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Allright, Singe I know you can tell me this. I want to make a kevlar rope meteor, any recommendations on length to start and how long it should end up after the monkey fist?
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Re: meteor construction
Mon, May 16, 2005 - 12:32 PMWhat diameter of rope Kevlar? How many loops on each side of the fist? If it's pretty thick rope (like 3/4"), and you're doing three loops per side, then to wind up with an eight foot or so meteor takes about twenty two feet of rope (plus a couple feet, depending on what you're sticking inside the fist). Bigger monkey fists will use more rope, and a longer meteor will use more rope, too. -
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Re: meteor construction
Thu, May 19, 2005 - 3:13 AMyou may want to wait!
I am working on a new design becuase it turns out that making a fire meteor out of kevlar rope has one very significant and dangerous problem!
I have brok two identical meteors right at the base of the monkey fist. The amount of fire comming from the fist is too much for the single strand of 1/2inch rope to handle and beings to break down and fray off. There done seem to be any warning fraying signs, it just suddently breaks!
I am working on a design that will include some fire proofing and heat protection at the base of the monkey fist that will hopefully solve this problem and maintain simple easy meteor construction.
I'll let you know how it goes.
oh and BTW, kevlar rope only has one layer of kevlar over a core and while kevlar has a large tensel strength it does holdof to being scraped along the ground and high speeds.
I recomend either a cover over your balls, like socks. Or making a practice meteor out of stronger rope to extend the life of your meteor. -
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Re: meteor construction
Sun, May 22, 2005 - 10:02 PMi just made my first rope meteor (nylon practice meteor), it rocks! -
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Re: meteor construction
Mon, May 23, 2005 - 2:16 AMThe meteor I'm currently spinning with, and is about four years old, is an eight foot section of rope, the ends are looped through metal rings, folded over, and wrapped with wire then electrical tape, through the rings are caribiners, then swivels, and lastly a couple fat cathedral-fold wicks (6 feet each). It works great, and has an overall length of about ten feet. My practice meteors vary in length but are monkeyfists with golfballs in them. -
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Re: meteor construction
Tue, May 24, 2005 - 10:29 AMThats an awesome design. I might have to branch out to something similar if my current design changes dont fix my solid rope meteor.
Have you ever played with a solit rop meteor?
I'm curouse about the contrast between a solid rop meteor and a meteor that has bend or swivlepoints where the wicks connect...?
my guess is that when its splayed out its all the same but from what I have seen from "professions" or at least skilled meteor performances it really helps to have a meter thats center section is a less flexable as possible.
can you post pictures of your meteors? -
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Re: meteor construction
Wed, May 25, 2005 - 5:43 AMOkay, I uploaded a couple shots of my meteors. Personally, I like the swivels because it feels like less twisting occurs in the rope. I spin only in the horizontal plane, and do a lot of wrapping around my body and neck, which seems to get some twisting going on in my monkeyfist meteors. I spin staff and poi, so I leave the vertical plane to those tools. Eventually, I would like to make a shorter meteor and spin it like a staff in the vertical plane, but not yet (too busy learning rope dart and nine section whip). -
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Re: meteor construction
Fri, May 27, 2005 - 10:32 AMwe should totally make a rope dart tribe too!!
I have been working on a little rope dart, its so much fun!
my practicve meteors are exactly like yours, thats awesome! I cant wait to finish my new fire meteor design. I hope it works better then the last one hehe -
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Re: meteor construction
Fri, May 27, 2005 - 9:57 PMYeah, if one of my ends burns out before the other, then I switch to rope dart techniques. It's fun to launch fire staight at people, and then pull it back just before they run away screaming. ^_^
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Re: meteor construction
Fri, May 27, 2005 - 10:34 PMOkay, I made a fire rope dart tribe.
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Re: meteor construction
Tue, May 24, 2005 - 6:33 PMthats a really interesting design, Ive never seen that, it allows you to change heads on your meteor to whatever you want. I'm going to have to come out there and play with you guys sometime. Imagine someday working with fuel in a bowl instead of a wick! -
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Re: Fire in a bowl.
Wed, May 25, 2005 - 9:26 PMYeah, that'd be wicked. I'd wanna practice for a year or two with water filled bowls first, I think. Ever try it?? -
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Re: Fire in a bowl.
Fri, May 27, 2005 - 10:33 AMim hopefully getting a circus video of this soon. when i do ill definatly be encoding it and posting it on tribe.
i imagine this would be very very hard. -
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Re: Fire in a bowl.
Fri, May 27, 2005 - 9:59 PMI'd like to see that! I've watched people spin with bowls on the ends of their rope, but the bowls were empty. Your technique would have to be very, very smooth to avoid spraying flaming oil fifty feet in every direction. At least the person spinning wouldn't get toasted. ;)
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Re: meteor construction
Mon, June 16, 2008 - 6:07 PMI'm curious about how you keep the golfballs inside the monkeyfist. I've got a 4 bight fist and 3/8" line. I just lost a ball, so I'm curious how you do it. -
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Re: meteor construction
Wed, June 18, 2008 - 12:36 AMHi Eric. The other Eric here.
Chances are you're not making your monkeyfist knots tight enough. Fingers alone won't do it, even if you don't mind ripping your nails off. So the knot gets loose and the ball falls out. You need to end up with a knot tight enough so that you can't budge any of the bights even a little. Then you need to tighten it up periodically. 3/8" nylon, poly, or even kernmantle should work fine in a 4-bight MF, but a 5-bight is possible too for that diameter line.
To get a tight MF knot you really need a fid: a curved metal spike at least two inches long with a handle another 2" long. You use it to lever each bight tight in your final 1 or two tightenings of the knot. Then seal the end with white glue. My favorite fid is on the Ielo knife (that's eye ee el oh), which has one or more blades, a shackle, a fid, and a locking lanyard eyelet. About $17 at Fisherman's Supply. They last me about a year before getting too loose, but I make a couple hundred monkeyfist meteors a year.
I also use "practice" golf balls, not real ones. They have holes in them and are very light, but sturdy enough not to collapse when you tighten things up. A golf ball in a monkeyfist knot is heavier than I like and can hit you pretty hard. When I first started using them I ended up staring intently at the floor for a few minutes each practice session. Also broke my nose once. So lighter is better.
=Eric
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