Nervous Procrastination

Last week we were on vacation which was great. In the mean time, all the parts I ordered were delivered and waiting for me. So I continued with the canopy.

The frame was not too bad. Cutting the canopy has been hard. I’m worried that if I screw up too much, I have to order a new canopy and start from scratch. I find myself walking around, finding reasons not to make the next cut.

I’ve been using the DeWalt oscillating tool which is great. It allows me to cut exactly where I want. Many of the blogs I’ve read say you need two people to cut the canopy. Not so with the oscillating tool. One hand holds the canopy, the other cuts. It’s very precise. So cutting where I want to cut is not a problem. Knowing where to cut… that’s the challenge.

Blogs suggested multiple cuts to make sure you don’t over do it. I started with the front edge and did just that; made multiple cuts. But I was left with and uneven edge. Over and over I sanded the protruding edges and put the canopy back on to try it on. When my arm became sore from sanding with the sanding block, I remember that the oscillating tool came with a sanding head. That worked great. The routine sped up. Try canopy on; pull it off and place on saw horse; sand protrusions; repeat. I marked the areas to work on with a sharpie and after a while, there were so many marks I couldn’t remember which was which. So right after sanding, I applied some alcohol to wipe off the sharpie. Then I noticed the cracks.

Cracks! How did those get there? They weren’t big, but they definitely weren’t there before. I concluded that it was the change in temperature. The sanding got the surface hot, then a couple sprays of alcohol cooled it off, a lot; crack. Fortunately, there was plenty of material on the rear of the canopy so I slid it forward about half an inch and started the process all over. This may have actually saved me some time because my new cut was much smoother.

The canopy is all curves. Not in a good way. You can’t know exactly where to cut because the canopy doesn’t fit. You have to flex it to draw the line where you think you want to cut. When you make the cut it fits totally different. So, yeah, you do have to make multiple cuts. Try to figure out how much of an edge you can cut without cutting too much. Then try it on and figure out where to make the next cut.

I’m currently at the finer details of the cuts. I drilled holes on the top front and back so I could cleco it to the frame. But the frame is floating right now because it ultimately get’s fastened to the canopy and nothing else. Double trouble. Hopefully tomorrow I don’t screw it all up.