How did you scale?

[s_forbes]

Originally Posted by Mike Marandola

What kind of knot did you use to tie the Spectra to the hook?

We used Spectra as well! Can't recommend it enough. This was our knot of choice: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0B6tYTVHVM . (Dyneema is another brand name that's similar to Spectra) A splice like this gets rid of the tight bends that the rope sees in a traditional knot and makes for a stronger splice. The big benefit is that it's a lot easier to deal with than a normal knot.

We also used a variation on this splice that was adjustable, so we could make a length of rope with a fixed eye splice at one end and an adjustable eye splice at the other end, giving us a rope that we could make fine adjustments to the length. We used these ropes for our climbing rope, our suspension locking mechanisms, and the hard stop for our catapult.

With all of the crazy things going on with our robot last year, the splices we made with the Spectra lines was my favorite part. If you don't have some to play with, go buy some. It's one of those things that you never knew you needed until you used it.