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How to hang feeders from a cable?

12 years ago

Hoping someone has solved this problem - I am running out of ideas.

We mounted clothesline pulley wheels on the side of my house's front balcony and on a tree about 50 feet away. There's a moving cable on the pulley wheels, as well as a main cable (just for support - connected to the moving cable with a couple of wheeled S-connectors).

It's been working fine for a couple of years (I can easily refill the feeders from my balcony) EXCEPT for the way I'm hanging the feeders on the cable. I've been using a variety of hooks and clips and nothing I've tried has been both secure and easy to remove and replace, especially when it's snowing or really cold.

Has any come up with a good system? I need the feeders to hang in fixed locations, because otherwise they slide together on the cable due to gravity. Or they are hard to retrieve because they are just hanging freely on the cable.

I can't fasten anything directly/permanently to the cable because then the cable won't slide through the pulley wheels. I've used office clamps (the big metal ones you use for documents) and 4-inch clamps from the hardware store (kind of like what you see on jumper cables), but nothing stays put reliably.

Hope I have explained this clearly!

Thanks,

Susan

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Comments (4)

creeper
12 years ago
I am afraid I don't understand why can't you fasten anything directly/permanently to the cable?
If you are going form the pulley on the house to the pulley on the tree then this part of the cable never needs to go through a pulley. Attach your feeder permanently to the bottom rope right at the pulley on your house and it will go all the way to the tree's pulley, and this is as far as it needs to go. Therefore; all you need is some kind of mechanical fastener or one of the many non slip knots:

http://www.netknots.com/fishing_knots/non-slip-loop-knot/

Then attach a carabiner to the other side of the non-slip knot rope, for easy removal:

http://www.uscargocontrol.com/Rigging-Supplies-Hardware/Snaps-and-Carabiners
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Aurore
12 years ago
I don't understand why the part of the cable with the feeders would have to go around the pulley. Sounds like you could separate the feeders with a short piece of hose. Slit the hose and place over the cable between the feeders.-Removeable
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ilovepoco
Original Author
12 years ago
Thanks for replying everyone.

I can't attach anything permanently to the pulley cable because the pulley track and hanger only have a little bit of extra clearance beyond the diameter of the cable. If there was more clearance, I could easily make permanent loops in the cable in a variety of ways that could roll with the cable.

I have 3-4 feeders at a time evenly spaced across the 50-foot cable... I can't push/pull multiple permanently-mounted feeders all the way across and back because some would inevitably be unreachable (or unretreivable).

The split hose idea is a good one though... that way I wouldn't need to try to clamp the feeders to specific locations on the cable, I could use the hose sections to maintain the spacing. I'll see if I can find small hooks that won't ride over the hose sections.

Thanks for the brainstorming!

Susan
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Konrad___far_north
12 years ago
OK...think I know what wouldn't move.

If you have two pieces of wood or something and use a C clamp, one piece of wood or heavy rubber/plastic piece on one side and opposite, using C clamp to tighten together. Perhaps you have a pair of shoe/sole you could use, then you could use one piece by bending it around and tightening with C clamp over the line.
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