Clothesline line Tightener line Tight 2pcs

This is cast metal. The edges have not been deburred. This means that two things happen. First is that it sticks inside and won't operate well. The second is that some of the burrs are inside where your rope is and where they are going to cut through your rope.Since the burrs are also down inside where you're trying to stick your rope as you thread it into the device, the rope hangs up and won't go through. This means that you need a piece of wire that you can feed through and pull the rope through, presuming that you don't care that the burrs may cut your rope.Another reviewer mentioned that the ball bearings that clamp on the rope won't move back out of the way so that you can easily thread the rope. That's certainly what I found. I also looked at the ball bearings. They do not look to me to be stainless steel, so I presume that they will rust in fairly short order.In short, I found these to be poorly manufactured, difficult to use, and perhaps a good way to cut yourself. I do not recommend these at all.

At first I figured I was too stupid to thread the line through these, but after a few minutes I realized the ball bearings were stuck in their sockets, despite my pulling back the release mechanism and trying to feed the rope. I even tried the wire trick on YouTube and poked at the bearings with screwdriver. Nothing doing. It took a nail set and a hammer to loosen them. After getting the rope through and hung, it turns out that the 3/16” line that Amazon pairs with this as a frequently bought additional item is too thin for these things to grab and hold firmly, a fact not noted in the product description. Slip, slip, slip they went. I resorted to a cinching lumber knot I know in order to tighten the lines. What a waste of time and money.

I have used these for years. To get 1/4" rope in, tape or shrink tube the rope end as small as you can get it, hold the clamp all the way open with vice grips. Push the balls apart with a pencil and insert rope.

The product review did not indicate the size of the clothesline (rope) that it would accommodate so we took a chance. We were happy to even find this as Lowe's employees had no idea what I was even talking about. However, the ball bearings in both tighteners were jammed. It took a lot of jamming with a screwdriver and a lot of forcing to even get the rope to go through. My husband's brute strength must have done the trick. I would have returned it immediately.

They work great. I think a thicker clothesline cord would work better than a thin one. But all in all I got it right enough to stay. Works great I would advise to tie a good size knot at the end so it can’t come back through .