More Heat SealableTarp Flags

[Guest]

I like those colorful tarp edge flags as a use for scrap heat sealable material and got a couple more sample packs from Seattle Fabrics. More colors this time, but still heavy on the black.

PB010001 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Step 1, trim all the pinking shear zigzags for straight edges. A paper cutter made short work of straightening those edges. And cut a few linear stripe pieces from the scrap box to break up the rectangularity.

PB010004 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Step 2, cut a couple rectangles of leftover blue heat sealable pack cloth as iron-onto backing. 6 ½” wide x 24” long seems about right. Still plenty of blue and yellow scrap from past dry bag making.

Step 3, get ironing. To keep the pieces straight and even while ironing I stick a little tab of painter’s tape at the far end, iron up to the edge of tape, pull the tape, lay the next row and taped that in place. And repeat a half dozen times for the next rows.

PB010005 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

PB010008 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Step 4, cut the rectangles on the diagonal to make four narrow tapered flags. Those proved to be a nice size for tarp edge or guy line use.

PB010010 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

PB010012 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I’m thinking easy-to-mail raffle prizes. Those multi-color flags look right at home on a cheery-bright Cooke Tundra Tarp, and the reflective tape does wink brightly.

PA050088 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Yeah, there is reflective tape on the poles, and the barrel. And on the ends of the toe-breaker mil-spec tarp stakes; it’s worth a visit to Coleman’s Military Surplus just to grab a 12 pack of those stakes for high winds or hard ground glamping (think beaten to concrete State Park camp sites).

https://colemans.com/u-s-g-i-12-aluminum-tent-stakes-12-pack

And reflective tape on the (black) Pelican box and lots of other stuff. All of my glasses cases are black or dark brown; not the easiest thing to find in the tent, even with a flashlight. Until it flashes back reflectively. Ahhh, there it is.

PB020015 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Step 5. Time to get back to slaving over a hot iron. I still have a couple black fabric sample pieces left, a few wee odd bits of other colors, and lots of scrap yellow and blue stuff already cut, mostly at otherwise useless angles from making tapered dry bags. Strike while the iron is hot (or at least plugged in), and the big table is still available. Might as well make another, bigger flag for marking the campsite at the water’s edge.

I have a lot of already angle cut pieces in the scrap box. Yellow Packcloth as the backside piece this time, with an oddball arrangement of stripes and rectangles. I love playing with scrap material, and using stuff up appeals to my Scots blood.

PB020014 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Step 6. Corner grommet and some reflective tape, all perimeter sealed with E-6000. Loop of GloWire, handy-to-have Gator Clip for the tarp edge flags, minibeener for the bigger water’s edge version to hook around a tree branch. Or I could hang that one on a tree near the thunderbox and not get lost in a dark of night visit.

Plain Jane backsides

PB020020 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

Fancy frontsides

PB020019 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

That was so fast, easy and fun I may need to order another couple sample packs of heat sealable material; I still have a scrap box of yellow and blue leftovers to play with.

Anyone got scrap heat sealable in colors other than yellow and blue? I’ll trade ya some blue or yellow Packcloth scraps.

 

[Boatman53]

Those are nice Mike. I have some old Beetle Cat sails I could send you a bunch of fabric if you like. Not heat sealable but I guess those other samples would stick to it. Color white, just ask and I’ll send you some.
Jim

 

[Guest]

I have some old Beetle Cat sails I could send you a bunch of fabric if you like. Not heat sealable but I guess those other samples would stick to it. Color white, just ask and I’ll send you some.

Thanks Jim, that is a generous offer, but that Seattle Fabrics heat sealable material only adheres to the coated side of itself. I have intentionally (and unintentionally) tried to iron it onto other fabrics, including the uncoated side of itself, and it doesn’t stick.

Ironed coated side to coated side it is tenacious as hell. When we made the first DIY dry bags and instrument bags we cut some 1” test strips of Oxford cloth at 6” long, folded them over and ironed a square inch together at the ends to form an open finger-pulling loop

At 5 seconds ironing time the test pieces easily pulled apart. At 10 seconds less easily. At 15 seconds it was a near impossibility. We could not pull the 20 second test strip apart no matter how hard we pulled. Neither has any shop visitor been able to separate that test loop, and I’ve had a dozen people try and fail.

FWIW we also test ironed pieces at increments up to 60 seconds. All sealed inseparably, but at 60 seconds the Oxford cloth began to scorch. The Taffeta or Ripstop Nylon may darken easier, the Packcloth is all but unscorchable.

P7291042 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr

I generally aim for about 30 seconds of ironing time and call it good.