@@LoganKearsley that most likely meant they were made not only with the correct technique but also the same materials romans used (including wood, probably not treated). I also love the idea of all of these builds not going to waste, but I doubt you could get a legit museum to show all of this. In the end, it probably comes down to how small is the city/museum you're trying to make the exhibition in. The smaller it is, the more likely they're willing to display this stuff.
@@LoganKearsley 🔴 God has said in the Quran: { Say [O Muhammad] "If you should love Allah then follow me [so] Allah will love you and forgive you your sins And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful" ( 3:31 )} 📖Quran
That's a beautiful build. I hope you store those things well when you're done with them so they're preserved. Maybe a museum somewhere would like the crane.
In regards to the home made rope's strength, did you go through the process of soaking and stretching the finished rope? by gently pulling and holding tension on the rope it can help align the lengths of fibers/cordage to share the load more evenly. Regardless, dont be disappointed with it. we know how knots make cables weaker and the weather conditions wouldnt have helped either!
Which is why knots where not used for many connections. The connections they had would have been tied back in to itself making a loop. Knots would have been used at the other end. Sometimes I think these people forgets the internet and books exists. I am almost sure there is a book from the early 1900s on production of hemp ropes that one could get from a local library.
@@kameljoe21 you look at everything going great and you single on the one thing that went wrong. you realize how much books should've been read for every single aspect of the project to be perfectly researched beforehand? best way to never do anything is to attempt to be perfectly prepared beforehand.
I love how things have progressed from your original sandwich. As for lifting heavy things, I suggest water. 1M³ of water weights 1000kg, or 2200lbs. It's safe and easy to transport. Plus if it drops and breaks, no one will get hurt, just wet. It's not as dramatic as a car, but you can progress slowly lifting more and more weight in small steps as you add more water. Ibc water totes are easy to get and cheap. They can hold up 1250L
I second this. It would also be accurate to the most common use for cranes in Rome, which was to transport water from the wells at the bottom of the city to the buildings at the top.
I third this. 1000l water tanks are standardized and should be easy+cheap to procure. Added benefit is you don't even need a scale if you know the volume. 1l=1kg
If a bag of water drops and hits you, it's going to do just as much damage as anything else with equivalent mass. For most failure scenarios (i.e. failure of the rigging and not the container), an IBC tote full of water is gonna be just as dangerous as a container full of the same weight of lead shot (which I'm using as an example because it can also be added in tiny increments). The safest thing to do is establishing safe zones and safety procedures based on worst-case failure scenarios, and then gradually increasing the weight. EDIT: just to be clear, I'm not saying water in an IBC tote is a bad idea for gradually increasing weight. I actually think it's a great idea. I just wanted to point out that it doesn't negate any of the safety concerns, and in terms of rigging water is just as dangerous as anything else.
@@DarbukaDave that's not completely true. Water is an incompressible fluid, so it can't store potential energy on impact. While other materials might act as a spring, compress on impact and then explode into shrapnel, water will always only pour out and splash around. Water barrels are often used as "impact attenuators" on highways for these exact reasons. And one more advantage: a high speed water droplet to the face is much safer than a rock or metal shard at the same speed. This is not to say that safety zones aren't necessary, but considering these factors, if we're lifting a water tank, the keep-out radius can be a lot smaller.
"Apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" ~ John Cleese
I am sure people of next generation will ask same thing for the Americans. It is such a large culture influence which still shakes far away kingdoms and aliens cultures. Such as Roman, wine, Roman coinage, Roman coins and Roman historiography and above all Roman luxury and way of life. Tremendous effect and mostly infatuated by Aristocratic families all over the world.
I was thinking the same thing. Probably not an issue at the weights they are testing now but if you approach the max capacity and that object begins to drop, whoever's in there better keep arms and legs in the ride at all times.
His only real issue with the gears was he wasn't aware of tolerance in his design and how sometimes it can be ignored and in this instance it couldn't be. Wood has high friction potential and to have a gear spin on an axle you need a degree of tolerance to allow it to rotate without being impeded. However the distance you tolerate as a gap between the drive shaft and the occupied gear creates a means of movement that was unintentional know as wobble. Too much wobble will induce binding with gears. The only way to fix this is to decrease the distance of tolerance the gear has on the drive shaft and to add lubricant or put something on either side of the gear to lock it's path of motion to only allow for rotation. What you're mentioning with a clock depthing tool is meant for highly machined parts that already meet the standard requirements for tolerance and it simply helps align them properly for the best possible rotation. That simply wouldn't help in this instance. The parts do not meant the required tolerances it can't function yet let alone be made to function at a peak.
Honestly while the entire project and effort is incredible, I'm most impressed with the rope. Not only did it come out looking incredible good and functioning well, the time and effort really shows! This is an incredible improvement over previous ropes you guys have made! It's just so impressive what you guys are achieving!
Entertainment rigger here. Currently studying for my ETCP certification. That homemade rope is super cool but I thought I could weigh in on a couple of things. First thing is knots. Every knot decreases the efficiency of your rope but by different amounts. If you have to use a knot go with a bowline or a figure eight. Those knots are 70% effective, meaning that your rope will break at 70% of its original breaking strength. Bowline knots ate what we use in the industry. An eye splice would be even better at 95% efficiency. The Marlinspike Sailor is a great book with pretty simple instructions on how to do any splicing. Next is design factors. When you inspect lifting hardware you'll see it's marked with WLL or SWL for Working Load Limit or Safe Working Load. Those numbers are a ratio of the average breaking strength of that hardware. A 5:1 design factor is pretty standard, but when flying people or dynamic loads over people we'll use up to a 10:1 ratio. So basically, take the theoretical breaking strength of your rope and divide that by five. That would be a good WLL for that rope with a huge safety margin. The last bit in not a huge deal, but it's worth mentioning. The way you've got that pallet rigged up is a form of bridle. It's worth paying attention to because when your lifting anything that's not on one single straight vertical line you exert horizontal forces onto it as well as vertical forces. The length of the ropes you use will adjust the angle of their apex and will affect the forces on those legs pretty dramatically. Hold your hand in front of you and raise your index and middle finger. That's a good rule of thumb to get you close to a 30° angle. Index finger and pinky is close to 60°. Index and thumb 90° and thumb and pinky is close to 120°. Never, for any reason, lift anything on a bridle of more that 120°. Super danger! The shorter the legs of your bridle, the larger that angle will be. The larger the angle, the more force will be exerted on those legs. Finally I didn't notice you do it, but be sure not to simply loop around the underneath of your pallet. I know that may seem like it would create an extra bit of safety, but what it actually does is increase the horizontal forces to a dangerous level pretty quickly. I hope that information helps. I think your channel is super cool and I would hate to see one of yall injured in a bad way.
there is a famous saying in germany. 'kranplätze müssen verdichtet werden'. which roughly translate into 'crane ground have to be compacted. which is beautiful.
I looked up where that comes from and with my little knowledge of the German language, all I can say is, "Mein Mann war sauer..." Like, he was fuming mad.
I love that you’re testing your homemade rope. Ive only ever done the same small things you have, and never really tested it to the same extreme. A lot of people mentioned the guedelon castle when you built the wheel, and I feel like you’re doing the same thing on a smaller scale. They actually noted that safety helmets and store-bought ropes for their cranes are two of the few modern precautions they take, and I feel like you did a great job showing why.
Havent finished yet so maybe addressed. I would add a ratchet system to help hold the load when lifting. If you need to lower it, you could have a release mechanism built in along with a lever/pad system for a brake. (Or ratchet/pawl system the opposite way to hold while lowering)
I can not tell you the number of times I have seen tow cabs teetered into the air from improper rigging to the vehicle being recovered. The most impressive/scary time was when our Kenworth tow truck was trying to pull a cement mixer truck out of a muddy construction site. Even with the legs deployed at the back the front wheels of the Kenworth ended up about 4 feet into the air.
Love your progress so far! Love how far into industry you're getting! I have a few suggestions for the stability of your crane setup. The closer to vertical the arm is, the more the weight is transfered into the arm vs the rope, the more you can lift. You can explain it like shortening the "load" end of the teeter-totter. You can also extend the frame attached to the wheel past the load. This will eliminate the pivot entirely and give the option of adding legs to support the arm rather than ropes from behind. On the other hand this will limit the size of what you can lift as well as portability. For stakes you could Forge corkscrew - shaped anchors that twist into the ground like modern dog - anchors
Also another option (That was traditionally used on treadwheel dock cranes) was to move the wheel further back away from the center-mass of the base (So the wheel itself becomes the counterweight, much like how the engine in modern cranes is mounted)
@@NikkiTheOtter I thought about mentioning this as an option as well, but decided against it because of how much bigger it would make the whole thing. Thanks for bringing it up! Now that you mention that, extra stones can be used as counterweight I guess too
Absolutely love all the videos.. This crane is awesome how simple the design is but its so effective.. Only concern is that the anchoring rods for the crane may be a little short if you are looking to lift heavy loads.. Another option is using a counter weight keep the crane stable.
When you use pulleys, that changes the force geometry so that the A-frame needs to be more vertical or anhcored more securely. You can't hold it with tent pegs, you need poles. That's what Romans used.
I’ve made that same kind of rope twister from Grant’s old TKOR video! It was used in a popsicle stick bridge building competition to turn dental floss into rope for cables!
I think the issue with the gears might be that the gear teeth do not temper off into more of a point than a cylinder. Using cylinders which don't turn into a flattened end or a pointy end, means the ends will hook into the wood instead of sliding off, when you're trying to rotate it. The angle of the tips of the gear teeth should be higher than the angle of (in math terms) the normal line at the point where the gear teeth disconnects from the other gear.
No the issue is purely tolerance of measure. His gears are all wobbling and therefore binding due to the fact neither the drive shaft or them are locked to only one path of movement being rotation. The gap between the hole in the gears and the thickness of the driveshaft is the only issue. The wider the space the more ability it has to wobble. The narrower it is the more friction which is why it's easier to leave tolerance space however that spaces lets the gear wobble and the more they each wobble the easier they bind. they need to be glued or the need something on either side of the shaft that stop them from wobbling
@@SapioiT his design was an ideal replica of senku's gear design which are actually solid. The teeth fit fine and the overall roundness and ratios of diameters were good. I've done a lot with engineering and mechanics with many different materials ranging from, clay, wood, paper, machined parts like legos or even plastic, metal, ect. And while not all issues translate between materials some issues are universal. In this instance just by looking at the gears I can say the only functional issue is the wobble due to tolerance of measure. It's the only variable that needs to be altered to achieve a successful performance. The teeth fit and the ratio is correct. The failure is in the pathing which is isolated to the drive shaft and the gears axles
this was a great video, andy! I really liked the narration and how it was put together. Was really easy to follow along with what was happening - more like this please!
I've been watching for a few years and I have to say, this is one of the most underrated channels on youtube. So I just want to give a huge shoutout to Andy and the team for keeping making these videos for the loyal fan base even if the deserved views aren't always there. The fans appreciate you and all the hard work you guys put in!
If you round the interior Square beam, you could attach a guide bar that uses the central beam as a roller, to allow something to hold while using the tread wheel, allowing for much higher comfort and safety.
I love this video and the ending with the real time slowmo flying! You peaked my attention when you started making rope. I've made tons of rope when I was a kid, Boy Scouts. We had a similar machine but super simple with three hooks and a crank. I've never seen an ancient rope making machines with gears before. I was intrigued that you tried making one with gears, because I've made wooden gears and they are really hard to get working smoothly. I went on the hunt for the style I used and found it; the Martin Meyer Rope-making machine. Mine had three hooks and Meyer's had four hooks, I think four hooks will make a stronger rope. The machine is simple, no gears just long bent hooks and two boards. We did this in scouts, combine two planks together to form an "L" shape, make two. Add a horizontal platform, to stand on, between the lower legs of the "L". Add a wide vertical board at the top of the "L", this will be your anchor plate for the hooks. Drill holes through this anchor plate that will fit the hook shafts. Take a separate piece of wide wood plank and drill holes that match the pattern of your anchor plate holes. Add a dowel to the plank you just drilled holes in, to make a crank handle. Make as many hooks as you have holes in your anchor plate, they need to be long enough to go through both planks with 4-6 inches between and 1 inch out the back of the crank plank. Work one hook at a time and while it's still hot and bendable. Heat hook, shove through anchored plate, bend 90deg, 4-6 inches down make another bend at 90 deg, shove though crank plank, don't bend last bit of shaft till all hooks are bent. Your hook shafts will look like a 90 deg "Z". Make all the hooks and bend them all the same length, except the last inch. I would use a piece of flat bar to put against the planks to aid in the bending/pounding and to give a space. Put all hook shafts through the crank plank, place your flat bar and bend over the last inch of all the shafts, locking them all together, but giving them space to move. You should be able to stand on the lower platform and be able to crank the machine. No gears, just bent shafts/axles.
I think the gears jamming up in the prototype you showed might have been caused by simply not enough stiffness in the frame of the construction. You can see all the gears wobbling around in the box. If front and back plate were coupled to each other firmly, the axis of the hooks wouldnt wobble, therefore the gears would be straight.
Hemp naval ropes were always treated with oils and waxes, or bitumen/tar. They also used an eye that is woven back into the rope with tapered tails that are sometimes whipped down in place. Sometimes the eye is supported by a metal piece the helps reduce the bend radius.. This should significantly increase pull strength and abrasion resistance. It may also reduce the internal heat buildup within the rope fibers while increasing the hold between the fibers. The woven eye retains nearly the full strength of the rope and allows the weight to be distributed evenly through the entire rope throughout the eye. A knot is going to reduce rope strength by about half by isolating fibers and creating asymmetrical force distribution while also increasing heat, friction, and abrasion as the knot moves a tiny amount under strain. Rope is a huge investment so this may be a thought worth exploring.
you home made rope also needs to be wetted and then waxed, keeping an ideal wet/dry ratio extends how well the rope will work, as the fiber if it dries out too much becomes very brittle (thus why you wax them or oil them)
You should try to pour a very deep cement pile in the ground, and anchor a hook into the concrete itself. Then you can use your scalr and see how much force it can really pull! Quick tip about the pile.. make it deep, and flare out the hole at the bottom, like an upside down T. That should help make it strong enough not to come out of the ground!
If in the design phase you used longer lumber, to allow you to make a platform on which to store weights (i.e. rocks), then you would have been able to add weight there and continue the experiment, instead of having the crane begin to lift off.
This is amazing! It's always fascinating for me how we as humans reached modern industrial technologies and seeing how it all started from so simple designs carved in wood, centuries of trying, failures, and the unbelievable determination of engineers. Keep up the good work! I love how your equipment grows as you unlock more items so they then can be bought, just like in a game. And the ending scene with the superhero pose was hilarious! XDD
I miss Lauren and her giggles. I really hope she comes back soon. However, I do have to say that these new guys really seem to have improved things with their woodworking and smithing skills.
The reason we were alarmed by the stakes coming out was because we did hammer them in the ground in the opposite angle, it was pulling the stakes out through the ground horizontally.
you really need to add some type of handrail on the inside of the treadwheel so that there's less chance of someone losing an arm if they stumble or put their hand somewhere they shouldn't. even just a hanging bar that can freely spin on the inside would do a lot, something to balance yourself against will eliminate about 95% of the risk
There's a few easy ways to multiply the amount of anchoring you can do - and you don't need to use metal anchors either. If you put a stick horizontally on the ground, and tie off your rope to that stick, and put a few stakes to hold that horizontal stick down, you can multiply the anchoring force by six times, easily. Using wood stakes also means that the cross-section will be larger, making it less likely to cut through the ground like your metal stakes did.
Great video and excellent job! For lifting heavy loads, You need to add contra weight to crane in that part, what was lifting from ground.. That's what modern big cranes have.. 😉
Once you've worked out the kinks it would be neat to see you lift quarry blocks. They are ~4000lbs and available at many modern quarries. Probably the closest thing to their original purpose too.
I would guess that the belt/pulley for winding the string/rope allows for 'slipping'. Basically the rope/cord tightness is limited by the friction of the leather belt against a wood pulley. You did mention taking a deep dive into gears, it would be interesting to make another rope with intermeshing gears and a long arm on the input gear and see if the breaking point changes. I suspect it will
A suggestion you could make the bottom run of the tread wheel longer both ends one to give a more center point closer to the object you are lifting and o bit out the back to put weight on, aswell as a toothed gear to stop it from running backwards
Granted, I haven’t made rope since I was in Scouts. But when I did it, we did it by hand with a relatively simple machine, twisting. Could be worth a look
I really hope you had an engineer look at the design to analyze any dangerous failure modes of the system and testing procedure. Really cool video though :)
You guys would be my favorite neighbors... despite the scary garage fire. I would always be peeking over my fence to check out your crazy projects and offering any help you might need. Hahaha!
I would like to see you take another crack at making rope. From what I've heard, removing the wooden part of hemp is pretty well accomplished by a pair of crushing rollers. Though, I'm not sure how you'll accomplish that using the tools at your command.
Try hand weaving a small rope for the rope making wheels and make a gripping grid for the rope on the wheels, tie the small rope on the wheels as tight as possible.
Taking some notes from how ropes typically break in rock climbing, ropes tend to snap on points that hit sharp edges. If I were to make a suggestion that helps the longevity of your rope, I would suggest spooling it onto a cylindrical piece of timber instead of a cuboid piece.
I feel like Engineers are going to be terrified by how crudely they build things but it makes sense because they're trying to accurately represent the Medieval Times. 7:42
a ton is only about 240 gallons of water. you could get a plastic container that large to lift for a couple hundred bucks at the most to precisely test the capacity. 1 gallon is about 8.34 gallons according to google so quite easy to calculate.
If you want to get even more power, I might suggest building a capstan, like what was used on Age of Exploration sailing ships. It’s a very simple design - just a vertical spindle and a ratchet to hold the tension. Then, you can have (for an eight bar design) anywhere from 8-24 or more people working together to provide effort to the machines you’re driving with it. Also, you could in theory have draft animals turn the capstan if you could find someone willing to let you borrow their horses!
The gear system you were trying to build looked like the failure was due to the lack of stability in the gears. (IE: lots of wobble). Did you look into bearings, of different design to either mount between the gears and the frame walls holding things in place, metal gears that you can secure a little tighter than you can with wood, a combination of metal gears and bearings? Maybe instead of doing it all within your team, I remember you've worked with people who have gotten a bit closer to mastering different aspects of tech from the time frames you work in, so maybe contract out to them. (1 team to make metal gears, 1 team to do bearings, another team to work on the frame to mount everything together. Then you all come together as a group and assemble the stuff.). The biggest problem with wood is that unless you have some kind of extremely durable hard wood, your going to be dealing with shrink and expansion, wear and chipping, stress fractures, moisture that can rot or freeze and break the wood.
Hey one of the reasons the rope broke is it is weaker when you tie it. How not2 goes I to this in depth. Splicing will retain the strength. Also screw ground anchors will help.
I think this is a fantastic video!! You did an excellent job proving anyone could produce these feats of engineering with simple machines and all the time/manpower that people had in the past. Keep up the awesome content!!!
7:56, just looking at that I see how could shift the axil out of the foot wheel and make it safer as a result, still not reliable but better than accidentally slamming your head into the axil **Edit:** After thinking about it further I realise removing the axil is key to providing the ability to fix one's orientation/position/etc in the middle while still keeping the advantage of weight = power. Once the axel is removed you can instead add handles that rotate with you, in other words they need to be rounded off where they slot into the axil holes so that they don't turn with the wheel. So yes, take that side trip for the gear mechanisms. I would hazard a guess that because the wheel vs the gear are of different sizes that's causing the jam unless you instead make the gaps between the smaller vs the bigger proportionally smaller. Think of it like drawing the radius of the wheel/gear and placing the spokes at the end of the drawn radius. Also I would expect the spoke heights vs the space until the bars needs to be the same.
An important rule of rating for crane saftey; take your weakest compnant, calculate what it should hold. Test it to 80% of that load. then rate it at HALF the test load
Just a suggestion for something to try to lift: why not a large water container? That way you can hook it up safely, then fill it before lifting. Also one meter squared would give you a tonne so you wouldn't need a digital scale to check, you can just do it by volume.
15:45 You might already know, but depending on which kinds of knots you use, they can _severely_ weaken your rope! Perhaps look into climbing rope knots and related techniques.
Find yourself a 1000 litre IBC. It's a plastic cubic liquid container with a built in metal pallet and protective cage around it. They normally have a valve on the bottom and a screw top lid. Measure the base weight of it, then add water so how ever much weight you need. 1,000 litres = 1,000kg = 1 metric ton = ~1.1 US ton = ~2,200lbs = ~264gal (BTW, notice how the metric system at most only needs to move the decimal point whilst the US requires a maths doctorate to work out?)
It'd be interesting to connect an alternator to the wheel and see how much electricity you could produce. It's a bit further down the technological track, but maybe once you clear the industrial revolution you could revisit it :)
I once braided about 3 meters of rope by myself, just on an ADHD whim. I wanted to know how, I looked it up, I did it. I didn't end up with particularly good quality rope, but it was rope. I actually made it out of kitchen twine. I'm not sure exactly how strong it was, but my dog has damaged lines made for 100+lb dogs before, and didn't do much more than get dirt on this thing. So, not bad, I think. I keep wanting to do it again, but I never have the spoons. I'd love to have a machine like that for braiding rope.
A quary would be the perfect place to test, the climbing community has more or less perfected anchoring stuff into stone and you have loads of heavy stones to lift
Why didn't you use a upright beam to support the A frame that was actually lifting the weight? It would have helped support the weight as well as helping the wheel stay on the floor.
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I am curious, for each hundred years from 10,000 BC to today, what do you think are the 60 most important inventions that you haven't built yet?
Please make glass with diatomaceous earth
I love how big your builds have gotten. It is really impressive. Maybe you could get a display at a local museum for people to see your work.
The Museum of Idaho had a huge exhibit of reconstructed Roman and Renaissance machines a few years ago.
@@LoganKearsley that most likely meant they were made not only with the correct technique but also the same materials romans used (including wood, probably not treated).
I also love the idea of all of these builds not going to waste, but I doubt you could get a legit museum to show all of this. In the end, it probably comes down to how small is the city/museum you're trying to make the exhibition in. The smaller it is, the more likely they're willing to display this stuff.
@@LoganKearsley 🔴 God has said in the Quran:
{ Say [O Muhammad] "If you should love Allah then follow me [so] Allah will love you and forgive you your sins And Allah is Forgiving and Merciful" ( 3:31 )}
📖Quran
@@1islam1 preach somewhere relevant
Yes! And the new woodworker! He's cutting mortise and tenons! The block and tackle he made in this episode was really beautiful.
That's a beautiful build. I hope you store those things well when you're done with them so they're preserved. Maybe a museum somewhere would like the crane.
lol I should’ve guessed night hawk watched this channel
In regards to the home made rope's strength,
did you go through the process of soaking and stretching the finished rope? by gently pulling and holding tension on the rope it can help align the lengths of fibers/cordage to share the load more evenly.
Regardless, dont be disappointed with it. we know how knots make cables weaker and the weather conditions wouldnt have helped either!
Which is why knots where not used for many connections. The connections they had would have been tied back in to itself making a loop. Knots would have been used at the other end.
Sometimes I think these people forgets the internet and books exists. I am almost sure there is a book from the early 1900s on production of hemp ropes that one could get from a local library.
@@kameljoe21 you look at everything going great and you single on the one thing that went wrong. you realize how much books should've been read for every single aspect of the project to be perfectly researched beforehand?
best way to never do anything is to attempt to be perfectly prepared beforehand.
I love how things have progressed from your original sandwich.
As for lifting heavy things, I suggest water. 1M³ of water weights 1000kg, or 2200lbs. It's safe and easy to transport. Plus if it drops and breaks, no one will get hurt, just wet. It's not as dramatic as a car, but you can progress slowly lifting more and more weight in small steps as you add more water.
Ibc water totes are easy to get and cheap. They can hold up 1250L
I second this. It would also be accurate to the most common use for cranes in Rome, which was to transport water from the wells at the bottom of the city to the buildings at the top.
I third this. 1000l water tanks are standardized and should be easy+cheap to procure. Added benefit is you don't even need a scale if you know the volume. 1l=1kg
You can get a 275 gallon ibc tank for $75
If a bag of water drops and hits you, it's going to do just as much damage as anything else with equivalent mass. For most failure scenarios (i.e. failure of the rigging and not the container), an IBC tote full of water is gonna be just as dangerous as a container full of the same weight of lead shot (which I'm using as an example because it can also be added in tiny increments).
The safest thing to do is establishing safe zones and safety procedures based on worst-case failure scenarios, and then gradually increasing the weight.
EDIT: just to be clear, I'm not saying water in an IBC tote is a bad idea for gradually increasing weight. I actually think it's a great idea.
I just wanted to point out that it doesn't negate any of the safety concerns, and in terms of rigging water is just as dangerous as anything else.
@@DarbukaDave that's not completely true. Water is an incompressible fluid, so it can't store potential energy on impact. While other materials might act as a spring, compress on impact and then explode into shrapnel, water will always only pour out and splash around.
Water barrels are often used as "impact attenuators" on highways for these exact reasons.
And one more advantage: a high speed water droplet to the face is much safer than a rock or metal shard at the same speed.
This is not to say that safety zones aren't necessary, but considering these factors, if we're lifting a water tank, the keep-out radius can be a lot smaller.
1:44 Addressing the problem is a huge step toward confronting your Wheel making addiction Andy
"Apart from sanitation, medicine, education, wine, public order, irrigation, roads, a fresh water system and public health, what have the Romans ever done for us?" ~ John Cleese
i almost made it a whole day with out thinking about the roman empire...
Cranes
I am sure people of next generation will ask same thing for the Americans.
It is such a large culture influence which still shakes far away kingdoms and aliens cultures.
Such as Roman, wine, Roman coinage, Roman coins and Roman historiography and above all Roman luxury and way of life. Tremendous effect and mostly infatuated by Aristocratic families all over the world.
@pallavarora7467 all the American relics they will find will have made in China stamped on it
capitalism baby
In regards to safety, you may need a changeable ratcheting gear that keeps the load from moving the wheel. while someone is in it.
I was thinking the same thing. Probably not an issue at the weights they are testing now but if you approach the max capacity and that object begins to drop, whoever's in there better keep arms and legs in the ride at all times.
For the gears, proper depthing is really important. Look up clock depthing tools. Building something along those lines would help you a great deal.
plus design an "actual" tooth geometry, they aren't particularly hard to cut out, hardest part is creating them, but we know it was possible.
@@killingtimeitself given the pinion design they’re using, I believe they want a cycloidal profile in particular.
His only real issue with the gears was he wasn't aware of tolerance in his design and how sometimes it can be ignored and in this instance it couldn't be. Wood has high friction potential and to have a gear spin on an axle you need a degree of tolerance to allow it to rotate without being impeded. However the distance you tolerate as a gap between the drive shaft and the occupied gear creates a means of movement that was unintentional know as wobble. Too much wobble will induce binding with gears. The only way to fix this is to decrease the distance of tolerance the gear has on the drive shaft and to add lubricant or put something on either side of the gear to lock it's path of motion to only allow for rotation. What you're mentioning with a clock depthing tool is meant for highly machined parts that already meet the standard requirements for tolerance and it simply helps align them properly for the best possible rotation. That simply wouldn't help in this instance. The parts do not meant the required tolerances it can't function yet let alone be made to function at a peak.
I definitely love how clearly your woodworking has improved over the years. Also your builds in general, that rope is beautiful
Part of that of course is that they've built better tools than the rocks they started with!
Honestly while the entire project and effort is incredible, I'm most impressed with the rope. Not only did it come out looking incredible good and functioning well, the time and effort really shows! This is an incredible improvement over previous ropes you guys have made!
It's just so impressive what you guys are achieving!
Entertainment rigger here. Currently studying for my ETCP certification. That homemade rope is super cool but I thought I could weigh in on a couple of things.
First thing is knots. Every knot decreases the efficiency of your rope but by different amounts. If you have to use a knot go with a bowline or a figure eight. Those knots are 70% effective, meaning that your rope will break at 70% of its original breaking strength. Bowline knots ate what we use in the industry. An eye splice would be even better at 95% efficiency. The Marlinspike Sailor is a great book with pretty simple instructions on how to do any splicing.
Next is design factors. When you inspect lifting hardware you'll see it's marked with WLL or SWL for Working Load Limit or Safe Working Load. Those numbers are a ratio of the average breaking strength of that hardware. A 5:1 design factor is pretty standard, but when flying people or dynamic loads over people we'll use up to a 10:1 ratio. So basically, take the theoretical breaking strength of your rope and divide that by five. That would be a good WLL for that rope with a huge safety margin.
The last bit in not a huge deal, but it's worth mentioning. The way you've got that pallet rigged up is a form of bridle. It's worth paying attention to because when your lifting anything that's not on one single straight vertical line you exert horizontal forces onto it as well as vertical forces. The length of the ropes you use will adjust the angle of their apex and will affect the forces on those legs pretty dramatically. Hold your hand in front of you and raise your index and middle finger. That's a good rule of thumb to get you close to a 30° angle. Index finger and pinky is close to 60°. Index and thumb 90° and thumb and pinky is close to 120°. Never, for any reason, lift anything on a bridle of more that 120°. Super danger! The shorter the legs of your bridle, the larger that angle will be. The larger the angle, the more force will be exerted on those legs.
Finally I didn't notice you do it, but be sure not to simply loop around the underneath of your pallet. I know that may seem like it would create an extra bit of safety, but what it actually does is increase the horizontal forces to a dangerous level pretty quickly.
I hope that information helps. I think your channel is super cool and I would hate to see one of yall injured in a bad way.
I feel like the rope machine should have warranted a whole video unto itself. Because that looks impressive for just being one step
there is a famous saying in germany. 'kranplätze müssen verdichtet werden'. which roughly translate into 'crane ground have to be compacted. which is beautiful.
I looked up where that comes from and with my little knowledge of the German language, all I can say is, "Mein Mann war sauer..."
Like, he was fuming mad.
I love that you’re testing your homemade rope. Ive only ever done the same small things you have, and never really tested it to the same extreme.
A lot of people mentioned the guedelon castle when you built the wheel, and I feel like you’re doing the same thing on a smaller scale. They actually noted that safety helmets and store-bought ropes for their cranes are two of the few modern precautions they take, and I feel like you did a great job showing why.
Havent finished yet so maybe addressed.
I would add a ratchet system to help hold the load when lifting. If you need to lower it, you could have a release mechanism built in along with a lever/pad system for a brake. (Or ratchet/pawl system the opposite way to hold while lowering)
I can not tell you the number of times I have seen tow cabs teetered into the air from improper rigging to the vehicle being recovered. The most impressive/scary time was when our Kenworth tow truck was trying to pull a cement mixer truck out of a muddy construction site. Even with the legs deployed at the back the front wheels of the Kenworth ended up about 4 feet into the air.
5:01 ANDY! Phrasing!
Love your progress so far! Love how far into industry you're getting! I have a few suggestions for the stability of your crane setup.
The closer to vertical the arm is, the more the weight is transfered into the arm vs the rope, the more you can lift. You can explain it like shortening the "load" end of the teeter-totter.
You can also extend the frame attached to the wheel past the load. This will eliminate the pivot entirely and give the option of adding legs to support the arm rather than ropes from behind. On the other hand this will limit the size of what you can lift as well as portability.
For stakes you could Forge corkscrew - shaped anchors that twist into the ground like modern dog - anchors
Also another option (That was traditionally used on treadwheel dock cranes) was to move the wheel further back away from the center-mass of the base (So the wheel itself becomes the counterweight, much like how the engine in modern cranes is mounted)
yeah also you could use an A frame instead of just an straight arm to lift
@@NikkiTheOtter I thought about mentioning this as an option as well, but decided against it because of how much bigger it would make the whole thing. Thanks for bringing it up!
Now that you mention that, extra stones can be used as counterweight I guess too
Absolutely love all the videos.. This crane is awesome how simple the design is but its so effective.. Only concern is that the anchoring rods for the crane may be a little short if you are looking to lift heavy loads.. Another option is using a counter weight keep the crane stable.
When you use pulleys, that changes the force geometry so that the A-frame needs to be more vertical or anhcored more securely. You can't hold it with tent pegs, you need poles. That's what Romans used.
Dude that's badass and I now want to build one
I’ve made that same kind of rope twister from Grant’s old TKOR video! It was used in a popsicle stick bridge building competition to turn dental floss into rope for cables!
May he forever rest in peace
I think the issue with the gears might be that the gear teeth do not temper off into more of a point than a cylinder. Using cylinders which don't turn into a flattened end or a pointy end, means the ends will hook into the wood instead of sliding off, when you're trying to rotate it. The angle of the tips of the gear teeth should be higher than the angle of (in math terms) the normal line at the point where the gear teeth disconnects from the other gear.
the shafts weren't even close to parallel to begin with
No the issue is purely tolerance of measure. His gears are all wobbling and therefore binding due to the fact neither the drive shaft or them are locked to only one path of movement being rotation. The gap between the hole in the gears and the thickness of the driveshaft is the only issue. The wider the space the more ability it has to wobble. The narrower it is the more friction which is why it's easier to leave tolerance space however that spaces lets the gear wobble and the more they each wobble the easier they bind. they need to be glued or the need something on either side of the shaft that stop them from wobbling
@@trentcoble1312: That, too, adds to the issue of the machination in the video. It's probably one of those "all of the above" kind of situation.
@@SapioiT his design was an ideal replica of senku's gear design which are actually solid. The teeth fit fine and the overall roundness and ratios of diameters were good. I've done a lot with engineering and mechanics with many different materials ranging from, clay, wood, paper, machined parts like legos or even plastic, metal, ect. And while not all issues translate between materials some issues are universal. In this instance just by looking at the gears I can say the only functional issue is the wobble due to tolerance of measure. It's the only variable that needs to be altered to achieve a successful performance. The teeth fit and the ratio is correct. The failure is in the pathing which is isolated to the drive shaft and the gears axles
Interesting background. Thanks for sharing, @@trentcoble1312 !
this was a great video, andy! I really liked the narration and how it was put together. Was really easy to follow along with what was happening - more like this please!
I've been watching for a few years and I have to say, this is one of the most underrated channels on youtube. So I just want to give a huge shoutout to Andy and the team for keeping making these videos for the loyal fan base even if the deserved views aren't always there. The fans appreciate you and all the hard work you guys put in!
If you round the interior Square beam, you could attach a guide bar that uses the central beam as a roller, to allow something to hold while using the tread wheel, allowing for much higher comfort and safety.
I love this video and the ending with the real time slowmo flying! You peaked my attention when you started making rope. I've made tons of rope when I was a kid, Boy Scouts. We had a similar machine but super simple with three hooks and a crank. I've never seen an ancient rope making machines with gears before. I was intrigued that you tried making one with gears, because I've made wooden gears and they are really hard to get working smoothly. I went on the hunt for the style I used and found it; the Martin Meyer Rope-making machine. Mine had three hooks and Meyer's had four hooks, I think four hooks will make a stronger rope. The machine is simple, no gears just long bent hooks and two boards. We did this in scouts, combine two planks together to form an "L" shape, make two. Add a horizontal platform, to stand on, between the lower legs of the "L". Add a wide vertical board at the top of the "L", this will be your anchor plate for the hooks. Drill holes through this anchor plate that will fit the hook shafts. Take a separate piece of wide wood plank and drill holes that match the pattern of your anchor plate holes. Add a dowel to the plank you just drilled holes in, to make a crank handle. Make as many hooks as you have holes in your anchor plate, they need to be long enough to go through both planks with 4-6 inches between and 1 inch out the back of the crank plank. Work one hook at a time and while it's still hot and bendable. Heat hook, shove through anchored plate, bend 90deg, 4-6 inches down make another bend at 90 deg, shove though crank plank, don't bend last bit of shaft till all hooks are bent. Your hook shafts will look like a 90 deg "Z". Make all the hooks and bend them all the same length, except the last inch. I would use a piece of flat bar to put against the planks to aid in the bending/pounding and to give a space. Put all hook shafts through the crank plank, place your flat bar and bend over the last inch of all the shafts, locking them all together, but giving them space to move. You should be able to stand on the lower platform and be able to crank the machine. No gears, just bent shafts/axles.
I think the gears jamming up in the prototype you showed might have been caused by simply not enough stiffness in the frame of the construction. You can see all the gears wobbling around in the box. If front and back plate were coupled to each other firmly, the axis of the hooks wouldnt wobble, therefore the gears would be straight.
@4:30 it’s usually easiest to put the fibers a little closer to the lever so you can get more mechanical advantage on ut
Hemp naval ropes were always treated with oils and waxes, or bitumen/tar. They also used an eye that is woven back into the rope with tapered tails that are sometimes whipped down in place. Sometimes the eye is supported by a metal piece the helps reduce the bend radius.. This should significantly increase pull strength and abrasion resistance. It may also reduce the internal heat buildup within the rope fibers while increasing the hold between the fibers. The woven eye retains nearly the full strength of the rope and allows the weight to be distributed evenly through the entire rope throughout the eye. A knot is going to reduce rope strength by about half by isolating fibers and creating asymmetrical force distribution while also increasing heat, friction, and abrasion as the knot moves a tiny amount under strain. Rope is a huge investment so this may be a thought worth exploring.
you home made rope also needs to be wetted and then waxed, keeping an ideal wet/dry ratio extends how well the rope will work, as the fiber if it dries out too much becomes very brittle (thus why you wax them or oil them)
You should try to pour a very deep cement pile in the ground, and anchor a hook into the concrete itself. Then you can use your scalr and see how much force it can really pull!
Quick tip about the pile.. make it deep, and flare out the hole at the bottom, like an upside down T. That should help make it strong enough not to come out of the ground!
5:20 "Behold! The world's worst ever toothbrush!"
If in the design phase you used longer lumber, to allow you to make a platform on which to store weights (i.e. rocks), then you would have been able to add weight there and continue the experiment, instead of having the crane begin to lift off.
This is amazing! It's always fascinating for me how we as humans reached modern industrial technologies and seeing how it all started from so simple designs carved in wood, centuries of trying, failures, and the unbelievable determination of engineers. Keep up the good work! I love how your equipment grows as you unlock more items so they then can be bought, just like in a game. And the ending scene with the superhero pose was hilarious! XDD
Really impressive! Glad the team seems to be growing a little too. Hope to see Lauren still around in the future too.
I miss Lauren and her giggles. I really hope she comes back soon.
However, I do have to say that these new guys really seem to have improved things with their woodworking and smithing skills.
@@kittyprydekissme 100% agree. Probably couldn't have built such a large project without a talented team.
Try the stakes facing backwards instead of forwards to keep them in, what we were taught in scouts for camping against strong winds
The reason we were alarmed by the stakes coming out was because we did hammer them in the ground in the opposite angle, it was pulling the stakes out through the ground horizontally.
you really need to add some type of handrail on the inside of the treadwheel so that there's less chance of someone losing an arm if they stumble or put their hand somewhere they shouldn't.
even just a hanging bar that can freely spin on the inside would do a lot, something to balance yourself against will eliminate about 95% of the risk
Excellent! Rope making is in my opinion one of the critical skills of mankind. Thank you.
i suggest 8:30 adding spacers you can make it c shaped and u can use whatever lubricant you want but it will definitely not tip
Try a counter boom out the back with a mast towards the center to compensate for the main boom at the front
That hemp rope looked really nice! And it was supple too! Youll get the strength eventually.
Guys, we need to share the channel. It's a crime that this beauty isn't more popular
Your rope was absolute art! I just love watching this series.
It feels like the shop fire wasnt that long ago and youve really come back swinging. Im so glad you didnt let that stup you in your tracks
This was by far the cleanest projects you've done so far.
Them gears need spacers and lubricant between them and the housing. it looked like they were getting cocked and binding on the it
There's a few easy ways to multiply the amount of anchoring you can do - and you don't need to use metal anchors either. If you put a stick horizontally on the ground, and tie off your rope to that stick, and put a few stakes to hold that horizontal stick down, you can multiply the anchoring force by six times, easily. Using wood stakes also means that the cross-section will be larger, making it less likely to cut through the ground like your metal stakes did.
If you extend the legs of the crane forward under the boom it should help stabilize it some
Great video and excellent job!
For lifting heavy loads, You need to add contra weight to crane in that part, what was lifting from ground.. That's what modern big cranes have.. 😉
Once you've worked out the kinks it would be neat to see you lift quarry blocks. They are ~4000lbs and available at many modern quarries. Probably the closest thing to their original purpose too.
A larger base for your crane as well as the improvements to the anchors would stop the tilting.
I would guess that the belt/pulley for winding the string/rope allows for 'slipping'. Basically the rope/cord tightness is limited by the friction of the leather belt against a wood pulley. You did mention taking a deep dive into gears, it would be interesting to make another rope with intermeshing gears and a long arm on the input gear and see if the breaking point changes. I suspect it will
A suggestion you could make the bottom run of the tread wheel longer both ends one to give a more center point closer to the object you are lifting and o bit out the back to put weight on, aswell as a toothed gear to stop it from running backwards
Granted, I haven’t made rope since I was in Scouts.
But when I did it, we did it by hand with a relatively simple machine, twisting. Could be worth a look
I really hope you had an engineer look at the design to analyze any dangerous failure modes of the system and testing procedure. Really cool video though :)
You guys would be my favorite neighbors... despite the scary garage fire. I would always be peeking over my fence to check out your crazy projects and offering any help you might need. Hahaha!
The things you do on this channel are absolutely amazing!
What happened to lauren ..... she's not been in these vids for a while
As someone who loves history, this is such a great channel. Keep doing what you're doing!
I would like to see you take another crack at making rope. From what I've heard, removing the wooden part of hemp is pretty well accomplished by a pair of crushing rollers. Though, I'm not sure how you'll accomplish that using the tools at your command.
Simple machines are crazy when added together
Try hand weaving a small rope for the rope making wheels and make a gripping grid for the rope on the wheels, tie the small rope on the wheels as tight as possible.
looks really good but you should round or at least champer the corners on where the rope winds up to prevent chafing.
Thinking about the shape of modern gears and their , try tapering the dowels
Taking some notes from how ropes typically break in rock climbing, ropes tend to snap on points that hit sharp edges. If I were to make a suggestion that helps the longevity of your rope, I would suggest spooling it onto a cylindrical piece of timber instead of a cuboid piece.
How do you expect wooden pullies to hold up to a ton? Is there some magic to it?
I feel like Engineers are going to be terrified by how crudely they build things but it makes sense because they're trying to accurately represent the Medieval Times. 7:42
a ton is only about 240 gallons of water. you could get a plastic container that large to lift for a couple hundred bucks at the most to precisely test the capacity. 1 gallon is about 8.34 gallons according to google so quite easy to calculate.
Now this is why I’m subbed to this channel!
If you want to get even more power, I might suggest building a capstan, like what was used on Age of Exploration sailing ships. It’s a very simple design - just a vertical spindle and a ratchet to hold the tension. Then, you can have (for an eight bar design) anywhere from 8-24 or more people working together to provide effort to the machines you’re driving with it. Also, you could in theory have draft animals turn the capstan if you could find someone willing to let you borrow their horses!
for wood gears you should look at Matthias Wandel's older videos about wood gears
The gear system you were trying to build looked like the failure was due to the lack of stability in the gears. (IE: lots of wobble).
Did you look into bearings, of different design to either mount between the gears and the frame walls holding things in place, metal gears that you can secure a little tighter than you can with wood, a combination of metal gears and bearings? Maybe instead of doing it all within your team, I remember you've worked with people who have gotten a bit closer to mastering different aspects of tech from the time frames you work in, so maybe contract out to them. (1 team to make metal gears, 1 team to do bearings, another team to work on the frame to mount everything together. Then you all come together as a group and assemble the stuff.).
The biggest problem with wood is that unless you have some kind of extremely durable hard wood, your going to be dealing with shrink and expansion, wear and chipping, stress fractures, moisture that can rot or freeze and break the wood.
Hey one of the reasons the rope broke is it is weaker when you tie it. How not2 goes I to this in depth. Splicing will retain the strength. Also screw ground anchors will help.
I think this is a fantastic video!! You did an excellent job proving anyone could produce these feats of engineering with simple machines and all the time/manpower that people had in the past. Keep up the awesome content!!!
7:56, just looking at that I see how could shift the axil out of the foot wheel and make it safer as a result, still not reliable but better than accidentally slamming your head into the axil
**Edit:** After thinking about it further I realise removing the axil is key to providing the ability to fix one's orientation/position/etc in the middle while still keeping the advantage of weight = power. Once the axel is removed you can instead add handles that rotate with you, in other words they need to be rounded off where they slot into the axil holes so that they don't turn with the wheel. So yes, take that side trip for the gear mechanisms. I would hazard a guess that because the wheel vs the gear are of different sizes that's causing the jam unless you instead make the gaps between the smaller vs the bigger proportionally smaller. Think of it like drawing the radius of the wheel/gear and placing the spokes at the end of the drawn radius. Also I would expect the spoke heights vs the space until the bars needs to be the same.
needs sledge style bed logs to anchor those ropes and work as a stop for the arm.
Great work. I love low tech engineering. A counter weight probably would help out a lot.
An important rule of rating for crane saftey; take your weakest compnant, calculate what it should hold.
Test it to 80% of that load.
then rate it at HALF the test load
You should consider adding a counterweight to stop the rig from lifting off the ground like in the last test.
If this works so well on the first-ish try, no wonder how people in Roman empire could have used this to build the giant structures!
Just a suggestion for something to try to lift: why not a large water container? That way you can hook it up safely, then fill it before lifting.
Also one meter squared would give you a tonne so you wouldn't need a digital scale to check, you can just do it by volume.
Maybe try putting a counterweight on the back of the crane? I’m pretty sure modern cranes have them
I think hemp oil would play a big roll here......to lube all the moving parts
It is perty neat to see what our ancestors accompliced with simple tools and knowledge.
15:45 You might already know, but depending on which kinds of knots you use, they can _severely_ weaken your rope!
Perhaps look into climbing rope knots and related techniques.
Did you remember to oil your homemade rope? It helps the fibers line up and hold together.
I love your channel!
all the ssuppor that you get is amazing! that's another amazing skill needed to make everything, i guess!
Find yourself a 1000 litre IBC.
It's a plastic cubic liquid container with a built in metal pallet and protective cage around it.
They normally have a valve on the bottom and a screw top lid.
Measure the base weight of it, then add water so how ever much weight you need.
1,000 litres = 1,000kg = 1 metric ton = ~1.1 US ton = ~2,200lbs = ~264gal
(BTW, notice how the metric system at most only needs to move the decimal point whilst the US requires a maths doctorate to work out?)
It'd be interesting to connect an alternator to the wheel and see how much electricity you could produce. It's a bit further down the technological track, but maybe once you clear the industrial revolution you could revisit it :)
What about one of those sideways pirate ship cranks? The one with all the pegs where multiple men can push together.
I know with tow straps, knots will cut its strength in half. Sandbags might help with anchoring at least the wheel.
If it's not cost prohibitive, a booth at the State Fair next year to see these in person would be great
Fasinating , realy neat . Thankyou for sharing .
You should block the end of the A with the pulley (the crane) so the weight of A arms aren't on the pully bar.
Would definitely be cool to see your items at the Shakopee ren faire
I once braided about 3 meters of rope by myself, just on an ADHD whim. I wanted to know how, I looked it up, I did it. I didn't end up with particularly good quality rope, but it was rope. I actually made it out of kitchen twine. I'm not sure exactly how strong it was, but my dog has damaged lines made for 100+lb dogs before, and didn't do much more than get dirt on this thing. So, not bad, I think. I keep wanting to do it again, but I never have the spoons. I'd love to have a machine like that for braiding rope.
A quary would be the perfect place to test, the climbing community has more or less perfected anchoring stuff into stone and you have loads of heavy stones to lift
Why didn't you use a upright beam to support the A frame that was actually lifting the weight? It would have helped support the weight as well as helping the wheel stay on the floor.
yeah this is sick. did you try soaking the rope before heavy lifts?