: Hi Ray;

: I have a small heat sealing machine and I tried it after I read your post -
: Mine's not up to the task! I could only smooth the sides of the tape that
: came in contact with the teflon covered heated strips, but no fusing where
: it needed it. Thanks for the info anyway.

Sounds like you have an electric bag sealer. these things are fine for thin plastic bags but don't give off enough heat to fuse thicker nylon webbing. At the local rock climbing supplier, and the hardware store, there are electric tools that are used for cutting plastic ropes ( nylon, polypropylene, polyester, etc.) The basic unit looks like a 100 watt soldering gun bolted to a mounting plate, and with the soldering tip replaced with a straight wire about 1 1/2 inches long. Once it gets hot it cuts and fuses the ends of tubing and rope.

If you try fusing your webbing at home with a soldering iron, wrap the tip with a single layer of aluminum foil before you turn it on. Molten plastic will stick to the foil -- which is easily removed and discarded -- instead of the tip on your soldering gun. It makes for a much neater job, and doesn't smellas bad.

There is also the method we teach our Scout troop for woking with nylon rope. It involves using a match, so the scouts must be trained and qualified for match and fire safety before they get to handle synthetic ropes. It is really a compromise, as we don't allow scouts to use butane cigarette lighters -- and that is really a good way to do it.

Cut your webbing so it is slightly onger than you need. For a loop that is 1 inch long on the outside of a 1/4 inch thick boat, you need material that is 3 inches to 3 1/4 inches long. Fold it in half and grip the tubing with a pair of electricians pliers so that 1/4 to 3/8 of an inch of the ends are exposed. Heat the exposed ends with the flame from a butane cigarette lighter. They will probably ignite. extinguish the flame by gently smashing the ends against the anvil on a vise, or some other flat metal surface. If you have enough overhanging material and it gets hot enough you can end up with a substantial blob of solid nylon which not only fuses the loop shut, but is way too thick to pull through the slot you've cut.

By the way, after you cut that slot I hope you are mixing up a few drops of epoxy resin and hardener, and sealing the exposed wood. If the slot is narrow, you can poke some resin in with a toothpick or cotton swab and slosh it around so that all the wood is covered. You can add some or silicone caulk in addition to keep water out of the boat, but sealing the wood itself with epoxy is your best bet if you want to avoid a few drops eventually getting under the glass at each of those slots.

To mount the tubing/webbing feed a piece of wire through the slot, bend it into a "U" shape, and use that to pull your loop of fabric through the slot. Pull the loop only so far that you can later grip it with a pair of pliers, and remove the wire. Now mix another tiny batch of epoxy resin and apply it to the 1/4 inch of your loop which is closest to the fused end. put some on the outside of the nylon webbing, but put a bit more on the inside -- between the two pieces of tubing. Now grab the tubing with your pliers and pull it up snug. The crimping action of this move forces the epoxy resin to saturate the tubing , but only on the part that is in the wood. Excess is forced out of the slot, and surrounds the lump of fused nylon. It is hard to put too much in the gap between the two pieces of webbing, but if you do, then you may get a few easily removed drips on the inside, where they are not noticed. Whatever is forced into the weave of the webbing seals it nicely.

hope this helps.

PGJ