Companion forum thread to:

Make Your Own Gear: Titanium Snow Stakes

I'm starting to think that the BPL MYOG difficulty and tools scale must end at 8. If this is a 7 I can't imagine what project with a difficulty of 10 would be.

Hi Jonathan,

Stay tuned for our "Make your own Lightweight Trailhead Vehicle" three-part series ;-)

Hi Jonathon

> I can't imagine what project with a difficulty of 10 would be.
We hope to give some examples later on. :-)

Actually, while this one requires some use of tools, it does not take very long to do. Making a sophisticated pack or a double skin tent takes a lot longer. But that's how I get exactly what I want.

Cheers
Roger

Roger,
You know I'm going to make these :) - great project. Having never handled Ti at 0.02" thickness, do you think you could have gone thinner? The bends will stiffen it up, but in the interest of UL, how thin can we push here?
Steve

Hi Steve

> Having never handled Ti at 0.02" thickness, do you think you could have gone thinner? The bends will stiffen it up, but in the interest of UL, how thin can we push here?

:-) :-) :-)
You can go as thin as you like. But whether the pegs will go into the ice, hold the tent up in a storm, and then take being stomped on in the morning to break them loose (or bashed by a Ti/CF axe) ... Ah well.

You can also get 0.016" 6Al4V Ti sheet from Titanium Joe. I have some. I am sure that gauge would be OK with just a fraction more care in the field.

Below that ... dunno. Need to try it out. Somewhere along the line it will all go crinkly. :-)

Well done. In Fabrication circles, I believe your bending jig is referred to as a sheet metal brake. FWIW. These would be great in alpine zones or on glaciers, why not just use sticks below tree line? dig, run guy line under stick (perpendicular) bury, stomp, let set, tighten. In the am, just pull your guy cord, leave the stick and move on. 0 cost, 0 weight penalty.

When the trail head vehicle build comes up, let me know, I can spin a wrench and even burn some metal with the 'ole mig welder.

Hi Ryan

> why not just use sticks below tree line? dig, run guy line under stick (perpendicular) bury, stomp, let set, tighten. In the am, just pull your guy cord, leave the stick and move on.
Yes, and I have done just that. Works fine.

But many of my camp sites have been well above the tree line, and what then? I have to allow for that of course.

Also, there is a problem with the 'tighten' bit. UL Spectra string (0.5 mm) does not take knots very well at all. A fixed loop is possible, but not the sort of easily tied and untied knots you would need. Been there ...

Looks like a great project. I have found that using the nano stuff sacks filled with snow and buried works great. It also has the advantage of double use.

Hi Donald

> I have found that using the nano stuff sacks filled with snow and buried works great.

Yeah, a good idea in the right conditions. I have looked at using the idea myself, but in our snow it isn't that easy - I would often need an iceaxe to dig the hole in the evening and to get them out in the morning. Especially the latter. Pity.

What??? I can't even read this on my own.

Fantastic effort Roger. I've been meaning to make some for years but not followed it through. I have a sheet of 1.0mm Ti kicking around somewhere that I was going to use, and never got around to it. Your 0.5 would be more suitable anyway.

For those deterred by the process tasks, many high quality stainless steel fabrication workshops would do the bending for you in minutes on their press brake for a very small fee. They would also do a neat job of the cutting in their guillotine.

I am a bit wary of the bungy cord attachments. I have spent a rough night in a friend's Macpac Olympus with good quality bungy attachments of a gauge similar to yours. One by one all the bungy loops on the windward side shredded between about midnight and 4 A.M. Yes, the pegs held, but the bungy stuff was a comparative weak link. Admittedly I'm referring to rather breathtaking wind, the kind you really need to crawl around in when you are attempting to obtain some tent security in the small hours, but I vowed never again to use elasticised cord for any structural element of my tents. I'd rather use static cord and spend some time to get the tension just right. Just a thought.

About 30 years ago I made a set of aluminum snow stakes for my old REI double A-frame tent. This required about 10 stakes to set up.

While the Ti stakes are likely much stronger, these were quite cheap and simple to build. They are about 6 inch tall by 4 inch wide (bent), and weigh 38 grams each.

I found the Al at a metal "shorts" dealer. I fortunately had access to a metal shear, brake, and hole-puncher, so I made about a dozen of these in next to no time. They could easily be made with a tin snips and drill press, and bent over a piece of wood.

Note: be VERY careful cutting holes in metal sheet goods, as the bit will grab the metal and start it spinning, and you can slice your hand up pretty badly. Best to always clamp sheet metal when drilling.

The Al is soft, and these sometimes bend, but I've never had a problem. But I've never used them in a really windy storm, though.

Edited by ewolin on 02/15/2008 06:46:58 MST.

I've used fabric snow anchors on countless windy encampments in a wide variety of snow conditions with zero failures. Any type of shovel (including the light flexible plastic sheet type sold on this site) will suffice to set and recover them.
Cut a pack cloth or silnylon square 8" on a side. Attach cord at each corner and bring cords to a central attachment point. Dig a hole, place anchor in hole like an upside-down parachute and fill hole with snow.
Much cheaper, faster and easier to make and waaay lighter than metal.

Hi John

> I am a bit wary of the bungy cord attachments. I have spent a rough night in a friend's Macpac Olympus with good quality bungy attachments of a gauge similar to yours. One by one all the bungy loops on the windward side shredded between about midnight and 4 A.M. Yes, the pegs held, but the bungy stuff was a comparative weak link. Admittedly I'm referring to rather breathtaking wind,

Yes, I remembered your 1 mm sheet Ti, but it is far heavier than I needed for this. :-)

> many high quality stainless steel fabrication workshops would do the bending for you in minutes on their press brake for a very small fee. They would also do a neat job of the cutting in their guillotine.
But warn them that the stuff is like high-tensile steel. You would need a heavy press brake and a heavy punch or guillotine. Actually, I have reservations about attempting to use a punch on this stuff at all. (I have a Roper Whitney one, and won't use it.)

Now, the bungee cord. If the edges of the metal are sharp under the bungee cord, you may get fraying. For this reason I avoid running the bungee cord over any sheet metal edges. Both the eyelets and the wire present nicely rounded corers.

I have found that the quality of commercially available bungee cord varies considerably. The stretch of the rubber varies and the toughness of the synthetic braid cover varies. I am using the best I could find: not cheap Chinese stuff. The nylon braid is excellent.

But in addition, the bungee cord I am using at the ends of the tent is 4 mm diameter: this is very tough stuff! The braid is correspondingly thick. The proof of the pudding may be in the eating. The pic near the end of the orange tent in a storm: one of my tents, using the 4 mm bungee cord. No signs of wear after many years.

Cheers
Roger

Edited by rcaffin on 02/15/2008 22:50:53 MST.

> Note: be VERY careful cutting holes in metal sheet goods, as the bit will grab the metal and start it spinning, and you can slice your hand up pretty badly. Best to always clamp sheet metal when drilling.

Amen.
G-clamps are wonderful.

Hi Al

>Any type of shovel (including the light flexible plastic sheet type sold on this site) will suffice to set and recover them.
Ah ... you haven't seen our morning boilerplate. Plastic digging implements bounce. Aluminium bounces, or bends. Carbide-tipped ski poles bounce - or the tips break off. Think ice-axe. This is really wet snow frozen to -10 C overnight. That's why titanium!

Of course, under more benevolent conditions fabric anchors may work fine.

Note: be VERY careful cutting holes in metal sheet goods, as the bit will grab the metal and start it spinning, and you can slice your hand up pretty badly. Best to always clamp sheet metal when drilling

Indeed! Also, ordinary drill bits leave the edges of the hole very jagged. unibits are said to be the bee's knees for that sort of thing.

Roger writes < Ah ... you haven't seen our morning boilerplate. Plastic digging implements bounce. Aluminium bounces, or bends. Carbide-tipped ski poles bounce - or the tips break off. Think ice-axe. This is really wet snow frozen to -10 C overnight. That's why titanium!>

I understand that you find axes are necessary to break through the boilerplate, but once you're through why not excavate a hole with a plastic or metal shovel, lay the light, cheap fabric anchor in place and fill hole with snow/ice?

My old Chouinard 7075 T6 aluminum shovel is great at chipping ice. Maybe a similar tool would cut through the boilerplate and excavate the hole?

Al

Edited by Al_T.Tude on 02/16/2008 15:45:31 MST.

Thanks for your extra thoughts on the bungy cords Roger.

And to the other posters, I can support Roger's remarks regarding snow in Australia. It is very inconsistent stuff. I've found over the years that pegs not too far removed from standard pressed-sheet tent pegs offer the most versatility in our marginal conditions.