100%white spirit on ropes.

[naturarbo]

We cut some Ficus a few weeks ago,huge mess as always,ropes,hardware and all the parafernalia.

So to clean the ropes from the sap...we tried 110%white spirit red in 1 rope,them wash machine with rope cleaner Beal,shock load it a few times later and voila...no signs of anything on the rope.

was I lucky or white spirit is actually not damaging the rope?

arent ropes made of petroleum derivates?

anyone ever tried it?

[Mick Dempsey]

I would be wary of spirits on ropes. Surely it degrades it?

[billpierce]

I would be wary of spirits on ropes. Surely it degrades it?

I feel like this must be true. I think petrol or chain oil contamination on ropes etc is a loler fail

[Mesterh]

3 hours ago, billpierce said:

I feel like this must be true. I think petrol or chain oil contamination on ropes etc is a loler fail

I doubt it as surely no arb rope would ever pass a LOLER?

 

Ive used petrol to remove resin from ropes, my guess is if petrol/oil attacked arb ropes a lot of us would be well and truly fecked by now (in the fact a fair bit of unburnt petrol and oil escapes your chainsaw and no doubt covers your rope) ,  I did leave a piece of climbing line in a jug of petrol to see what would happen, nothing visible ie it didnt melt, expand looseits colour or become brittle but then I didnt break test it.

Ive read on here that butter is supposed to be good at getting rid of sap, that or leave it to dry and it eventually flakes off.

 

 

[Khriss]

Ropes made of hi grade nylon.

Petrol tanks on saws - nylon or polyester dirivative.

Fuel cans Hi density Poly ethelene.

Think yr fairly safe. K

Edited February 16, 2019 by Khriss
Nice one on the butter, MestrH !. Unless yr Marlon brando....

[Dan Maynard]

I was also taught petrol contamination is a LOLER fail. I also think we should state that manufacturers guidelines are to avoid any chemical contamination, so white spirit cleaning would be a no no.

Obviously they are conservative in their recommendations but with it being me hanging from the rope I wouldn't take chances. I haven't experience with Ficus but Beal cleaner is surprisingly good on its own at connie sap.

[Darrin Turnbull]

Here’s something to read , but it’s in German.

https://baumzeitung.de/fileadmin/news_import/Schaedigung_von_Faserseilen.pdf

 

 I’m sure there’s a English version somewhere.

 

[naturarbo]

thanks everyone for the feedback.

Since I posted this...learned and tried also this,just putting trousers and ropes in the wash machine just with Beal rope cleaner,water at 60c,no spin and voilá.
Almost like new.

Even read that you can even clean Ficus sap with plain hot water...

About the ropes no melting,britling,descoloration,and we load them proper after.

Next week we start on some decent pines,will be heavy pine sap.

I will send some pics from ropes and kit after that.

 

[Dan Maynard]

My German not up to everything in that document but petrol appeared to be fine whereas washing powder an absolute disaster. They recommend no more than 30C.

Not entirely sure what to think now.