Trampoline Maintenance

It's been an odd spring this year. We had proper snow that blocked the roads. It rained a lot and was bloody cold. These factors stopped the sap from rising and Gratitude remained in hibernation for longer than normal.

The list of maintenance work was as long as ever and took even longer. One nagging problem is the trampoline built 4 years back. The eyelets/grommets just pull out even though the material is quite thick. This is mainly a problem on the front and rear edges of the tramp, the sides seem ok.

Last year I replaced the worst grommets with new 'spurred' grommets hoping this would help.

It did help, but the original holes are stretched and damaged. So this year I decided to try an make a better repair. So for each of the damaged holes:

1. Took out the old grommet

2. Cut two disks of new material and using a hot glue gun, I've stuck these one each side. I then stitched the whole thing together on the sewing machine using polyester thread. This created a strong stiff patch and allowed me to reposition the perimeter of the old hole back to where it will be gripped by the new grommet.

3. Next I needed to cut new holes. This was a problem when I made the tramp and probably the cause of weak holes in the first place. So this time, I came up with a new way to cut the holes using a heated copper pipe.

4. Pressing the hot pipe melts the material and creates a clean hole with a sealed perimeter. 

5. Finally the new grommets were inserted.

Let's see if this works. It will last the season I'm sure. 

If this doesn't work, perhaps I'll make a new tramp. I'm thinking this alternative design would be better. In this design, the hem forms a long pocket which has semi-circles cut out. A fibreglass rod is thread through the pocket and the lacing goes through the cut-outs and around the rod.