[pct-l] homemade tent
CHUCK CHELIN
steeleye at wildblue.net
Tue Dec 11 14:30:24 CST 2012
Good afternoon, Erika,
I’ve made several SilNylon shelter tarps -- one of which had the added
complication of a poncho hood in its center – plus lots of little items
such as stuff sacks, rain chaps, etc. I will second the comments about
SilNylon being thin, slick, and difficult to align and sew.
I especially suffer in this regard, not only because I have 10 thumbs, but
because my hands are chronically dry which exacerbates the slickness
problem. Finger stick-um helps but I avoid using it near any seam that
needs to be sealed – which is almost all of them. I think the solvent in
the sealant will dissolve and remove the stick-um but I’m not certain of
that so I avoid it. I find that it is also useful to keep an adult
beverage close at hand to calm the nerves.
One thing that helped me greatly was I eventually lowered my expectations
of having perfectly straight and flat seams. Once the item is complete and
all the seams have been double-dosed with sealer, no-one will even notice
or care about a few tiny tucks and wandering stitch lines somewhere.
A net-search for seam sealer will bring recommendations to make your own
sealer with cheap-o GE Silicone Sealer mixed with just enough petroleum
distillate to thin it to a spreadable consistency. A little patience is
necessary, but it will mix and thin – eventually. That’s what I’ve done,
and it has worked perfectly for all my tarps and rain gear. It is
considerably less expensive than the ready-made sealer, and one can apply
several coats liberally. I use petroleum distillate, i.e. “real” paint
thinner, because there’s a milky-white paint thinner product on the market
which contains little or no petroleum distillate. That stuff won’t work to
make seam sealer.
Enjoy your planning and your trip,
Steel-Eye
-Hiking the Pct since before it was the PCT – 1965
http://www.trailjournals.com/steel-eye
http://www.trailjournals.com/SteelEye09/
On Tue, Dec 11, 2012 at 10:18 AM, E Fischer <fisch.lover.21 at gmail.com>wrote:
> Hey all,
>
> I'm an avid sewer as well as a poor graduate student and thus, am hoping to
> make my own tent. I've read all the design options from
> http://www.backpacking.net/makegear.html and am leaning towards the 18oz
> Henry tarp tent.
>
> Before I dive into this project I wanted to see if anyone else has done
> this and if they have any words of wisdom both for the sewing process as
> well as for trail use. Any advice is greatly appreciated!
>
> ~Erika
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