I completed my first tarp over the weekend!
I bought ten yards of grey ripstop at walmart last week and wanted to try making my own tarp and waterproofing it myself.
Everything went pretty well. The finished product is almost 12'x10'
I chose not to put in any caternary cuts because I was trying to save time and cut corners (figuratively speaking). So I have a rectangle tarp with 3 tie-outs on each side. As you can imagine, it doesn't pitch as tightly as I would like it to. I am really wishing now that I had taken the time to put in the cat cuts when I was making the tarp.
Is there anything simple that I can do make it pitch tighter?
I really don't have the desire to rip out the grosgrain in order to make cat cuts.
What if I made a cat cut on the ridgeline? I could do that without too much trouble, but would it help?
On the hand, the waterproofing went way better than I expected! The fabric already had a dwr coating on the one side. I used a disposable foam paintbrush to apply the silicone/mineral spirits mixture to the other non-coated side and worked it in really well. Now water beads up and runs off like nothing and the ripstop nylon doesn't wet out or stretch out. I am extremely pleased with that aspect of it!!!
Pics coming tomorrow!
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