Just finished my latest pack. It is about 25L, it has a removable lid, removable framesheet (with two aluminum stays) and removable hipbelt. This should make it a good pack for even my lighter loads when stripped down. Here are some initial pictures of it. I am writing a guide on how to go about making the pack now. It is my second guide, and I dove in deep on this one. There are just so many small steps to making a pack like this, so hopefully I'll do well on that.

The black material is VX07 and the white is silnylon. The combination makes for a heavier pack, but hopefully a durable one.

With all the parts, it weights in at about 23.5oz. Stripped of the stays, hipbelt and lid, it comes in around 12oz, if I remember correctly.

The pictures are of it loaded with my synthetic quilt as well as 8L of fluids, putting about 20lbs in the pack. I'm really happy with how well the frame works. You can actually see how the torso remains long enough to keep the weight off my shoulders. I like it so much, I am thinking about redoing the whole project in a 35L or 40L size to hold gear for the whole year or a possible thru hike in the future.

Edited by cmuthig on 01/30/2012 16:00:26 MST.

What was your first guide? I'm interested in seeing the details on this one...

It's the little things that I find to be the hardest part of myog projects, like how the different panels sew together, how are raw edges finished, how zippers are terminated, etc...

Thanks,
BM

Chris that looks really good. I just finished my first but it has no frame or hip belt so I will look or for your guide.

Is the lower white section big pockets or is that just the edge of the pack?

The first guide I wrote was for a synthetic quilt. I actually just made another quilt for a friend, and have already found corrections to make to that guide. Mostly design changes that make the quilt easier to use.

This is a link to that guide: http://kringlelight.wordpress.com/2011/11/15/sin50/

I agree. The small things are the hard part. So I tried to take pictures and explain those well. I'm sure I missed plenty of it though, and will have to continuously update the guide. I think it will probably end up as a work in progress.

As for the white section, that is a wrap around pocket. So just one big pocket across the whole front of the pack. It is a bit small, but that will be fixed in the guide.

The frame and hipbelt are actually pretty simple. They took a bit of patience and measuring, but nothing terribly hard to accomplish.