Canopy Project

For Malagentia’s Great Northeastern War, we arrived to help with site setup a day early and took the opportunity to set up most of our camp before leaving for a night.  Thirty minutes after I got home, I had a message from one of my campmates that the canopy we were using to cover our eating and cooking area had fallen prey to the wind that was blowing down the fields.  I was not particularly surprised – the very light aluminum and nylon jobby had nearly succumbed to the wind twice at an event a couple of weeks previous.

So, with time ticking away before we would leave to camp for the weekend, I decided that the best alternative would be to build one with canvas, actual poles, etc.  I felt that not only would it look better, but it would be more robust than the other one.  Plus, we really would need something to offer some shade and cover for our stuff.

The first plan that I had was a four-pole version, two tall and two short, so the first shopping trip saw me come home with a bundle of six 2×2 four foot poles, and two eight foot 2x4s, the canvas and some other implements.  After a long day of setting up site, though, I knew that I wouldn’t start the project until the morning, and in retrospect I am really glad that I did.  Because after thinking about it more, the less I liked that design.  I was concerned about the stability of it, plus I was concerned about the slope of the canopy being too severe and limiting our usable space.  Plus, I was going to have issues transporting the 2x4s in my Aveo – they stretched almost the whole length of the cab, and with a full car I was going to need to find a way to split them and brace them when I put the tent back together.

Early Thursday morning I went back to the drawing board and planned out a six post version, three on each side.  With the 9×12 canopy I had, it would provide a nicely squareish area of consistent height, and then a longer but steeper angled area to stow equipment.  Back to Lowes for more equipment.  For some reason (OK… I started feeling cheap), I opted to go with pine poles instead of the red oak I had bought the day before.  Also, after talking it over with some friends at dinner on Wednesday night, we fleshed out a great way to make the poles collapsible using PVC piping as sleeves.  All said and done, the equipment that I needed including a sledge hammer and straight hammer and the grommeter came to around $100.  Without the tools, it was probably $75 and if I had opted for the cheaper pine poles all the way around, it would have been even less.

I wanted to start with what I thought would be the biggest pain in the ass, and that felt like the tent poles themselves.  They would be paired up, and then one side of each pair would be shaved down at the end to fit into the PVC (2 foot lengths of pipe, cut in half).  Things started getting a little dicey here when my Sawsall only got through a few of them before the battery crapped out.  Also, this was the point that I realized the red oak poles and pine poles weren’t the same size – the oak were larger square and longer.  Inconvenient, but really just sort of limited the choices of what could go where.  Not the end of the world by any stretch.

As the Sawsall was recharging, I moved onto the pins themselves, which were just 6 inch, 1/4 inch nails driven into whatever would be the top section of the posts themselves.  The heads were just small enough to fit into the grommets, so all was well and good there.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grommeting the canvas was easy, with the right tools.  I picked up a 9×12 painters canvas which I really didn’t expect to get more than one use out of for a variety of reasons.  At the end of the day, if I had more time to make the unit, I would have done more things to the covering, because I definitely got lucky that it never rained beyond a sprinkle; it would have absorbed water like a sponge, and probably fallen apart.  Before the Imperial Court opened, I set it down for a few hours when the wind was really heavy, but I am not sure it was actually necessary.

 

The really nice thing about the set up is this:  IF we do it the right way, Holden and I can put it up with only the two of us in about ten minutes.  Hell, after court on Saturday, I pulled it back up by myself so I suppose technically it could only take one person, but two was manageable, and if there are three then it’s a piece of cake.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, where does this leave me?  Probably best to look at this in a couple of ways:

What worked well:

The poles in particular really did exactly what they were supposed to do, even though as expected they were the biggest problem.  Technology did me no favors there, but as the day went on, I realized that a chisel may actually do the job better than the Sawsall.  Something to think about.

The design itself is sound, which was nice to see.  I would have been pretty pissed if I had worked for four and a half hours in the heat just to have it not stand up.

What has to be changed:

The canvas should be improved on, and probably already needs to be replaced because of tears.  I will have to look at that, it might be salvageable.  But it needs to be waterproofed, and it is so weak I really need to find a way to keep the grommets from tearing the fabric.

Also, this is a small thing but guy lines are too long, and the stakes wound up being too short to be really effective in weird ground.

What should be changed, either for effect or mechanics:

The PVC needs to be covered somehow.  Paint was suggested, but I wonder about that wood grain contact paper or vinyl or something

The set up really would benefit from walls, I think, so something that I am going to start looking into is expandability – can I roll this into a full tent set up, somehow?

Other things I am considering include a cross beam for the front and middle poles, because there was a lot of droop as the weekend went on; Aesthetically, I think that a decorative coat of arms or something would look really sharp on the angled part.

If I were going to do another one, I would look more into historical practice.  Does this design fit with my persona?  Is the timing right?  It seems like the design has to be somewhat period, if for no other reason than it was so common sense to put together.  But I would be interested in knowing for sure, and knowing more about how they would have approached some of my problems.

That’s all for now.  Those of you who saw it at GNE, what are your thoughts?