well figured after bothering everyone to help find materials. i'll post the starting project thread. the goal was to start today, but between seattle sea fair traffic, driving past seattle fabrics a few times and spending too much time at rei testing out the jam2 and waiting for my dad to finish looking at backpacks for a carry on bag... we didn't get much done today, but all the materials are finally gathered.

i got 9yds of silnylon, 5 yds .9oz noseeum mesh, and 3/4" velcro from speer hammocks

the various widths of nylon webbing, some miniture camera clips, 1/2" grommets, #3 zipper and a bivy bag pattern from seattle fabrics.

from quest outfitters, i got 10 micro locks, a few yards of 3/32" shock cord and cord, mini cord locks, then some whistle buckles for the packs.



the plan:
building henry shires original tarptent for 2, installing a bathtub floor that is removable. it will clip to the inside of the tarp on the back of the tent guyouts via the camera clips and shockcord. the tent poles will be rei compact ul peak trekking poles. i ran some simple trig on the pattern to keep the interior room under the tarp the same with the 22" rear pole. we are planning on at least a front beak and possibly a rear beak since it rains so much here in the northwest. then various stuff sacks for the tarp. here's the start and hopefully over the next few weeks i'll be able to post some progress pics. the goal is to be done, and take the tarp for a test run on the weekend of aug 16 and 17th, either on the pct, mt rainier or the olympics.

if this project goes well, i'll be personally making a solo tarp and bivy for when it's just me. this particular project my dad will be helping with most of the sewing on the tarp and teaching me how to use the machine, since i'm a noob with sewing machines and all.

Edited by rooinater on 08/02/2008 19:43:00 MDT.

Welcome to the ranks of MYOG.
Sounds as though you have more than enough for one tarp!

i should have plenty of extras to make all the stuff sacks my girlfriend and i need plus a spare ul bear bag to have for anyone that comes along and needs one. the tarptent called for 6yds of sil, and the tubbed floor i designed is about 2.5yds, so i'll have a bunch of scrap from the tarp and 1/2 to 1 yard of sil for stuff sacks and some scrap noseeum for the bivy project if it all goes well. i'm guessing about 2 lbs for the actual tarp and floor weight. but it's a hell of a lot better than the 6 pound tent i've been carrying... it's not bad, but too heavy for me. this "tent" plus switching to 2 - 1 liter platy water bottles to collect/treat water as i go and switching to the jam2 pack from my rei ul60 is going to save me about 10 lbs of carried weight. presently with 3L of water and enough food for my g/f and i for 2 days, i carry about 25lbs wet.

well not a lot per-say but we got the main tent portions cut... we had to utilize the garage floor to have enough room to measure and cut out the 100" section for the main portion of the tarp. we then played around with scrap material and trying to get used to sewing the slick stuff. i figured out the felled seam from the tiny pics on bpl and showed dad how it was exactly sewn, then he sewed the 2 sections together. that's about as far we got done today. the thread lines may have their waves but it's looking good so far.

Edited by rooinater on 08/03/2008 21:42:19 MDT.

I use tarbuck hitch knots on all the guys of my two man tarp tent (BILGY Too)instead of micro-locks. They work just as well as micro-locks with the advantage that you don't have to carry the micro-locks.

The tarbuck hitch was recommended by the tent designer as being more reliable on the thin slick guy line than a taught line hitch.

I've never had any trouble with it slipping. I tried to make it slip once by pulling on it with all my strength but it wouldn't budge, yet it could still be easily adjusted.

Amazing!

Edited by herman666 on 08/04/2008 12:06:44 MDT.

the micro locks are actually for the stuff sacks. I have the bpl aircore pro tarp guyline kit with the adjusters for the actual guy lines. and the titanium tent stakes from bpl. still need 2 more stakes, should of paid attention while I was ordering the stakes back when they were on sale. 6 is the minimum to pitch the tarp tent, really I need 8 in my kit...

get 2 easton aluminum 6" nail stakes to use for the ridgeline pull-outs. They hold better than the ti skewers. I use them for ridgelines and am very happy with them.

-Tim

good idea. i'm sure i can buy just 2 of those somewhere. how about the ti nail stakes? or is their not much for weight difference?

Edited by rooinater on 08/04/2008 18:04:50 MDT.

you can also buy cheap gutter nails in 6" length at Home Depot or similar. about $0.25 each

well progress on my first lightweight shelter is well on it's way. essentially everything up and to the setup point is sewn on, the mesh, the guyout points, the grommets, the reenforcement patches for the guyout points... the next step is to buy the trekking poles that i'm going to be using, set her up, pin out the zippers and the atachment points for the rest of the mesh, install the beak, and build the bathtub floor. here's some pics of the progress.

had to rework the beak to a 23" center depth instead of 24" do to space on the scrap material. ran the trig and kept all the angles and lengths to porportion.





>

Photography is getting better too.
Compliments.

BPL Ti nails $25 for 6 @.29oz each (per BPL site)

Easton AL nails $2 each @ .3oz each (per gossamer gear site)

I'll carry that extra .02oz to save the cash. To my knowledge similar items in AL and TI are normally close in weight. The reason we normally use ti for UL is that for the same weight the TI is normally stronger, and more heat resistant. For these stakes the strength of the AL is plenty because they are designed so all the force is along the spine of the stake vs a shepherds crook which moves the axis of force off center.

-Tim

the first day I asked my g/f to bring my camera and she brought my cellphone... yesterday I took out the slr for pics instead.

well, i got the trekking poles today. to my surprise they were $30 off... i didn't see a sign, but that's how they rang up even checked the reciept, and they were a sale price and had the astrik saying that they wouldn't appear on my dividend. also picked up a mini gerber para knife to replace my 6" blade i carry.

i setup the tarp and pinned the mesh to be sewn. the tarp is about an inch shorter on the sides than initially planned so there was some excess mesh on the front that got trimmed and when i accounted for the taller rear pole in the tarp material i forgot to account for it in the mesh. which leaves only 2 inches overlapping on the ground, so i'll have to add an extension when we sew the mesh corners together. it's not perfect, but it should work great. next steps are to sew the mesh together, add the zipper, extend the back, reinvent the sag fix on the back corner so that it's adjustable, the directions for the fix use a fixed length setup. then to add the attachment points for the removable bathtub floor, make the final measurements for area then cut and install the floor.

the beaks are still of concern. i'm curious how the reinforcment patch will hold up on the beak since the poles stick up so much and will contact the carbide tips. i'm wondering if i should just sew a slit in the top of the beak so it slides over the tip instead of resting on it... it'll still protect from driving winds but some water will run down the poles... since the rear is raised a good 3 inches, i'll probably design a small rear beak. nothing large, but enough to help protect the top foot of the rear section of the tarp.

Edited by rooinater on 08/05/2008 23:23:29 MDT.

Jared, it's coming along great. It doesn't sound like you are, but don't worry about wavy stitch lines or having to unexpectedly alter something--it's all part of the fun! (And doing it teaches you how to do it better next time.) I'll second Tim on the Easton Al nail pegs. They hold great, super strong, light, less $--and the funny thing is, they're actually lighter than a couple of the Ti nail stakes I've seen. Bizarre, right?

yeah, i'm not worried about wavy stiching. if I wanted perfection I would of saved up and bought a premade one. it has to help keep the rain off in the event of a storm. it's my first tarp, i've bivy camped before in the marine corp, but no tarp. with luck i'll get back to using a bivy soon enough. I can't wait to try the tarp out on the 16th and 17th of august.

well it's pretty much done other than some seam sealing and 2 more 3/4" x 3/4" pieces of velcro to keep the beak down secure. the grand total weight is 1 lb 9 oz after i switch to the 6" easton aluminum nail stakes. presently for setup i used some .6 oz aluminum stakes that came with my rei half dome tent, so i weighed it with only one of the 2 stakes to give a fairly accurate weight for the two .3oz nail stakes which i'll be carrying. The weight includes the removable bathtub floor that is shock corded and clipped to the tarp via mini camera clips, the beak and all other accesories. I do need to trim the main guylines to the shorter length that i tied them to, left excess to play with out in the field.
Also tossing the idea of velcro patches to secure the floor to the netting at the corners and middle of the long side. the scale i picked up was a $30 dollar up to 72oz with .05 oz accuracy. so now i can weigh all my gear. including my beast of a half dome tent. i want to see how much weight i really lost. according to the rei site it was about 6 pounds packaged. any tips for a good seal on the ridge line? i've read the article on diluting the silnet, and have the materials. debating whether to seal all the outer seams, but it's probably best to seal them to keep the girlfriend happy.

here's the pics thus far, with luck i'll have some pics from the field next week...

Edited by rooinater on 08/10/2008 21:11:44 MDT.

SWEET!

Edited by lollygag on 08/11/2008 00:23:11 MDT.

the only seam that needs sealing is the ridgline. The beak will drip a bit anyway due to the small gap for the pole. And the other seams are on the edge where water already can come under. The ridge line is the only seam that needs the protection.

-Tim

final weight savings.... 4 lbs 3.6oz, the previous tent's carried weight was 5 lbs 12.6 oz, the new tent weight is 1 lb 9 oz... fairly considerable weight loss. also contemplating making a flap for that hole on the beak...

Edited by rooinater on 08/12/2008 00:12:05 MDT.