Eric: This video’s brought to you by Sailrite.
Visit Sailrite.com for all your project supplies, tools, and instructions. A wire hung canopy
is a great idea. They can provide adjustable shade to make your outdoor living area comfortable,
even on the hottest of sunny days. Want one for your outdoor living area? Watch this video
tutorial and we’ll show you how to sew it up and install it yourself. Almost all of
the materials and tools to do it can be found at Sailrite. Save some money and do it yourself
with help from Sailrite. I’m Eric Grant from Sailrite, and I’ll be walking you through
the process. First step, measuring your structure. Hi, I’m Eric Grant with Sailrite, and we’re
underneath a Pergola that I built last year. But as you can see, there is a lot of direct
sunlight and it makes this environment not as enjoyable. So what we’re going to do
in this video is show you how to build a wire hung canopy. It’s a canopy system that will
retract and also cover this area so that the sun is not so intense. It’s an easy project
that you can do yourself following this video tutorial. So let’s get started and show
you how to build a wire hung canopy. First off, we’re going to take some measurements
of the Pergola. We’ll be using Sailrite’s wire hung canopy
calculator. Only two measurements are needed to determine how the wire hung canopy panels
will work on your structure. That’s the structure’s width and length. Here we are
measuring the structure’s width. This is the area where we want the first and last
panel of fabric to stop along the long edges of the panel. Notice it’s up against the
main beam of our structure where the Eye Bolts will be screwed in. The second measurement
is the length of the structure. This measurement will help us determine the length of each
canopy panel. This measurement is from one main beam to the other main beam. Our structure
is 143” in length. However, we need to take into consideration the length of each Eye
Bolt. Ours measure 1-1/8”. Each span will include two Eye Bolts. We need to subtract
the Eye’s length from our length measurement. So our Eye’s length is 1.12” times 2 (since
we have 2 of them) equals 2.25”. So we’ll take the length measurement and subtract 2.25”
from it and we’ll enter that total into our calculator for the length measurement.
Our structure’s width is 162”. Our length is 140.75”. And we will pick a 54” wide
fabric. We have entered those measurements into our calculator and it gives us every
detail we need to make our panels, and also what supplies we need to order for our particular
size application including the quantities of items. According to the calculator for
our canopies, each panel will be 52” wide here. When you’re entering your figures for your
structure in the wire hung canopy calculator, sometimes fudging the width will make a difference
in how many panels are required for your structure. For instance, for this structure, I entered
162” for our width this direction. Now if I enter 163”, all of a sudden I need 4 panels
instead of 3. When I go to 4 panels that will increase the cost of the hardware that I have
to buy and also the amount of fabric that’s required. Thus costing me more money. So sometimes
by making an adjustment to the width will make a big difference in how much money you
have to spend. With that said, that also comes into play with the width of fabric that you
select. For instance, if you choose a Sunbrella Marine Grade Fabric in a 46” width, you
may have to make more panels. Thus costing you more money. However, if you choose a 60”
width, you may save a lot of money because you’ll probably not need as many panels.
Now I love using two types of fabric for wire hung canopies, and that’s Sunbrella Marine
Grade Fabric and Phifertex Plus. For this project, we’re going to be using Phifertex
Plus and it’s a 54” width fabric. Using the measurements I have, I only need 3 panels
so it’ll save me some money. Now that our structure and calculations are
done, it’s time to mark and install the Eye Bolts. The ½” EMT that we’re using needs to
be cut to size. Our panel width is 52”. We are only going to cut one pipe at this
time. The others will be cut later on. We’ll be using this pipe to help us mark our structure
for the installation of the hardware and wire cables that needs to be installed on our Pergola.
The ½” EMT conduit cuts easily with a hacksaw, as seen here. We will cut the other pipes
later on. We only need one for now. We’ve cut a ½” EMT pipe to the width
of each of our panels. For us it’s 52”. Now we’ve already installed the Eyes. This
is a prelude to your installation of the Eyes because I like to use the ½” EMT as my
reference for all of the Eyes down the entire sides of the Pergola. So when I put it up
here, what I need to do is, because I’m using an Eye Bolt with a nut and washer, I
need to make sure that I’m not going to run it into any hardware that’ll make it
impossible for me to use a nut and washer on the backend. So what I determined for us
is that we want this hardware to be installed about 8” from the end to avoid any obstacles
like this post or this post here. That puts our Pergola right here- the finished fabric-
and right here. So I’ll mark, which I’ve already done, here where this Eye Bolt will
go. Then I’ll mark here where this Eye Bolt goes. Obviously those would be centered between
this area. Then I’d use that as a reference for all other areas. Now in between each panel,
from this end where the fabric stops, we want at least 3”. We don’t want the panels
to be any closer than approximately 3”. So from here I’ll mark 3” and then I’ll
put my pipe right there on the next run and mark where this hardware goes. The reason
I have the 3” between each of the panels is I don’t want them hitting each other
when there’s a strong wind. So usually at least 3” is usually a safe factor to make
sure we aren’t going to have panels blowing against each other back and forth. Here are some general guidelines you may want
to go over. Now let’s show installing the Eye Bolts. Using that pipe we cut, we will
mark the beam with a pencil where we want each panel to start and where the Eye Bolt,
which holds the wire, should be installed. Each run of wire should be between 3"-8”
inside the edge of each panel, as we discussed earlier. My two sons are helping. Their names
are Silas and Seth. The end of the panel should also be marked. Now that panel’s hardware
location is identified on our structure. Next we will measure over about 3” from the end
where the first panel’s edge stops. We did not show it on this run, but we will be measuring
down 2” from the top of the beam using a square soon. We will do this to make sure
the hardware is horizontal in line with the top of our structure’s beam. Now follow
that same procedure down the width of your structure for each of the panels. Be sure
to start about 3” from the last panel’s edge location. Here we’ll show using a square
to measure down approximately 2” from the top of our beam and mark where every one of
the Eye Bolts need to be installed with an X or a + to indicate where we need to drill.
Our structure has 3 panels so we’ll do this yet one more time. Then we will repeat that
same procedure for the other side of our structure. We will not show that. Where each Eye Bolt
should be secured, we will drill through the wood frame using a 5/16” drill bit because
our Eye Bolt has a 5/16” threaded post and the washer and the nut will be used to secure
it firmly in place on our wood beam. We are using a high quality Stainless Steel Eye Bolt
with Nut and Washers from Sailrite. True, you could save money and buy Eye Bolts that
are zinc plated from a hardware store, but they do not hold up to the weather very well;
they rust. For a high working load limit, they usually are rather large. Our Eye Bolts
have a working load of about 1,000 lbs and a breaking load of 3,968 lbs. On the backside,
the washer and nut that comes with our Eye Bolt is securely tightened in place. Use a
screwdriver in the Eye to keep the Eye vertical as the nut is tightened. Repeat this process
for every location where an Eye Bolt needs to be secured to the beam, on this side and
on the other. After Seth and Silas have all the Eye Bolts installed, next up we need to
install the wire rope. This is a swedge tool to install Nicopress
Sleeves. This is a Turnbuckle that we have for each one of our canopies, or panels. So
what we need to do is we need to take the Nicopress Sleeve and install it onto the end
of the cable on one side, run the cable through the Eye (give yourself plenty and it’s easier
to work with), then run the end of the cable through the opposite side of the Nicopress
Sleeve. Once it’s through the Sleeve, we’ll leave a little bit of a tail hanging out.
Now we want to close up the Eye, and to do that, you want to pull on this side; not the
side that only has a little bit hanging through. There’s no magic rule to the size of the
Eye, but I like to have it fairly small so it doesn’t look so large. Now we’ll take
our swedge tool and we’ll take out this one nut on the end. That will allow us to
put the wire in between here and then put the Nicopress Sleeve between that other portion.
What we want to do is we want to create 3 presses on this Nicopress Sleeve. So the first
press will be very close to the end, as you can see here in that concave area. So now
we’ll tighten down the screw so that it bites down on that and we’ll tighten them
fairly evenly. Obviously this one’s looser than the other. We’ll use a ½” closed
wrench to do this job until I feel a little bit of pressure and then I’ll check to see
where my Nicopress Sleeve is positioned. Do the other one. Now I definitely have plenty
of pressure down that it’s going to hold it in place. It looks good and the Eye looks
like the right size. So now we’re going to continue just to press it down firmly until
these ends basically clamp down on the opposite end of the tool. This is an awesome device.
It does a beautiful job of pressing a Nicopress Sleeve. That side’s down completely, that
side and that side is down. So our Nicopress is pressed once. Now we just have to do that
in the center location and then on the end. Once you release these nuts, you’ll find
they quite easily reverse out. You can see how it’s crimped it there. It’s a beautiful
crimp job. Now we’ll put it back in in about the middle position. So notice now we’ve
crimped this one end. Now we’re crimping in the center position, and it’s positioned
just about perfectly. I hope you can see that. Do the same procedure. There we are- down
on that side and down on that side. Now I can release them with just a ½ turn or a
¼ turn and they’ll reverse out to the point where I can reposition the Nicopress Sleeve
yet again. There’s what it looks like. Beautiful crimp job! Last crimp near the end. Woo done!
You know what? I’m going to get a drill and a socket and do the last one with that
and show you how easy it is with that because that’s a lot of twisting. Now I need to
release this screw completely to get the wire out or run the wire all the way through, which
I do not want to do. That screw is released. This one needs to be released enough that
I can open the jaw. Take a look at that. That thing is not going anywhere.
We’re going to be going in this Eye Bolt to the next Eye Bolt on the other side, through
the other Eye Bolt, and then back through this Eye Bolt with the Turnbuckle in the center.
So I’m going to start the end that doesn’t have the Turnbuckle through the Eye here and
then feed all this cable through this. I’m going to let this hang here; it’s not going
to go through there. Then I’m going to go to the other side with my ladder and string
that up. So we’re going to go in from this side over to this side. Then, while we’re
doing this, you might as well go through this last one and pull it through. When you start stringing this wire rope, if
it gets next to your head, it does a good job of pulling a single hair out of your scalp.
Lol Alright, we got through that side and now
I’m back over here. Here we are. We go through here, feed the excess through. As you can see, each rectangle of wire will
hold up one panel. Now what we want to do is we want to take
this Turnbuckle almost to the very end of its travel so we have plenty to make adjustments
with. Right about there, and we want to do the same thing with this one. It’s a windy
day out here today! Right there. Now we have the maximum amount for adjustment. Now we’ll
take our cable and we’ll pull it taut. With this pulled taut on both sides, we need to
figure out where we need to cut the cable. Now we don’t want to cut it clear over here;
that would be too much cable. So we’re actually going to go to the end of the Eye, and then
basically about 1”-1 ½” past the Eye. I think I’m going to do it right about there
and that’s where I will create my cut so that I have plenty to tension it to make the
wire taut. So right here is where I will cut. Alright, I’ve got my Dremel tool with a
heavy cutting wheel on it, and this is our point where we need to cut it. I’ve got
my safety goggles on. That cuts it very nicely. Now if you have a heavy duty wire cutter,
you can use that as well. But most people don’t have a heavy duty wire cutter that’ll
cut wire as cleanly as a Dremel tool and a cutting wheel. Now I have to hold on to this
where I either feed it through maybe again and around itself; that may hold it there.
What I want to do now is I want to take this into the Turnbuckle out because I don’t
want to have to be fighting all this hardware. So I’m just going to unscrew it completely.
Let this side hang. Now I need to make sure that it’s going
through and fed appropriately. I’m going to put my tools on top of the Pergola up here
and my Nicopress Sleeve, and this time I’m going to use some power. Put that up there
too. Oh look, I’ve got a wrench up here! All kinds of goodies. Okay so now we’ll
go back to this. Before I feed it through the Eye, I have to put the Nicopress Sleeve
on, which I forgot to do. Nicopress Sleeve through the Eye through the Nicopress Sleeve.
Because that end was cut with a Dremel tool, it went through a lot easier than the other
end that was cut with wire cutters. This time I’m going to use a power tool and I’ll
show you that. So let me get it set up and then I’ll show you that next. See how I
have it positioned again? Now I’ll see how it works with a power drill. I’ve never
done it this way. This is a ½” socket. Ooooo nice! Look how fast it’s going! It’s
already down. Hahaha, I think I learned a lesson here. Now what we need to do is release
it a little bit. Alright I don’t think I need to show any more of this. You’ve got
the idea of how to do this. We’ll show you what to do after we get this Nicopress Sleeve
all the way compressed three times. I’m going to release this almost to the
point where it’s falling off because we want to tighten them about the same rate.
So they are just getting ready to fall off. Now we’re going to take this side and we’re
going to connect it. There we go. Now what we want to do is we want to turn this center
without these Eye Bolts turning. We don’t want to untwist the wire rope. So I’ll put
a screwdriver in this Eye, which will keep it from turning. Then I will turn the center
here and hold this Eye by hand. So the cable is staying true and the center of the Turnbuckle
is the only thing twisting to tension our cable. We’ve got already some pretty good
tension on and we have a huge amount of adjustment. Exactly what we want. Now we want this to
be very taut. Hopefully you’re structure is capable of holding all this pressure. If
you’re putting this on a weak structure, it’s probably not a good idea. My arm’s
probably going to get in the way here, but you get the general idea. We want this taut.
Love that sound! That’s the sound I’m going for. There’s going to be quite a bit
of weight on this cable, but we don’t want to pull down our structure either. So I’m
going to keep it there, and then I’m going to take these nuts and bring them up on the
center piece. Then I use my wrench and tighten up the nuts. We’ll follow that same procedure for every
one of the panels for the canopy. The wire runners are installed on our structure. It’s
now time to cut the fabric and sew it up. You may be asking yourself, “How in the
world are you going to sew large panels inside your home? It’s not like we have a loft
available for us.” But it’s really not that hard. All you need is a dining room table.
I’m going to show you how easy it is. Come on inside.
We have to lay out our fabric on the floor so we can measure it and cut it to the appropriate
length for our panel. We are doing that on our living room floor here. To determine the
length, we’ll use the cut fabric length on the calculator. We’ll mark that length
with a pencil. Then we’ll use a square and strike a straight line down the length of
our fabric. To extend the length of the square, we’ll use a yardstick that is laid over
the square by about 6” or 7”, and then we’ll continue to strike a line down the
length, or I should say width, of our fabric. Since we’re using a Phifertex Plus Mesh
Fabric, we can cut it with scissors. If you’re using Sunbrella Marine Grade Fabric, you may
want to cut it with a hotknife to help prevent the unravelling of the fabric. We’ve got all this fabric here. This is
about 177” approximately of fabric. It’s 54” wide. We’re using a Phifertex Plus.
Okay, so we need to get started. How are we going to do it? I’ve cleared this area of
all the chairs and all I have is one chair for my sewing machine, and the rest of my
area is my workspace. So this is all that’s needed. So what I’m going to do is I’m
going to take my fabric and I’m going to throw the majority on the floor. This end
that we’ve cut straight already with using a square, we’ll lay it on the table. You’ll
need to cut your panel to the right width. We’re using a 54” fabric and we want our
panel to be 52” when it’s finished. We want to create a single hem on both long edges
of the fabric. So for us, we don’t need to cut the fabric to size because we’re
going to fold it in 1” on one side, fold it in 1” on the other resulting in 52”.
We’re going to use a Sailrite Canvas Pattering Ruler to create this hem. First off we’re
going to measure, mark our fabric with a pencil or a soapstone pencil or either a grease pencil,
and then we’ll fold it to those lines we’ll create. So that’s what we’re going to
do now. So we’re going to create a 1” hem, and
on this ruler there’s a hole at 2”. So we’re going to create a line 2” from the
edge. Line’s kind of hard to see because the fabric doesn’t mark very well, but it
will be visible enough that we can actually create our single hem. So we’ll be folding
the edge of our fabric to that line. So we’ve done it for a small portion of the fabric
here. Now we’re going to go to the other side and do the same thing. Notice the edge of the Sailrite Canvas Patterning
Ruler has a metal piece that helps to guide the ruler up against the raw edge of the fabric. Now that we have that marked, we’ll move
the fabric now to where we stopped marking- right here- and we’ll use our Sailrite Canvas
Patterning Ruler, yet again, to strike another line that will be 2” from the edge of the
fabric. If you don’t have the Sailrite Canvas Patterning Ruler, you can do it with a yardstick.
We’re going to show you that next. Okay, we’ve got it marked from there to
there at the edge of our table. We’ll just continue to move the fabric to the next part
that we need to mark. Now we’re going to use a yardstick and just place a line 2”
from the edge on the fabric at a couple locations. Then we’ll strike a line with it. If you need to cut the fabric’s width down
to size- that was not required for us- you would mark a line for cutting in the same
manner as seen here. Then you would strike a 2” line in from that cut edge for a 1”
hem. We’ll just keep doing that all the way down
the length of the fabric. We’re going back to the Sailrite Canvas
Patterning Ruler. We believe it’s easier. We’ll be using Seamstick for Canvas for
the single hems along the long edges of each of our panels. This double sided tape will
baste the hem in place so we can take it to the sewing machine and sew it. Now there are
only a few spots on each panel that we’ll use this double sided tape, and that is the
two long edges and also the short sides. When we create our sleeves, we don’t want to
use double sided tape. There we’ll either pin or staple. Here’s our 2” line that
we struck down. The fabric will be folded over to that 2” line. We’re going to place
our ¼” Seamstick for Canvas about a ¼” away from the edge of the fabric. Our stitch
will go right here. Since we’re using a PTFE Thread, which is a lifetime guaranteed
thread that never rots and colors stay true and chemicals don’t affect it, it will last
the lifetime of the fabric. If we were to sew into the actual Seamstick, you may have
a little bit more issues with the PTFE thread. That doesn’t mean you can’t sew into the
double sided Seamstick, but avoiding the Seamstick will make it more capable of sewing without
skipped stitches. So that’s why I’m backing the Seamstick off. Notice that as I’m doing
this I’m moving our panel on our small table so that I can baste down approximately a 3
foot section at a time easily. I don’t need a huge workspace like we talked about earlier.
So now we’re on the other side and we’re doing the same procedure again. We’re coming
to the end and what we’ll do is we’ll go all the way to the end, and then you can
use scissors to break it, or scissors to cut it (I’m sorry), or you can hold your finger
on it and rip it like that. I like doing it like that because as you can see, it left
a little bit of the glue exposed. So now all you have to do is just grab the transfer paper
here and pull it up and that reveals the glue. I’ll pull up about 2 foot of it and then
I will baste the edge of the fabric over to that line we struck down earlier. You can
crease it with your hand, but why do that when you have the Sailrite Canvas Patterning
Ruler? Do this with the metal end and it is creased and bonded beautifully. You can’t
get a better crease than using the Sailrite Canvas Patterning Ruler. We’re going to
continue doing this entire side and then we’ll move to the next side after we’re done with
this. Move the fabric down to where we peeled up the tape, pull back some more tape, and
then baste it first right to your line that you struck down. This gives you a perfect
1” hem. As we discussed earlier, Phifertex Fabric
can be cut with scissors without having to worry about unraveling. Right to there. You can either do it with
your hand, but we’ll use the Sailrite Canvas Patterning Ruler. If using a Sunbrella Marine Grade or Awning
Grade Fabric, and you do not have to cut it to size along the selvage edge, those edges
are factory sealed and typically they do not unravel. However, if Sunbrella Fabric has
to be cut to size, we recommend using a hotknife to help prevent the unravelling. Here we are
on the opposite side. Peel off our transfer paper revealing the
glue, baste to the line. Oops! A little too far in. The nice thing about double sided
tape, you just pull it up and reapply. Now that we have the two hems basted, we need
to confirm our measurements before we sew them. So it’s always a good idea to do this.
We’re going for 52”. Yours may be different. We’re a smidge over 52”, which is perfect.
You don’t have to be exact on this thing. We’re ready to sew our hems in place.
Alright, we’re going to take our fabric and get it ready for sewing. There’s a lot
of fabric here. We’re going to start with one side; it doesn’t matter which side.
We’re going to sew it with the hem up. Here’s our front edge, and we’ll put her in the
machine and get started. We’re going to position our magnetic guide here on the Sailrite
Ultrafeed LSZ Sewing Machine so that we get our stitch about 1/8” away from our raw
edge. So right about there and that’s perfect. So now I’m going to do some sewing here
about 1”, and then I’m going to put the machine in reverse with this lever. That locks
the stitch in place. Now we’re going to sew down the length of our hem. I’m going
to bury the needle through the thickest part of the shaft, as you can see there. I rotated
the balance wheel around by hand to do that. Now that’s going to keep my fabric right
where I want it, and then I’m going to adjust my fabric. But before we do that, we need
to look at our stitch on the backside to make sure it looks good. Before we stitch too far,
we should always lift up our fabric and inspect the stitch on the bottom side to make sure
it looks good. We don’t want too much tension, and we don’t want too little tension. If
there’s too little tension on the backside, you’ll see loops or loose thread. Here it
looks excellent so I think we’re in good shape.
We’ve got our needle buried in our fabric right at the beginning of our hem. It’s
not a bad idea to take your fabric and actually kind of stretch it out in an excess room if
you have it. It doesn’t have to be perfectly flat, but the flatter you make it, the easier
it is going to be to sew it. Now if you don’t have a lot of room, you can gently roll the
fabric so that it folds right where you’re working and it will feed easier into the sewing
machine. We’re ready to sew. Now you can see that this magnetic fence acts
like a fence on a table saw. You just basically keep the fabric edge up against it and your
stitch stays nice and true. Notice that when I’m sewing where my hands are. One hand’s
over here guiding the fabric and the other hand is over here kind of helping to push
the fabric. That keeps my fabric feeding where I want it to because you do have to stay in
control of your fabric. It’s not going to feed it perfectly straight without your hands.
So watch as I do this. My needle’s buried so I’m not going to lose my spot. I’ll
move my hands. I’ll bury my needle if I make adjustments to the fabric by rolling
the balance wheel by hand and move my hands yet again. Hands go down, hand over in front
here, sewing about a foot and half to two foot, keeping the fabric up against the magnetic
guide. Now is probably a good time to talk about
Profilen Thread and Polyester Thread. We’re using a PTFE Thread called Profilen. A Profilen
Thread is a lifetime guaranteed thread and it will not rot and chemicals do not affect
it. So if you’re in a tropical environment- say California or Florida or even the Caribbean
or any place like that- using a PTFE Thread like Profilen is a phenomenal idea and highly
recommended. If you’re not in a tropical environment like here in Indiana, the weather
is kind of mild and the sun is not so intense, you could get away with a V-92 Polyester Thread.
A Polyester Thread in a mild climate like this will last anywhere from 3-8 years. In
a very high intense UV climate, like in the Caribbean, the Polyester Thread may only last
a year, 2 years, maybe 3 years and that’s it. So you may want to choose a PTFE Thread
like Profilen. A PTFE Thread is more difficult to sew with. You may get a few skipped stitches.
There are some things you can do to tweak the sewing machine so that it sews a little
bit better like using a smaller needle. Since the thread is a little bit slippery and it
also kinks slightly, using a smaller needle will sometimes cause the thread to bind better
in the hole that the needle creates. When the needle exists the hole, a better loop
is formed for the hook to catch. Let’s get started sewing again. Can this type of fabric be sewn with a regular
home sewing machine? To help determine that fact, you can cut up a pair of old blue jeans,
not including the jeans hems. Then stack about 4 or 5 layers on top of itself, and then sew
it with a heavy thread. Chances are, if the stitch looks good on the top side and the
bottom side, you can sew Phifertex and Sunbrella with your home sewing machine. If not, consider
buying Sailrite’s Ultrafeed Sewing Machine. Check them out at www.Sailrite.com. Alright, we have the two long edges hemmed
with a single 1” hem and they are now sewn. So we’re going to turn our attention to
one of the short ends. First off, we have to make sure that it’s at a 90 degree angle
to the edges. So we’ll need a square. Okay, we’ll use this square and our sides are
straight. As you can see, we’re a little bit off here so we’re going to strike a
line here along the fabric. To prolong the square, we’ll put this yardstick about 6”
or 7” on this and that prolongs our line. So now we’ll strike a line on this. Then
we’ll cut along that line. Now we’ll strike a 1” line all along the edge of the fabric
so that we can create a ½” hem. This is the one edge that can be basted along with
the long edges. So this basting tape will allow us to baste this ½” hem in place
so we can take it to the sewing machine and sew it and not have to worry about creating
it while we’re sewing. We’re just folding the edge of the fabric up to that line that
we just struck on, creating our ½” hem. Now we can take it to the sewing machine and
sew, which is probably not a bad idea. Or if you crease it really well, you can actually
just not sew it and sew it in the next step. It’s creased well, it’s basted down. We
should probably check it with our square to make sure that it’s perfectly square. That
looks really good, and that too looks good too. It’s very important to get an edge
that’s square because every single sleeve that’s created down the length of your panel
needs to be straight. If you start with a crooked edge then every single sleeve will
be crooked down the entire length. Next, along that ½” hem along the fold,
we’re going to strike a line that is 3” from the folded edge. We’re not going to
use Seamstick for this sleeve. We’re actually going to use a stapler and staple the fabric
in place. You could also use T-pins. If you were to use Seamstick, the glue or residue
may be in your sleeve when you’re trying to push your pipe through, and it may be difficult,
if not impossible, to push it through. So we’re going to use a stapler; you could
also use T-pins. We’re going to take this and we’re going to fold it to our line.
Then we’re going to crease little sections of about 1” at each one of those locations.
This kind of just gives us a little bit of a guide so that we can crease the fabric completely
in the next step. Once we have our preliminary scoring of the fabric done, we’ll go over
it again and crease it so it has a very good memory. Once that’s done, we’ll take our
stapler and we will staple about half way in the middle of that about every 6”-8”.
Let’s confirm our sleeve by measuring it. It should equal about 1 3/8”- 1 ½” and
it does. Alright, we need to place our magnetic guide
1-5/16” away from the needle. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to lower my needle
by rotating the balance wheel to 1-5/16” and place it nearly on top of the yardstick.
Then I’m going to position…oops, 1-5/16” is right here! Then I’m going to position
my magnetic guide right up against the edge of the ruler. So now I have exactly 1-5/16”
from the needle. Then I can clear my ruler. My magnet’s set. Now I’m going to take
my fabric where that first sleeve is created and put it in the sewing machine and sew along
that edge. We should be very close to that edge, as you can see, we are here in the video.
Do a little reversing at the end and just sew down this length. We’re keeping the
edge up against the magnetic guide. That’s our guide. I’m kind of lifting the fabric
as I sew here to kind of let the machine pull it in. So I’m guiding it here and over here
I’m kind of lifting the fabric so it feeds nice and straight. Now when we get to the
end, we do some reversing and our first sleeve is created. Next we’re going to pull out
these staples, and we’re just using a screw driver to pull them out. Then we’ll use
some needle nose to pull it out. Our first sleeve is created. Now we need to
go back to the calculator and confirm our span. We’re using our IPhone here to get to the
internet, and we have landed on the Sailrite Wire Hung Canopy Calculator. This is what
we use to calculate everything for our wire hung canopy. It says that each span for my
canopy will be 27.45”. That’s from sleeve to sleeve. Yours may be different depending
on obviously your Pergola, or your structure, that you’re applying these wire hung canopies
on. Here’s a snap shot of the calculator, and
here you can see each span will be 27.45” for our application. Yours may be different. To make things easier, I like to take a permanent
marker and mark on my yardstick at my span measurement. Ours is 27.45”. So as you can
see, I’ve placed a black mark there. That way I always know exactly where I need to
mark. We need to put our hems facing down against the table. So we’re going to roll
our fabric around so that the hems are facing down. To do this, make sure the fabric underneath
the table- there’s a lot of it- is going the same direction. That’ll make it easier
for the creation of these sleeves. The main reason that I’m turning the hems so they’re
facing the table is because I don’t want the hems to be up facing the sky. The idea
here is that if the hems are under, dirt can’t get caught on the edges of any of our hems.
So when it fills with water, and if water comes to the sides, it doesn’t get caught
along the edges of the hem. It basically rolls over the sides. True you’re going to see
the hems from the underside, but if you’ve done a good job, they’ll still look great.
Now, is that a rule? Not at all. It’s a preference. So if you’d like to have your
hems facing up at the sky, then simply make sure that you do this step with the hems facing
away from the table. It’s your choice. So now I’m going to place my yardstick right
at the edge of the fold and mark it our span distance, which we’ve marked on the yardstick.
I’ll do this in 3 spots- center and the 2 sides. So that’s 3 spots. Now we’ll
strike a line connecting those marks. What we’re going to do now is we’re going to
grab our fabric at our mark and we’re going to tuck the front portion under. At the line,
we’re going to create a fold right at this edge first. It doesn’t really matter which
side you do it on, but you just want to start it on a side. There’s our line. I’m going
to hold it with my finger right on the line. Then I’m going to make sure the fabric is
flat and the edges are lined up perfectly. That way I have a perfect 90 degree turn with
those 2 edges. You can see this edge is right on top of the other one. I’m going to take
my stapler and I’m going to staple about a foot and a half down from the fold and about
2” in. There’s no magic number for that. We’re just trying to keep those 2 pieces
of fabric directly on top of each other. Then I’m going to follow that same procedure
for this side. I’ll find my mark, and I’ll fold right on that mark and hold the fabric.
Make sure the fabric’s laying flat and then make sure the edges of the fabric are directly
on top of each other as best as possible. Then I’ll staple the fabric in place. Now,
if we’ve done it right, all we have to do is just basically keep the fabric flat because
our staples are holding it in place and create a memory creased edge along here. Everything
is flat, edges are lined up, we have sort of a memory from my hand. Now if you don’t
have the Sailrite Canvas Patterning Ruler, you can crease it like this or you can use
another object- I’d probably use a screwdriver like this- and crease the edge like this.
But as you can see, it’s well worth having the Sailrite Canvas Patterning Ruler to crease
fabric. By far the easiest tool. I’m keeping the ruler from scratching the table by applying
the pressure right up against the fabric. But if you really like your table, you may
want to put something down sacrificial. I don’t really care that much for this table
anymore. It’s about 30 years old. With that done, we’re going to take our stapler and
we’re going to staple in approximately 1” about every 6”-8” again. This secures
the sleeve so when we take it to the sewing machine and sew, it doesn’t move around
on us. There we go! Next up, we sew it. So now we’ll take our panel to the sewing
machine. The magnetic guide is already set up for our 1-5/16” sleeve. So all we have
to do is keep the fabric up against that edge. There’s no reason to measure for this. As
long as the fabric is creased well and stays in place, you should be able to sew right
along there. It’s always a good idea to do some reversing at the beginning because
that’s where the stress is going to be. When I reach the end, a little bit of reversing.
Our second sleeve is now created. Now we’ll repeat that process all the way down the length
of our panel until we reach the last sleeve. There we’ll do something special. We’ll
show this one more time. Don’t forget to pull the staples here at
the ends as well. If you sew through a staple, don’t be alarmed. Just take your time and
carefully pull it out without hopefully ripping any of the stitches. If you do rip stitches,
you can always go back over them again. We’ll now take our panel and we’ll measure
over that amount again and strike a line. Now take a look at this. This is pretty neat.
If the fabric is laying with the sleeve going this direction- now the sleeve may accidentally
go this way on the succeeding panels- but if it’s laying forward, you can see that
our mark is right on the edge. That’s exactly what it should be. So for every one of these
sleeves you create, if you’re measuring right, that mark should be right where the
edge of that last sleeve is. With that sleeve done, what I’m going to do now is I’m
going to grab it at that location, not grabbing the under-layer, and lift it up and push the
other portion of the fabric away from me. Now here is what I was talking about. If the
sleeve is pushed that way, obviously our line won’t be there. But if our sleeve is pushed
this way on this succeeding one, when we do that one, the line will be right there. So
there’s how the sleeve should be pushed. It doesn’t really matter, but it’s a confirming
aspect to show that you’re doing it right. So now again, we’re going to find this line.
I’m going to crease it. I’m going to hold on the line. I’m going to pull that fabric
over so that it’s directly on top of the other one so we have a perfectly straight
edge. I’m going to go in about a foot and a half, 2” in and staple. Do the same thing
over here. This is a very easy project. A little time consuming, but very easy. Fabric’s
on top of itself. Staple. Crease the fabric making sure everything is nice and flat. Then
score the fabric. Once it has a good memory, we’ll staple about every 6”-8” about
1” in. Here we go again. One of the nice things about this project
and what makes it so easy is using one of these great sewing machines. The Sailrite
Ultrafeed Sewing Machine is really the world’s best portable walking foot sewing machine.
You won’t find anything better. We’re using the Sailrite Ultrafeed LSZ-1. This is
a straight stitch and zigzag sewing machine. Sailrite also carries a red sewing machine
called the Sailrite Ultrafeed LS-1. It’s a straight stitch only machine and it’s
a little bit less money. You don’t need a zigzag stitch when you’re doing a project
like this. Follow that same procedure for all intermediate
sleeves until the last one. We are on the last sleeve here. Obviously
near the very end of our fabric. So now we need to measure over our span length as we
did for all of the sleeves, or pockets if you want to call them that, and we need to
add 2”. That’ll be used for our ½” hem, and also obviously the other side of
a pocket. So let’s first measure over our span. Span for us again is right where we
marked on our yardstick. We’ll measure that at 3 spots and strike a line. Now from that
span line we just marked, we need to place another line that measures over 2” more
from the first line, and we will put 3 marks on the fabric- one on each end and one in
the center. This is 2” down from that span line. Then we’ll strike a new line that
distance from the first line striking through the marks we just placed on the fabric. This
will be our cut line, and we will cut this with scissors. Be sure to only cut through the top surface
of fabric. If you have fabric underneath, don’t accidentally cut it. Our hems are facing down. We’re going to
actually flip this fabric so the hems face up and place double sided tape right at the
edge of this fabric. So I’m placing the double sided tape right along the edge of
the fabric. So I did not strike a line. I’m just going to remove the basting tape and
then I’m going to fold the fabric back to approximately a ½”. I’m going to eye
this. I do a pretty good job eyeing things to make sure they aren’t creeping on me.
If you’d like, you can strike a line on the fabric and follow that line. Now I’ll
take our Sailrite Canvas Patterning Ruler and we’ll crease that ½” hem so it has
a good memory, and it stays basted nicely because of that. Alright now we have that
½” hem. Now we’ll find our line and we’ll fold directly on that line. I’m folding
by hand first to kind of give it a little bit of a crease there. I didn’t sew my hem
in place because I just creased it well and it’s basted. If you’d like, you could
sew the hem so it doesn’t come undone, but I think it’s an extra step that’s not
necessary. So once it’s been creased with your fingers, we’ll crease it with a heavy
object so it has a memory that stays permanent, or more permanent, because I don’t think
it’ll stay there forever. Once that’s done, we’ll take our stapler and we’ll
staple just like we did with all the other sleeves. So that is our last sleeve. You can
see the ½” hem, the pocket, and the finished side here.
The last sleeve has the magnetic guide in the right spot. We’re going to sew in our
hem and also the sleeve at the same time. As with any other sleeve, be sure to do some
reversing at the beginning and the end to lock your stitch in place. Then we’ll use
that guide to guide our fabric. Beautiful! Phifertex Plus is a vinyl coated mesh fabric,
and it does allow air to flow through the fabric. After a rain, water may sit on top
of the fabric due to the natural water adhesion and cohesion factors that are normal in any
situation. However, since the fabric is a mesh, the water will eventually pass through
or dry out quickly due to the high breathability of the mesh fabric. If you used a Sunbrella Marine Grade Fabric,
those fabrics are water resistant and water will pool up, especially on each one of these
swags. So what we need to do is install a single spur grommet right in the center of
each one of these areas. You’ll need to install a #2 Spur Grommet in the middle of
every span. Let me show you what I mean. This is a span- from sleeve to sleeve. The pipes
have not yet been installed. In the middle, you would fold this fabric so the tops are
even, and this is the middle of the span right here. Either measure it or fold it in half
this direction and there’s your middle here. So you could crease it kind of with your fingers
if you’d like. There’s the middle mark. And then if you’d like, you can fold it
here…bingo! Right there. You’d install a #2 Spur Grommet. Being sure that you only
go through one layer of fabric. If you’re using Sunbrella Marine Grade Fabric,
you need to install a grommet between each span. Here we’ve marked the center of this
grommet on the Sunbrella fabric. This is just a sample piece to show you how it’s done.
You can use a razor blade and cut an X and then insert the male portion of the grommet
through the hole that the X creates. This is not as clean of a system as using a hole
cutter, which we will show next, but it does work. If you’d like, you can cut out the
triangle of the X with scissors. That will make it a little bit cleaner. Once you get
the male portion through, put the female portion with the spurs on top of that. Then we’ll
use the die set and we’ll use a heavy mallet and pound it until the grommet is set appropriately
in the single layer of Sunbrella fabric. Now we’ll demonstrate using a #2 hole cutter,
and we’re using the Premium Cutting Block on the underside to prevent damage to the
hole cutter. We use the mallet again to punch our hole, and this hole is very cleanly done.
Then we’ll use that #2 spur grommet again and insert the male portion through the hole.
Place the female portion on top of the single layer of Sunbrella Marine Grade or Awning
Grade Fabric. Then use the die set and give it a few hard solid blows until the grommet
is set appropriately in the fabric. Again this is not necessary for Phifertex or Phifertex
Plus Fabrics; only Sunbrella. Oh, one more thing. That grommet needs to
go in every single one of these swags to allow the water to escape. All of our panels, or canopies, are complete.
Up next, we need to prepare the pipes. The ½” EMT that we’re using needs to
be cut to size. Our panel width is 52”. Mark it a little bit less than 52” because
we want the pipe to be a little bit smaller than the pocket. The ½” EMT conduit cuts easily with a hacksaw,
as seen here. After all the pipes are cut to size, use a metal file and clean up the
edges. There, most of the outside edges are nice
and smooth now. So it’s ready to be used. In lieu of a hacksaw, we could use a tubing
cutter. I’ve got this vice out here. It’s not
actually mounted to this plastic table, but my wife didn’t want me to do this inside
for fear of scratching up the house. I don’t blame her. I’m going to put a rag in here,
and then tighten the vice to hold the ½” EMT in place while I get ready to cut it.
We can cut it with a hacksaw, as we showed earlier, or we can cut it with a pipe cutter.
Put it on the pipe, there’s our mark that we need to cut it at, and we’ll just put
the blade right by that mark, and then you just tighten this wheel as we spin the pipe
cutter. Now if you take a look at the end of the pipe, you’ll notice it’s a pretty
clean cut. So that’s what a pipe cutter does in lieu of a hacksaw. You might want
to still file the edges of this a little bit. I’ve used ½” EMT on a lot of awning projects
on homes throughout the years, and I’ve not had any corrosion issues or rust issues
on the outside. Where I’ve cut it, I’ve had a little bit of rust. It’s not really
any serious matter. But if you want to prevent rust from happening on the cut edges that
you created, you can use a Rust-oleum Cold Galvanized Compound Repair (basically spray
paint). After your pipe has been cut to size, which should be the width of your canopy,
or the width of each of your panels, you need to determine where each one of the Strap Eyes
are going to be positioned on the pipe. To do that, we need to go back out to the Pergola,
or the structure, that you’ve erected your wire on and measure the distance from one
wire to the other. Our canopy will go in here approximately over to here. We need to measure
from one side of the cable to the other to get a measurement. So I’m just going to
take my tape measure and measure over to that, and as you can see this one is 36”. So that’s
where we’ll need to put our Strap Eyes. I advise doing the drilling of the pipe outside
on a surface that you don’t care about ruining- a sacrificial surface. Thus, the plastic table.
Alright, we know that we have the wire spaced at 36” for our project; yours may be different.
We know that our sleeves, as far as the width goes, are 52”. So 52-36= 16. Divide that
by 2 and that’s 8”. So we should be able to find the 36 center for our pipes at 8”
from each end. So let’s do that now. If you look at the ½” EMT pipe, you’ll see
a weld line that rides all the way up the length of the pipe. If you look down the pipe,
you’ll see that it’s perfectly straight right on top of the pipe. We will use that
as a reference to where we’re going to drill our holes so that the holes are always in
the same location on the top of the pipe. We want to mark this pipe on that weld. So
we’re going to measure 8” over and put a mark on that weld at 8” over. Right there.
Then we’ll do the same to the other side. So there’s our weld point right there and
there’s 8” so you mark it right there on top of that. Next what we’ll do is we’ll
take this Strap Eye and place it on top of that mark right on top of that weld point
with the mark in the center of the Strap Eye. So the Strap Eye is on our weld point, and
then we mark right in the center on both sides. Then we’ll do that same thing on the other
side. Using a 1/8” drill bit, we will drill right on top of the weld at each one of those
marks for the Strap Eye. We will not drill through the other side; only one side. There’s
our weld mark so we now that it’s right in line with the pipe. Now what we’ll do
is we’ll take every single pipe that we have for our single panel and line it up so
the weld point is at the top. Then we’ll take our marker and we will mark where the
holes go so they’re directly across from the holes we just drilled. It’s a good idea
to confirm that those holes are in the right spot by testing the holes you already drilled,
and yep, they’re in the perfect spot, if you can see that in the video. So there’s
one marked. Now we’ll take a second one, or a third one, I’m sorry. We’ll find
that weld point. There it is. We’ll line up the ends over here on this side because
it has to be even, and then we’ll use those marks to mark directly across from those.
We’ll do this on all ends of the pipe for every single one of them. Then we’ll drill
through those holes. There’s the weld point, lined up on the end, mark the holes. Every
once in a while, take your Strap Eye and confirm the holes are in the right spot. So there
you can see all the holes are drilled on this side and also they’re all drilled over here.
For our wire hung canopy, we have 6 spans for ours.
That means we need 7 lengths of pipe for each panel. We have 3 panels so we have to do this
2 more times. We’re not going to show that. Next step, we need to install the pipes and
our hardware. We’re back inside now where the air conditioning’s
on. We already have all of our pipes drilled for this one panel with the 2 holes that are
predrilled at the appropriate spot. So we’re now ready to install them in our canopy. We’re
going to do one at a time, but the process for all of them is exactly the same. So after
I show you a couple, you should have this down pact. We’ll start with the first sleeve.
Which end should you start with? It doesn’t really matter. With the pipe centered along
this first sleeve, making sure that the ends are even, usually the pipes are slightly smaller
than the panel, we will mark right on the fold directly across from those holes on the
fabric. We’ll do that on this side and also the other of this pocket. So I’ve not moved
my pipe. That’s important to make sure that the holes are going to be exactly in the right
spot when we’re done because we’re going to make holes in this. So I’ve got those
2 positions marked on both sides. Now I’m going to move the pipe out of the way and
I’m going to use this cutting pad and put it underneath the fabric, making sure that
I don’t have any extra fabric under there because we only want to go through the fold
of the pocket. Then I’m going to place my cutter so that it creates a half moon cut
and use a hammer like that. Right over top of those holes that we marked. I’m going
to do this same thing over here. There we go! The first sleeve has the ½” hem on
it so it’ll be a little more difficult to slide the pipe into it because of that ½”
sleeve. You might want to get a helper to help with this. It will be a little bit of
a tight fit. You can roll the pipe around to help it kind of push into the sleeve. There
we go. I’m not going to worry about where the holes are until I get almost to the other
end. So now I’m almost there. So now I’m going to try to find my holes. Here they are.
I’m going to try to keep those positioned so that when it goes through the sleeve they’ll
be in line with these holes. So keep pushing it in. Now the pipe is flush with this side
right here, but we’re not all the way in. So what I’m going to do is I’m going to
grasp the fabric over here and kind of pull on the fabric, which you can see the pipe
came out that end and I have a wrinkle here in the middle. So what I can do now is I can
kind of do that down the length and now the pipe is in all the way and I can push the
fabric out to make it so that the pipe is now buried within our sleeve on both ends.
Now to find the holes, because they’re not quite visible yet here, I’m going to take
a pair of needle nose pliers and grab my pipe and roll it around until I find those holes.
There they are. I’m going to do that only on one side. So I’m going to line up these
holes, and I’ve used my needle nose pliers to do that over here by grabbing the pipe.
Now I can put my Strap Eye and my fixed Snap Eye onto that side. I’m using #8 Self Tapping
Screws, or Drilling Screws, and I’m going to feed kind of hand put the screw in there
to kind of start it, and then drive it mostly down; not all the way. Then I’m going to
put on my Snap so that the Snap is facing towards the inside, or the middle, of the
canopy, or panel. So the Snap is facing that direction. Then I’ll take a second screw
and hand start it in that same hole and drive it into place. Now I can position them down
hard. That is now installed. Now we’ll move to the other side and show this one more time.
Alright I’ve grabbed my pipe with my needle nose pliers, find the holes right there- they’re
lined up perfectly- and follow that same procedure yet again. Snap goes on so that it opens towards
the middle again, just like that. There we go. Now if it’s done appropriately, they
should be on top of the fold, which they are, and they should be fairly straight. That’s
one sleeve done. This is the end. What I want to do is I want to fold it so that I see the
next fold. So I’m going to fold the fabric back this way and you can see I’m working
with another sleeve and it’s laying flat on the table with nothing underneath it. So
I’m assured that I won’t go through another layer of fabric by mistake. I’ll grab the
next pipe, follow the same procedure. We’ll show this in double time. Mark the
fold with the pipe laying beside it at each hole location. Then use a hole cutter right
on that fold and create holes, as seen here in the video. Here’s a helpful tip. Here are the holes
directly on top. Once we get the pipe in, you can’t really tell where the bottom is.
You could use a permanent marker and mark a line so that you know that’s the bottom
of the pipe, which will help you align the holes and find them. There’s the mark we
made on the bottom of the pipe so if I grab my needle nose and I roll it around to basically
where the seam is, that should be the top of the pipe. If you look at our holes they
are now showing. Screw it part way down, put our Fixed Strap Eye with the Snap on towards
the middle, next screw into position, and screw it down all the way- both screws.
All of our sleeves have a pipe and also all the fittings attached. We’re now on the
last sleeve. This last sleeve, we want to install a Strap Eye in the middle of this
sleeve so that we can attach our rope pulley system. So what I’ve done is I’ve measured
the tubing already to the center location, which for us is 26”. Then I marked on the
weld line that’s directly in line with the holes that we drilled for our regular snaps.
So on that weld line, in the middle with that mark in the middle of the Strap Eye, I’m
going to mark again for 2 more holes there and there. Now I did this outside last time
to prevent damage to my tabletop, but my wife’s not home. So I’m going to use my cutting
pad and drill through it here on the table and be as careful as possible. So drilling
holes right on top of that weld just like we did earlier. Pipe’s centered,
mark the folds just as we did previously, except for this time you’re going to mark
the folds in the center as well. Then you’re going to punch holes there along with the
sides. Now for the middle position, we don’t need anything besides the Strap Eye. So for
the middle position on our last sleeve, we have just a single Strap Eye. Then on the
ends we’ll install our regular Strap Eyes with the Snap Hooks. We haven’t done that
yet. As you can see, the process is easy. Next
we will hang the panels. You notice the panel’s on the ground and
we have our sleeve that has the Strap Eye in the middle on top. Now get a helper here
to help with this. Tabby would you grab that sleeve with the Strap Eye on it? There it
is. You can see it right there. She’s going to hand it up to me. I’m going to get on
my ladder and then she’s going to continue just to help me to string it up. All we do
is we take these hooks and we simply just strap it over the wire on both sides. Once
that’s done, we’ll push this down because this is the end that goes towards the camera.
I’ll grab my second sleeve, which you probably can’t see, and Tabby’s helping me to hold
the fabric up and strap it on in the same manner. Push it down. It is that simple. So
this is an easy thing to take down and put up. And our last sleeve. Coming up next is the optional pulley and
rope system chapter. This system will allow you to open and close the canopy panels via
a control line. This system is optional, but highly recommended. Here you can see it working.
One rope, or line, can control up to 3 canopy panels. If more than 3 panels are utilized,
we recommend using a second control line. If this pulley and rope system is not utilized,
a webbing Strap can be used so it can be opened by hand. Let’s get started and show you
how to install the pulley and rope system. The Cheek Block here on this post is mounted
approximately at my chest level. There’s no right, rhyme, or reason why I did that.
I just didn’t want little kids to mess with it. Notice that the Block is at the upper
portion and the opening for the Block is at the bottom. That way the line can run down
and around and up. We’ve installed a Bullet Block here. This will be our control line,
and then up here we installed a Micro Block, a Double Block, but you can see the Strap
Eye was put in at an angle here. This is the Micro Double Block that will control the 2
lines that come down our post to our Cheek Block down below here. In the middle of these
runs, or close to it, on the end where we’re going to have our line that controls the entire
canopy system, we want to install a Micro Double Block, and I’ve installed it using
a Strap Eye and 2 Stainless Steel Screws that I’ve screwed into the wood. Also take note
of how the Double Micro Block is installed. It’s installed so the lines go horizontal
with our structure. We’ll need to do this at each run on the side that has the control
line that comes down the post. We did not show it, but here you can see all
of the Double Blocks installed on this side of our Pergola, right in the center position
for each one of the canopy panels. Now on the end that does not have the control
line coming down the post, we need to install a Harken Micro Block Single, and we’ll install
that so the Block runs vertical, as seen here. Now try to get the Block as high as you possibly
can within a few inches of your wire cable. Here we don’t have much space so we’re
only 1” or so above that. These Blocks again should be centered between the span. Ours
is 36” so this is approximately 18”. Now if you have something that’s in the way,
an obstacle, feel free to move it to the side to avoid the obstacle. Here we were fine.
Now we need to do that on every single span on this side with a Single Micro Block. Up next, we need to run the rope through the
Blocks, but first we’ll melt the end of the rope to keep it from unravelling. We recommend
a braided Dacron Leechline from Sailrite. We have our line here and the first step is
to tie off to our Strap Eye right here. So to do that I’m going to do a bowline. To teach the tying of a bowline is to imagine
the end of the rope is the rabbit, and where the knot will begin on the standing part,
a tree trunk. First a loop is made near the end of the rope, which will act as the rabbit’s
hole. Then the rabbit comes up the hole, goes round the tree, then back down the hole. This
can be taught to children with the rhyme “up through the rabbit hole, round the big tree,
down the rabbit hole, and off he goes.” Now that this bowline knot is tied, we’ll
take the remainder of the line and put it over top of our canopy as such like this.
This is step one. Step two is going to be done over there. Alright, we have the end
of our line. We’re going to go through the top of this Double Block in that direction.
Then we’ll pull all of our line through. All of our line is through the Block, and
you can see this line, if you look at that over there, it pulls our whole awning in this
direction. That’s step 2. Step 3 is over here. Step 3- make sure that your line is
above this cable. So we’ll have to go above it here. Then we’ll feed through the top
portion of this Block in this direction. Then we’ll pull all the cable through. Okay,
we have all of our line pulled through, and as you can see, the cable, or the line or
the rope, is running above this hardware. That’s step 3. Now step 4 is down below.
And step 4- run the cable all through this Block. Step 4 is done. Now we’ll lead up
to that Block we were just at. Step 5- through the backside, or underside, of this Double
Block, and pull the line through. Now this line has to go above this hardware. So right
over here laying beside this other one. So I’m going to gather the line and throw it
over that. So now I’m going to take all this line, I’m going to step up one more
time, and feed it over this cable. Then I’ll ensure that it’s not twisted anywhere. As
you can see here, it’s nice and straight. I’m going to go underneath this. We’re
not going to run through the Block; we’re going to skip it. Then I’m going to go over
this cable with this. Then always check your line to make sure that it’s not kinked anywhere,
or caught anywhere, and it’s not. So that’s perfect. So we’ll continue to do this all
the way down the line. I’m going to take this cord and go over top of here through
here. Looks good. You don’t need to really worry about this, but I’m going to tuck
it under there. I’m going to go through here. Good, and we’ll keep going. Through
this one. We’ve got a nice straight run there. Now we need to go through this Block.
That’s step 6. Now we’ll take the end of the line and we’ll run it through the
bottom of this Double Block and pull it all through. Alright, that’s step 6. Next is
step 7, which is at the opposite side of the Pergola. The steps for this pulley and rope system
shown are for 3 canopy panel runs. The control lines become more difficult to pull with each
additional canopy panel. If more than 3 panels are needed, we recommend an additional pulley
and rope system be added. I’ve gathered the rope, or the leechline,
and I’m going to go over the top of this awning, or panel. There you can see. Now I’m
going to drop it and move to that side. Alright, step 7. We’re going to go through the top
of this Single Block. We’re going to go through the bottom like this, and we’re
going to pull all the line through. That’s step 7. Step 8 is to tie off to the awning.
So on this side of our Pergola we have the control line that’s coming down this post.
So this is the control line side. We’re going to go to the other side and push all
of our canopies, or panels, towards that side. I’m going to use this rod to do that. Up
against the structure, up against the structure. Alright, all of our panels are pushed up against
the structure on the side that does not have a control line. Now what we need to do is
we need to mark, we need to take this cable down here and we need to pull it taut without
obviously pulling any of that canopy away from the structure. So we have all of our
line taut. I will take the line directly under here, I will take that with my hand and what
I will do is I will mark that position with a twisty tie. So I’m going to take this
bread tie while it’s pulled fairly taut and twist it around the line. Now I know that
my hands are in the way. Don’t worry about that. I’ll show you this when we’re done.
Okay, so my twisty tie is on the rope. Notice when I pull the line it’s right there. So
the line’s fairly taut. I’m not pulling so hard that I’m pulling away that canopy.
Now what I’m going to do is I’m going to pull this through the Block so watch there.
Here is where I want my Alpine butterfly knot. That’s what I’m going to do next. The butterfly loop, or Alpine butterfly knot,
is perhaps the easiest to remember how to tie correctly. Start by simply making 2 twists
in the same direction to form the 2 loops. Then wrap the outer loop around the standing
part and pull it through the hole of the inner loop. There we go. I’m going to make this knot
a little bit prettier here. My Alpine knot’s made right where I want it to be, nice and
secure. We’re going to show making the Alpine butterfly
knot one more time. Make one turn then make a second turn, or twist. Flip the loop over
on top of the standing legs. Then hold the cross in the center making a middle hole in
the center position. Grasp the bottom of the outer loop and take the end back around the
back and through the middle hole. That gives you your Alpine butterfly knot. I’m going to remove this. Now this knot
is pretty big, but we should be able to get it through our Block. So let’s try it. The
Blocks are not too small, and we’re using 1/8” line. There we go. Now we’re on the
underside of the Block. Now I have to release one of these screws with my drill. Okay. So
we’ve got that screw out. This is going to be a little bit on the hard side to move.
Yeah, it moves pretty well. Now we’re going to take our loop and we’re going to run
it underneath the leg of that Strap Eye just like that. Then we’re going to put our screw
back in again. Okay, good. Now that’s step 8. Now we take this line and feed it on the
other side of our panel. Our line is taut, and you’ll notice when I pull on this line,
our knot is right where I want it, right at the bottom of that Block. So now we’ll go
to the other side of the Pergola. Alright step 9 is to take the end of the line…OW!
And go through the top portion of this double Block going that way. Pull the line through.
Alright, now we’re going to go over this cable. Now make sure the cable, when you pull
on it, there are no cross sections here. There’s a little cross section here, but it’s not
a big deal. It’s not going to cause any friction issues. It’s just crossed once
there. We’ll also go on the top of this cable. Now step 10 is to go through this Double
Block through the bottom, and pull all the line through again. As you can see, when the
rope is pulled fairly taut, it’s a straight run all the way to this Block. Step 11 we
have to go all the way down to the end again. Step 11- through the top of this Block. Be
sure not to go behind that cable, but instead go on top of it like that. Now pull the line
through. Step 12- tie to the Strap Eye on the front of this panel. Be sure that the
cable, or the rope, is taut and then determine where your Alpine butterfly knot will go.
We want it right underneath this Block so right about…I’m going to put it right
about there. Yep, that should do it. So if my loop is there, I’ll be able to attach
that Strap Eye and it’ll be nice and taut. So now I’ll mark that location with my bread
twisty tie. So that location is marked where I want the loop to go. Pull it through my
Block being sure it doesn’t move so that I have access to make my Alpine butterfly
knot. Now we’ll pull on this pulling this knot through the pulley. Watch closely up
here. Pulley is big enough that I can get it through without any effort. Now I’ve
already released one of the screws on this Strap Eye. So I’m going to twist the Strap
Eye, put it under it, and then reinstall the screw. There we go. Next step #13- to the
top of this Double Block. Our rope is getting smaller, and we don’t have any twists. We
have a single twist here, but it’s not a big deal as we talked about earlier. So now
we come across and keep going that direction. I’m going to go over that and over this.
There are no twists anywhere. #14 is through the bottom of this Double Block. Good! #15-
tie it off at the Strap Eye on our first panel that we started with. Let’s go over there.
#15- put the rope through the single pad Eye making sure that you go on top of the wire.
There’s where we want our bowline knot to be so when the rope is pulled taut, it’ll
tie to that Strap Eye. So I’m going to give myself about 12” of line and cut it because
we have extra line that we included just to be safe. Then we’re going to use a lighter,
a hotknife- this I’m using a small torch- to melt the end of the rope being sure that
you don’t do that by any fabric. Now that’s not going to come unraveled on us. Now what
we have to do is tie into the Strap Eye. Okay, we cut our line one more time. There we go.
That side’s already sealed. Now we’re going to grab the side of the panel that I’m
going to attach to the other side. We’ll be climbing up there and attaching it so it’s
locked on that side. So we’ll do this with each panel. Okay, we have our panels here.
To lock our panels, we’re going to take this hook, unhook it from the cable, and hook
it into there. Same thing over here. Unhook it from the cable, snap it in there. We’ll
do that with all the other ones now. Works awesome! Now we can control all 3 panels with
one line. For some assurance to be sure that our system does not move in high winds, or
if we want to make sure that it’s fully closed all the way to the ends, we can use
one of these Harken 471 Micro Carbo-Cam Cleats. We do not need to predrill holes. If you did,
you could use the bottom portion of this cleat as a template to predrill holes. I prefer
to install the cleat close to the Cheek Block directly above from it, approximately 5”
above it. I also prefer for the gate to open this direction. That allows me to force the
line in by pulling down. I’m using a #8 Stainless Steel Pan Head Screws. My length
is about 1 ¼”. Now when I make adjustments, if I want the shades to stay all the way open,
all the way at the other end, you just pull it all the way back, and then I can simply
drop it in there and it will stay all the way to the end. Our slide on wire hung canopies are now complete.
Our wire hung canopies are obviously installed on a Pergola, but you can also attach this
type of canopy to a solid building. We typically call those free standing wire hung canopies.
Now that our project’s done, we have the shade even on those very sunny days to provide
us with a very comfortable outdoor living space. Coming up next is the materials list
and the tools that we used, including some common household tools. We highly recommend
that you use the calculator that was designed for these wire hung canopies. It will tell
you exactly what materials to order and the quantities from Sailrite. With that said,
here is a detailed list of all the materials and tools. You may want to pause the video
here to study these 3 pages of materials and tools. After using the calculator for the
slide on wire hung canopies, you’ll know exactly what materials to order and the quantities
of each for your particular application. If you have any questions, be sure to give us
a call or email us at Sailrite. This free video and the hundreds of other project videos
that are free are available from Sailrite. It’s your loyal patronage to Sailrite that
makes these free videos available so thanks for your loyal support. I’m Eric Grant,
and from all of us here at Sailrite, thanks for watching.
