep non active ropes in a drawer nice and neat.

I am in the process of building the designs using mostly scrap wood and will print some photos when they are done.

Until that time

Joe

Stay Safe.

Jim 

Hi there!

I have finished the parts that I was building, here are photos of the devices:

The first one is a rack that is installed on top of the bench were you will only put the ropes that are in use with the current build ( the blue bar on the middle of the photo)

The second photo is the drawer were the second item is located ( the orange part ) The white item is a prototype for the big rolls, but I have decided that this design will not meet the requirement, it takes too much room, and does not have much capacity, so, eventually it will be re-place for somersetting that I hope will be better.

You will only put in this drawer those ropes that are extra, not in active use, left over from other builds, and general storage of ropes.

In addition, I also have a small bin for those ropes that are to thick and wind up in a flat configuration, these ropes are usually left over, or purchased to meet a specify need, such as ropes for the anchor. This bin are keep in a different drawer due to space limitations.

Well here we are.

In case you are wondering about the colors, there are left over from a toy I made for my grand kids were I used 6 different colors to make it attractive. There is no need to trow away left over paint!

Well, until next time

Joe

Looks like you've got it all under control Joe. Nice set-up.

Stay Safe.

Jim 

Hi there!

I went back to the drawer and realized that the orange part was too long so I could not get to the spools all the way in the back, so, I cut it and set it side by side giving me more places to put spools. I created a small tray using poster board and put it in the back where I put the miscellaneous ropes that I had store in another drawer, making it possible to have all the ropes in one location.

Well, here is it:

Joe