Hot weather fitting !

[Grebo]

 ???  Any advise welcomed.
I have a 'bimini' top to replace with stamoid open.
The pattern didn't go to well as I think the plastic started to melt  :P or was it me  :'(
I am making it in two parts, as the stamoid is 260cm wide. I am doing the front two poles as one piece, straight across & the back section from the last pole to the keder as one. I think  ::) it will look better getting rid of the side seams & hopefully adding a seam with reduce any stretch in the length ?
Should I get the front on & pull real tight up to the keder on the arch ? Or allow for some shrinkage. I will be fitting in 35'C +
The overall lenght from front to back is 4.5m

[Mike8560]

id do it in 3 sections with my seams running on top of each frame side to side.

[R.A.F. CaNvAs]

Muy caliente in Alacante no?
        dios mio , what an ugly cover , hope you can make it look a little more sporty than that  POS.  Whats with the totaly flat roofline?
Dunno if its the camera angle but I would have a good look at the steel work some of the bars look kinda crooked,, (before you start)
If you'll be using the coated stamoid with the smooth plastic finish on the back, Then spray ya pockets with sillycnt so it slips on easy..
wear a sombraro tambien amigo,    Buenas suerte

[Grebo]

I was initially going to do it in 3 sections, but as it's so flat & the original is one complete run front to back, I thought  ::) 2 would work ok. With the seam on the pole as you said.
Yes it is pretty flat & the frame is a bugger to move. I put zips in the pockets so no need to slide on thanks  ;)
I have a 'Tilley' hat which I always wear in the summer, much to the amusement of the Brits.  ;D Humidity is 88% this morning  :(
The OH has a Jeanneau DS50 to commission, it's on the hard 45'C inside  :o
Course can't run the air con until it's in the water.

[Peppy]

I think i'd leave some for shrinkage. I don't do stamoid hardly at all but if it's like any other vinyl-y stuff....

That is some real goofy framework, eh? I guess it's a hassle to adjust!

[Mike8560]

thats sound ok to mee too
grebo I couldnt tell if 60" would make it for one seam from the pic. if you can eliminate a seam thats always good for me. what is that boat btw a sunseeker?

[Grebo]

Oh good thanks Mike  :D
It's a sunseeker camargue 55.
Just having it's engines put back in right now in the varadero (yard).
They where sent to the UK for a complete overhaul.

[fragged8]

hiya

I'm no expert Grebo but wouldn't you be better off making a blanket and patterning onto that ?
just marking the darts at the bows ? they look as if they would be really shallow darts.

Rich

[bobbin]

In my experience stamoid is very dimensionally stable.  I haven't made anything more than a few tops in the past 11 yrs. but we do a lot of work with stamoid for mooring covers, boom tents, and some awning work so I've worked with it a good deal over the years.  Great fabric.  You're using the double coated stuff?    I would be sure to put the seam over the bows, too.

If you use double stick tape, watch out!  We've had the tape bleed out from under fabric and it leaves a sticky trail that collects dirt... .  We nearly always sew the seam and the turn the allowance to one side and topstitch on any mooring covers. 

As for allowing for shrinkage... jeez I dunno.  It gets brittle as it ages, but I am in a much more temperate climate with less blazing sun than you are.   As I said, I've found it to be a very dimensionally stable fabric, very different than Weblon, or what my old boss called "Chrysler denim"/marine topping. 

[JuneC]

I think Stamoid will hold it's own for hot/cold weather.  I haven't experienced any significant changes from season to season here. Like RAF says, though, that top is way flat!  It's gotta hold water in the center.  In order not to, the top would have to fit absolutely perfect and tight.  I've found Stamoid to be pretty stretchy over long spans.  If you can find muscled help, Stamoid Top will stretch 1.5 inches over a span of 6 or 7 feet (2 meters).  Don't know about the Open.

June

[Grebo]

Been there with the tape bobbin what a PITA. Sure wont do that again  :(
:o That's a lot of stretch June, I better get it nice & tight then, I don't think there is much I can do about the flat top, it was my concern when I first looked at it.
If I raise one of the bows it will probably look like I *ucked it up  :(
The back section was the problem with the original cover it collected a little water/ stretched & pulled most of the screws out of the keder track  :o  So I just found out  ::)
Thanks all, any more ideas ?

[bobbin]

I rarely open up the Photobucket stuff but I did click on your second picture, Grebo.  And that top is flat!  I know what you mean about "tweaking" the bows, but wow... that's a disaster waiting to happen.  I say that because my present boss had a bimini collapse under the weight of puddled water some years ago and wasn't fit company for the time required to repair the damage! 

My former employer was always a proponent of adequate "crown" on frames for precisely that reason.  He also never made tops with a centre seam... he always patterned the pieces in between the bows.  IMO, his tops were superior to those of my present boss... they fit better, were tighter, and with seams that were stitched and topstitched  they never suffered "blow outs" due to UV degradation of thread. 

Are you using the double coated stuff or the lightweight version?  I've not noticed that there is significant stretch in Stamoid, but again, I don't work "in the field".  I just work from patterns  and in the shop. 

Take a picture of your hat, willya?  I can't even feature working in temps that hot... You know what they say about New England, dontcha?  10 months of winter and 2 months of damn poor sleddin'...

[JuneC]

On one occasion I used a white fiberglass batten between bows, with batten sockets screwed to the bows to hold it bent up - just to shed water where no crown existed.  The boat had a flat-topped arch and all the bows followed suit.  Worked well, wasn't terribly obtrusive since the top was also white, but I didn't really care for the solution.  But, the other fix was to make a new frame with a crown. 

Oh, on the pic thing.  Here's Grebo's pic URL...

http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h158/grebo2/Posting/?action=view&current=HI3.jpg

If you take out this part...

http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h158/grebo2/Posting/?action=view&current=HI3.jpg

You get this

http://s63.photobucket.com/albums/h158/grebo2/Posting/HI3.jpg

You can view without the Photobucket spam.

June

[bobbin]

Dumb, dumb question June...  how do I do that (here in privacy of my home, lol)?  Do I open up a new window and then cut and paste the code line?  Or is that something Grebo must do on her end?  (with W98 I could at least cut and past the code line/address; with XP I don't even know where to look for those things because they're not right in front of me!

I find the nuts and bolts of computer stuff incredibly frustrating and it seems no matter how hard I try I still "dont' get it" and wind up more frustrated than before!

[JuneC]

Grebo - and the rest of us - need to remove that string when we're creating the post.  You can do it after the fact by right-clicking on the picture, select "copy link location", then paste it into the url space at the top of your browser.  Before you press Enter, remove the same string I highlighted.  Do that process instead of clicking on the thumbnail and it'll bring you the pic in Photobucket minus the spam.