Troubleshooting your Trapeze Table canopy

There’s nothing more frustrating than when you are working with a client on your Cadillac and the slider bars won’t adjust where you need them to be.  You scurry around, trying to loosen things and find the best angle to apply force to move the bars into position, all while your client is watching you and waiting.

Fixing this issue might sound intimidating, at first, but can be fairly simple if you have the right tools and process.  Here’s where you can start.

First, make sure the tubes the sliders are mounted to are clean.  There’s a quick #MaintenanceMonday video on Instagram about how to clean your tubes with Silicone Spray, here.  Basically, you spray some silicone on a dry rag and wipe down the rails.  If the canopy is aligned well, the sliders should move much more easily.

However, if the silicone spray cleaning doesn’t help your sliders move more smoothly, you may need a slightly more in-depth tune-up.  To do this, you’ll need a 3/16” Allen wrench and two cotter pins.  (Hint: you can substitute some thin nails or small Allen wrenches for the cotter pins, if you didn’t keep yours).

To watch this process as it relates to a sticky vertical slider bar, you can check out the free video in the BB Garage, here.

  • Insert the cotter pins (or cotter pin substitutes) into the holes on the vertical tubes.  This will prevent the tubes from sliding down once you loosen the set screws.

  • Loosen the two set screws on each tube receiver which are mounted to the wood frame.

  • Loosen the two set screws at the top of the canopy that hold the top horizontal tube in place (see photo).

  • Slide the vertical slider bar all the way up to the top.
  • Tighten the two set screws at the top.
  • Slide the vertical slider bar all the way to the bottom.
  • Tighten the eight set screws on the bottom.
  • Test slide the bar up and down to make sure the process worked.
  • Remove the cotter pins.
  • Enjoy your smoothly functioning slider!

Please note, this procedure can be extrapolated to the horizontal slider on the top of the canopy, and to issues with the push-through bar binding up.  If the vertical slider doesn’t function smoothly after this tune-up, you’ll need to loosen all of the set screws of the canopy, sequentially, and re-tighten them.  I can help walk you through that slightly more complicated process if you reach out to me at Kaleen@fitreformer.com.

Happy Reforming!