Can you make a rope with paper towels?
Well, Chillgamer.
I don't know if you can,
but we've got some paper towels.
So we're going to try a few things,
and maybe even use it to pull a car.
[Captions by Mary V. at Y Translator] [Music]
[Music]
Paper towels on their own are not incredibly strong.
That's not what they're made for.
Sure, some of them might have really nice weaves
so that they hold up better as you're washing and cleaning stuff.
But for the most part,
I know they're made to be a kind of strong
but it's just thin fibrous paper.
It comes apart pretty easily.
Not exactly what you think of when you want a nice strong rope.
Even if we twist it into a more rope-like shape,
it still pulls apart really fast and easily.
So the question we have to answer is
how do we turn this weak material into something stronger?
Of course, we can just twist up a piece of paper towel and say,
"Look, I made rope, and it's sort of stronger now."
But in my opinion,
if it's not strong enough to resist a slight tug,
then it doesn't really count as rope.
It's just twist up paper towel.
Rope actually has to have some strength and be able to pull or lift something.
That's my goal is to see if we can make a rope
strong enough to do some significant pulling and lifting.
Most of the time when you're making rope,
you take thin little fibers,
twist them together in the strings,
and then you twist those strings together
into bigger, thicker strings,
and at some point it stops being string and starts being rope.
I'm not entirely sure where that point is,
but we need to find it with our paper towels.
Obviously, we need to have a way to roll up the paper towel
so that the perforations aren't lining up in a straight line,
or they're just gonna tear apart.
So, I'm wondering if we could roll it at a 45 degree angle,
that way, the pre-cut lines will sort of get wrapped evenly
spaced out around the whole roll.
But we should be able to have it keep getting longer.
[Music]
We definitely lost some length by rolling it at an angle,
but, that's still just tore right at the perforation.
So, maybe this solution won't work so well after all,
or maybe, what we need to do is twist the paper towel more,
so that all of the perforation is bound tightly into non-perforated areas.
And I know I'm saying the word perforation a lot but it comes up.
All right, let's try asking our friend, Mr. bench vice to hold this again.
See what happens if we just twist this a lot.
[Music]
That didn't tear
at the cut mark.
That just tore along the paper towel itself.
I still tore but because it tore in the middle of the sheet
rather than along the predestined tearing spot,
it means we've eliminated that weakness of the perforation.
So now, we're just dealing with the strength
of the material that we're using.
I think I have a plan for what will try now.
Here's the basic idea.
We'll roll out a fair amount of our paper towel.
And then at a 45 degree angle,
we'll roll it up the same way we did before.
We'll twist that roll into a tight little cord.
We'll make three of the same type of twisted chords,
and then we'll try twisting them all together.
It will be very similar to how we've made ropes in other videos,
but it will have to all be done by hand
because we don't have a rope making machine
that will work well with paper towel.
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Seems like it's a fair amount.
Let's try 15 sheets.
All right.
Now, I have to try and roll this up,
and keep it a nice tight little twist,
and stay at the right 45 degree angle for all 15 feet of it.
We'll see how I do.
[Music]
Here we go.
That is one big old paper towel snake.
We are at just over nine and half feet long.
Now we've got it rolled up,
let's see what we can do about twisting it,
so it's nice and tight.
[Music]
Now, after twisting it,
we've lost almost two feet,
and we're down to seven and half feet of length.
Now, just gonna put some weight on both ends of this thing to just hold it,
so it doesn't untwist while I twist up two more just like it.
We now have three cords made of tightly wound and twisted paper towel,
and to turn these into a rope,
we now need to twist them into each other.
So, we'll gather them all together,
and then while making sure to keep the cords nice and tightly twisted,
we'll wrap them around each other.
[Music]
I now have rope made out of paper towel.
Of course that doesn't answer the question
of whether or not it's good for anything.
I've twisted paper towels into something that looks like a rope,
and I'm sure it can pull some amount.
It definitely has more strength than a sheet of paper towel.
The question is, how strong is it?
First quick test,
let's see if I can just pull it apart right here.
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I mean I'm not the strongest guy in the world but,
I cannot pull that apart.
So, I would say that's at least strong enough to call rope.
But it doesn't really show how strong it is.
So, I have an idea for a test we can do,
that I think will really show if this is useful as a rope.
We've got our paper towel rope and a car
that we're going to try and pull with our rope.
We've also got a big old truck to do all the pulling for us.
[Music]
I'm not gonna pretend that this is the very best way to attach a rope to a hitch,
but because I don't know too much about the strength of this paper towel,
I'm gonna use this because it's a very round looping knot,
so, it shouldn't have as many bind points that might cause weak spots
in our paper towel rope.
Okay, I think at this point we uh,
have to give it a try.
Let's see if we can put the car in neutral,
and get the truck going and slowly start out,
and get it just enough to pull this car.
[Music]
Yeah. Just real slow.
It's pullin' it!
Paper towel, pulling a car.
[Music]
There's no one in there to hit the brakes.
[Music]
Oh, it tore.
>> It broke?
All right, after our first success,
we tried pulling it again,
and our rope didn't start out tight.
As a result, when it finally caught up,
it was a little too abrupt that did manage to pull through the rope.
So while it can pull a car,
I would not say that we should start using it to replace webbing or other
materials that's designed for this kind of pull strength.
After successfully pulling the car,
and then less successfully pulling the car,
I do have one more thing I want to test with this rope,
and that's to see if it can hold a person up.
I'm gonna use me as a person,
and I'm just going to throw the rope over the top of this swing set,
and see if I can lift myself up by it.
I'm gonna hope that it wasn't weakened by pulling the car.
All right. Here it goes.
Whooo!
I'm gonna call that a success!
[Music]
So yes!
This rope is definitely strong enough
to hold at least a person my size.
Obviously, people come in all sorts of shapes and sizes,
but this can hold a person.
That is a pretty good rope in my opinion.
Well, since this is made of paper towel,
I feel like I at least have to see what happens if I get it wet.
[Music]
It's definitely a lot heavier.
Ohh!
Yep!
And completely lost all its structural integrity.
That was able to hold my weight before, and now,
it just tears right apart.
See if I twist it and squeeze all the water out,
[Music]
it seems pretty strong.
Maybe not.
So, rope made of paper towel,
definitely stronger when dry.
Chillgamer190,
thank you for your suggestion.
We're gonna be sending you 25 bucks.
Guys, If you've got any cool ideas for things you wanna see us try,
let us know down in the comments.
If we like your idea and use it for a video,
we'll send you $25.
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