[SEL] Looking for maypole/whip braiding machine

[George Best]

Richard,

You ought to be subscribing to Western Antique Iron Trader ;-)
We advertised one in the June 2002 issue.

George Best
www.irontrader.com 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com 
> [mailto:sel-bounces at lists.stationary-engine.com] On Behalf Of 
> Richard Allen
> Sent: Friday, January 07, 2005 8:39 PM
> To: Stationary Engine List
> Subject: [SEL] Looking for maypole/whip braiding machine
> 
> I have been trying to find a small bench top size 
> maypole-type braiding machine run by a hand crank or 
> fractional horsepower electric motor.
> The so-called maypole braid is what is used for making shoe 
> laces, braided polypropylene utility rope, braided leather 
> bolo neck ties, police whistle neck lanyards, key ring 
> lanyards, whips, and other such items. The braid is round and 
> hollow (shoelaces are flattened by ironing them), and always 
> composed of even numbers of flat or round lacing braided 
> under and over each other, not twisted as for rope.
> Other examples are the braided steel wire reinforcing for 
> high pressure hydraulic hoses, the shielding braid on coaxial 
> TV-VCR cable, garden hose reinforcing, etc. I hope those are 
> enough examples to get across the idea of what kind of 
> machine I am looking for. The commercial machines are 
> manufactured by Wardwell and sell for about as much as a new 
> car and are capable of making miles of braid per day, but I 
> neither need nor can afford one of those. I know the hand 
> operated ones exist because one of my childhood neighbors had 
> one for braiding leather bullwhips. I have done exhaustive 
> Internet searches and have been looking on eBay and other 
> places for both new and antique machines for several years 
> and the results I get are rumors that the only places where 
> they regularly show up is at antique engine/equipment shows. 
> If anyone runs across the whereabouts of one of these elusive 
> maypole/whip braiding machines, please email me at:
> 
> linstrum55 at yahoo.com
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Richard Allen
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> SEL mailing list
> SEL at lists.stationary-engine.com
> http://www.stationary-engine.com/mailman/listinfo/sel
>