We’ve had rope on here before but it would always get loose and fray, I also always wanted to mes with rigging so decided its the perfect excuse to buy a crimper.
Drilled holes into the pipes to put the eyelets. Got two cables up for now, at least the hard part is done, running the cable and crimping isn’t so bad. The drilling and stuff was the hard part
This is awesome, but is there a good alternative for those of us who can’t afford the latest, greatest solar tech?
If you live anywhere near a large body of water, try and find a chandlers that sells marine hardware. You can get stainless steel snap shackles that won’t rust and will stand up to the weight of wet laundry. Expensive but worth it.
Mostly wind, rather than solar. In fact, it’s best to find shade to hang your clothes.
You’re one of the undesirables my homeowner’s association is anxious to keep out of the neighborhood. In my HOA we dry our clothes in steel barrels heated by burning $100 bills, as the Founders intended.
Aside from sheets, we dry everything on foldable dryer racks.
Hey everyone, when drying your clothes, especially shirts and tshirts and hoodies whatnot, hang them to dry on hangers! You avoid silly creases mid way up the shirts, and the wetness stretches and draws the fabric a little so they straighten out better.
I take clothes drying seriously, this is the proper way.
I live in the UK and do this more so that I can sodding sprint out when summer decides to end 30 minutes after blazing sunshine and then it rains for 40 days and 40 nights
Clothers are heavier when wet, and putting shirts, hoodie etc on a hanger risk stretching out the shoulders over time (especially with heavy fabric, bulk, or knitwear).
Upside-down will still stretch them out but at the bottom where it may not impact the shape as much so it’s better. More pins around the bottom means a more even stretch.
When I have space I like hanging them over the width of two or three lines so they’re laying flat in the middle and get two shallow L-shaped creases instead of one deep V-shaped - the L-creases are barely noticeable in comparison.
A more involved option is to rearrange (move a little bit so they crease at a different spot, four L-creases are basically invisible), or even move them to hangers, when they’re halfway dry.
Drying is no joke!
Ayup. Tshirts and hoodies on hangers, underpants and woolen jackets on the clotheshorse, pants and towels and bedding on the clothes line.
Except in winter, i use my awesome concentric hangers then
I was wondering about that, normally my wife makes me hang her shirts from the very bottom hanging upside down for dear life to avoid that. But then I was thinking if there are hangers with like a carabiner top that can lock onto the cable so the wind doesn’t spin them off
Grab a standard wooden hanger and just uunscrew and replace the hook
Lots of variations of anti-theft hangers have that kind of fixed loop feature.
oh like at hotels and stuff
I don’t get no creases on shirts?
And hoodies obviously on the hanger, too big for the rack.
Avoiding creases on clothes using a dryer is super easy. All it requires is taking them out as soon as they are dry, while still hot, and then hanging them up immediately after that.
If you let them sit in the dryer too long or put them in a drawer they will have creases
As a bonus, this setup can also utilise wind power. It’s a truly revolutionary renewable energy solution.
I wish I had one of those, but currently I have only a clothes drying rack that is essentially a clothes storage rack.
The pile of shame.
I mean one of the piles of shame, this one is washed.
Nah, my pile of shame is on the part of mp bed I don’t use.
My house had a clothesline in the backyard at one point, but by the time I bought it all that was left were a couple of rusted, broken-off pole bottoms embedded in surprisingly deep concrete. I managed to dig one up, but the other is still a tripping hazard in my lawn. 😕
Farm jack (widowmaker, hi-lift, etc) has been my solution for poles and posts, so long as there’s enough to get a loop of chain around. Take a pair of 2x4’s and a lag bolt - attach them on either side through the top eye in the jack so you’ve got a sort of tripod. Wrap a loop or two of chain around the post and fix the chain to the jack. As you ratchet it up the chain will bite into itself and the post, eventually pulling it up. You do need enough exposed for the chain to grip but it works a treat.
I found a decent video showing off the idea.
They also make for an okayish winch. It won’t pull for far, given the short travel, but enough to unbury a tire in a pinch. Just never have your face over the handle and always be properly terrified of how unstable they can be. Not that any jack should ever be used without stands, but especially not a hi-lift.
I have one of those! It hadn’t even crossed my mind to use it (probably because my attempt to get the concrete out of my yard was years before I bought it, but still…)
I might try that tomorrow. Or even if I don’t do that specific thing, it at least inspires me to think creatively in terms of mechanical advantage.
I’ve only had to use it a few times so far but I’m 2 and 0 against the ugly, rusted, green metal U-Channel posts that originally held our mailboxes. 2 and 0 against fenceposts (one 4x4, the other round metal for a chain link).
I’ve also since seen people get one of those biting scissor clamps, on hi-lifts and purpose built tripod pullers, but I’m not sure how they’d perform against metal - whether or not the teeth would get a solid bite.
Definitely more than one way about it.
The main trouble is that pole is broken off at essentially ground level, so I’m not sure I’d be able to get a good enough grip on it. I’ll probably have to still partially dig it to expose some of the concrete, to wrap a chain or strap around.
If you want to have one and you’re looking for a project, this is doable.
You could try to saw off the part of the pole bottom that’s above ground, then see if the core of the pole was also filled with concrete.
If not, just get a pole with a narrow enough diameter to fit in the hollow.
If so, you can coat the embedded portion in a rust accelerator (you can get ostensibly nontoxic commercial ones, but you can also use brine, hydrogen peroxide, or a strong white vinegar solution- just make sure to avoid getting any of those near plant life you want to keep) every night for a week or two, irrigating it (again, watching out for plants or portions of earth that might be exposed to runoff- to be entirely honest, I’d probably use my waterpik for some pressure without much volume of water and line the block with rags to avoid soil contamination, but that’s probably just because I have a waterpik) and scrubbing the exposed edge with a wire brush every morning. Once enough of the old pole is worn away, you can fit a new one in the hole.
This all seems like a lot of work, but so does manually digging up a concrete block, lol
a crimper can also be used to make DIY cable exercise equipment!
also, you may want to set up impending precipitation and/or extreme wind alerts for your phone :)
Haha I’m not sure I’d trust my crimps just yet for heavy lifting, or this cheap amazon cable.
Yeah like today was sunny but by the time I finished it was overcast, very bizarre. We are generally sunny most of the year so its only the wind. Another thing I bought with this stuff was some nice metal clothes pins so hopefully they are much better than what I’ve used in the past
nice metal clothes pins
My mental alarm is going off, but maybe unnecessarily. Please make sure they’re sealed and regularly check that there are no chips in the coating, because any iron in them is going to rust when regularly exposed to brief periods of moisture and leave stains on your laundry. If they’re coated in aluminum, they should be fine. If they’re entirely aluminum, I’d worry about their strength for things like duvets, but for regular clothing and linens in mild wind, they should be fine.
We still do our smalls in the dryer but everything else has been going out on the line - for years. Clothes have been lasting longer and it has kept us more aware of our weather.
