Made a sleeping pad to help a friend(and because MYOG is addictive). Took about 8 hours total. My friend liked the weight of a NeoAir, but didn't like the price and 20" width. So, I talked him into letting me make a DAM for him. This one is a little heavier than a NeoAir due to the extra width & thickness but he isn't really into UL so won't worry about the extra couple ounces.
Nothing earth shattering here, just figured I would post.


Dimensions: 72"x24"x3"
Weight: 18 oz
Fill weight: 5-6oz 900 fill
Outer shell: 70d nylon
Baffle material: .33oz cuben

Way to go Ryan! How did you seal the chambers?

Looks great.

Very nice

quite lightweight also

How did you do the valve?

Hi Todd,

I cut 66"x.25" strips out of the nylon and sewed the cuben in between for the baffles, then heat sealed them. It was a huge pain for saving probably 2 oz. but I just mostly wanted to see how it worked out. With that being said most likely will not be doing that again.

Ryan

Jerry,

I used an Airtime kite valve which I had previously used on the outside of the pad. Basically, just cut a round hole in the fabric & then it glues over it. On this one I instead used Seamgrip to glue the valve to the underside of the fabric so only the mouth piece is visible up through the hole in the fabric. Kind of hard to visualize. It just looks a little cleaner. Those valves only weigh 2 grams more than a Thermarest valve, but flow a ton more air which really helps deflation. Used nano-see-um to keep the down from escaping.

http://www.airtimekite.com/index.php/airtime-kite-valves/u-stick-valves.html

Ryan

Edited by ViolentGreen on 05/25/2011 21:01:53 MDT.