HOW TO TIE DOWN YOUR RING CANVAS
In the old days, everyone seemed to want to "lace" the canvas down. This is a bit time consuming, and it also forced them to pull very hard on the grommets, sometimes pulling the grommet out.
There is a faster, easier, and better way to tie down your ring's canvas.
In the drawing below, you see one side of the ring with only three (3) short pieces of tie down rope, using 6 grommets. This is much faster and much easier than lacing every grommet. You can get your ring's canvas just as tight, in a shorter time.
Monster always provides the tie down rope for your canvas in 100' coils. Cut pieces of the tie down rope into 16- to 18-inch-long pieces, as you need them.
Start in the CENTER of each side. Tie one end of the rope to a grommet that is to the left or right of the center grommet. Then wrap the rope around the bottom tie down bar and back up to the grommet next to the center grommet. Tie it tightly but be sure you can untie this side later.
NOTE: When you are ready to take the ring down, or remove the canvas, you will only need to untie one end of each rope, making the take down and the next assembly even faster.
Next do the same thing in the corners, as shown. This should have one side tied down and you will next move to the OPPOSITE side of the ring and do the same thing. On the opposite side of the ring, be sure to first pull out all wrinkles so the mat cover will be flat and wrinkle free.
Now, with two sides tied down, you will tie down the two remaining sides. Again, make certain that you pull out any wrinkles and have a smooth mat cover. Wrinkles in a mat cover can be dangerous to the participants in the ring.
NOTE: When pulling the wrinkles out and getting the mat cover tight, do not use the rope and pull on the grommets. You should physically grab hold of the canvas itself and pull it, not the grommets.
If you have a very large ring and see a spot with wrinkles that are difficult to get out, you can always add another tie down spot. In most cases 3 tie down spots are sufficient to get a good tight, smooth and wrinkle free mat cover.
NOTE: If your ring has a cable around it, rather than a tie down bar, tighten the cable very tightly and tie down to the cable in the same manner as illustrated above.
Remember, SAFETY is your main concern!