Hi

Can anyone point me in the direction of article on the net on how to make continious control lines,what ropes to use & what tools that are used.

I have checked out rooster artile on the use of fids ,the article is very good but it appears that the line is double thickness for a small lenght & is not for control lines.

Very good article though

Cheers

Basically you need a long bit of rope and some fids

What you need is the RS splicing guide...

hang on, and i'll find it.

Found it... http://www.rs-association.com/docs/tuning/splicing%20guide.pdf - CLICKY

once you've done it a few times, i've found it becomes really easy and they look better and better

And these are the fids -  http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Set-of-new-splicing-fids_W0QQitemZ250223596576QQihZ015QQcategoryZ123703QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem - CLICKY  - get these and you be sorted, spending more time splicing than sailing

Hope this helps!

Mark.

Thank you

A fast & good service.

Weird? I've spliced 3mm rope with the same fids as them, and that rope in my eyes was small

http://www.rs300.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=85&Itemid=29 - http://www.rs300.org.uk/index.php?option=com_content&tas k=view&id=85&Itemid=29

Is an article on how to make a 300 continuos kicker!

Also try this Link:

http://www.lehighgroup.com/ropespliceend.htm - http://www.lehighgroup.com/ropespliceend.htm

Hi Merlinboy

Thanks for those but the 300 takes me back to the RS page which splosh gave me earlier & the lehighgroup link doubles the thickness of the rope & so is inpractical for my needs.

But Thanks for the efforts on my behalf

Hi Colin

Thanks for your reply,This was a system that i sort of remembered someone talking about but had i had never tried / used,I assume that you use this for the control lines on the blaze?.

Thanks for reminding me with instructions.

Cheers

Yep, used this method on the Blaze. The full instructions that I followed (courtesy of blaze720) were:

"They are 5mm excel 'pro' which despite the name is about 85p per metre.  The way I connect them together to make them continuous is 1)  to heat seal the outer by waving a lighter at each end 2) Then with some long nosed pliers pull the 'inner' out about 7-10 cm and cut off. This leaves a hollow end.  3) Get a 15-20cm piece of 3mm line - anything that is reasonably stiff will do, heat harden the end and insert as far as possible into the now hollow outer.  4) Sew/whip through both at two locations - near the end of the inserted bit - say 5+ cm and near the end of the outer.  Don't whip it for more than 6 or 7 mm at each location 5) The outer is probably a bit frayed with all this work despite the heat sealing you previously did, so trim back the frayed bits to the end whipping 6) heat seal/tidy  again but be careful not to get over exited now and burn through the whipping.Before you complete the second link just make absolutely sure the line is not twisted or routed wrongly ! "

To be quite honest I doubt I would trust this method as you have broken the inner core of the rope, which I understand is the load bearing part of the rope.

The link to the RS instructions earlier in this thread was good and gave very clear instructions on how to do an end to end splice without breaking the core.

I have had continious control lines on my Phantom, joined like this, for some years now and they have served me well, the joint is fine and even when it gets into the cleats holds very well. there are really 2 reasons for having continious lines, one is to ensure you can adjust the line wherever you pick it up, and the second is that you can ease in on one tack and tighten on the other many times and the rope just keeps coming, never reaching an end. If you adjust the lines as described in the second instance then I would not trust a splice as described above, I would also say its far more complicated to complete than the standard method as described on the RS site link.

Hi Roger

I also throught the same but it was useful to be offered the advice,but i will be using the RS method because this seems to me to be the strongest method.

Thanks for all the replies & help

just remember that all the stitching/ sewing back together is done in a different colur thread (black is good) as it will allow you to see it should you need to undo it - looks smart too.

i have used a fid on 4 and 5mm ropes with no problem, just put as much of the rope up the middle of the other as you possibly can for extra strength.