home made gearheads?

“i'm a real novice at doing the make-your-own-gear-thing, so i was hoping to get a more expert opinion before i did this [ and maybe wasted my time and money.]


i'm thinking of making howie's 17 oz quilt, but using micro fleece as material for the bottom instead of the nylon.

http://www.newsushi.net/quilt.html


anyone have any thoughts?”

“I built it and it's easy. Unless money is an issue, go ahead and do the down. It was so easy. The only thing I'd built was stuff sacks and I had no trouble. I got to meet howie before I built mine. He lives 2 hr away and I went to see his before starting. It was much simpler than I expected. I posted some thoughts over on thru-hiker.com about things to do different, but they aren't major. I built mine over Thanksgiving weekend and it took maybe 20-30 hrs total.

If you have any questions, or need help just email me.”

“Will the down pass through the micro-fleece easier than the nylon?”

“I now realize I mis-read your post. You're asking about fleece on the side next to your skin. The only problem I see is that it would add maybe 6 oz. Mine wound up at 1#5 oz. If you added 6 oz then you're heavier than if you'd bought something like a Mountsmith ...Vapor I think. MS has a 1#5 oz 30* bag. If you get much heavier you're probably better off just purchasing the bag. The other thing that comes to mind is that I don't know if fleece is downproof or not.”

“No way would I use fleece. Way heavy and does not compress.

One of my first homemade gear projects was a quilt I made using the nylon from an old trashed sleeping bag and new insulation from Outdoor Wilderness Fabrics.
Very easy to make and works great from mild temp use.

dayhiker - I met hungry howie in the Mongomery AL gear store when he was working there a couple of years ago. Dang nice 'kid' and very sharp!”

“He was super nice. I had a conference at a hunting camp around Tuskegee. HH had told me to drop by if I ever got a chance. The meeting came up, I emailed him, he gave me directions to his house, and I got to chat with him for about an hour. He told me to come by if I ever got another chance. On 2 consecutive weekends I was at the exit to his house and couldn't drop by. One weekend I went to the Shakespeare festival and the next my sis in law had a baby. He's wanting to see how my bag turned out.

His instructions were very easy to follow. I built the quilt at my mother-in-laws over Thanksgiving. The directions didn't even make it out of my truck and into the house. It's that intuitive to build.”

“I'd like to see fleece begin to weigh less. :-) (like that's gonna happen, huh?) For me, in cold weather, there's nothing like fleece or flannel to help keep me warm (barring a really BULKY quilt!)

I just order a Salt whatever it is fleece (or was it flannel? they had both) mummy sleeping bag liner from Campmor was $10 off. Says it warms up a sleeping bag around 12 degrees.

Gotta be comfortable! Silky nylon may be fine in summer, but I sure like a fabric with nap in winter.

Berber linings, anyone?? LOL”

“Silnylon is a huge no-no for any type of sleep system. lizs, whoever showed you sil for sleeping didn't know what they were talking about. Regular rip-stop yes, sil, no.”

“Real silk is a great bag liner for winter and summer. In summer its high wicking ability keeps it cool against the skin and in winter it provides up to 10 degrees of extra warmth - and all for only a few ounces of weight and the size of a baseball packed.

Could be useful as part of a homemade design?”

“Who said anything about silnylon???”

“Can you use silk as a lntern amantle?”

“Oh, and as for silnylon it actually is useful as a bag liner for severe sub-freezing environments. Put on a wicking layer (like fleece) and put the silnylon bag over that layer, then get in the sleeping bag. Works as a vapor barrier. The space between the fleece and silnylon become super-saturated with water, but you don't feel it because your body heat drives it away from your skin into the fleece. It works because it cuts evaporative cooling down so much that you stay much warmer. Not necessary above 20 degrees, and not practical above freezing.

It would suck as part of any regular bag design, though. Only useful as a specialized liner.”

“FG - you are correct. lizs said silky nylon. I thought she said silnylon. My bad.

Yep, it works for vapor barriers, but I was speaking to typical type situations.”

“dayhiker can't read today! ;-)

lizs said "Silky nylon", looks like dayhiker read it as sil-nylon. Dang engineers! ;-)

I'm thinking of making another very light quilt for summer use from one layer of thin primoloft with silk on the bottom and 0.7 oz ripstop on top.”

“So, basically, you're sitting in a water bath at -20 and that's a good thing???”

“You wring out the wicking layer and then you don't have to #&%!$ like a crackwhore about filtering water.”

“Oh. Well THAT makes sense...”

“BP: you're crakin' me up!”

“"The space between the fleece and silnylon become super-saturated with water,..."

Somebody 'splain me how getting soaking wet in a sub-zero environment is a good thing.”

“the extra few oz. of weight by switching to fleece is not a big deal to me. 'specially since i'm really short (5'3"). i figure by making making the quilt 6" shorter [then howie's 17oz design] maybe i can compensate a little.

besides, i would gladly carry 6 oz [and a few more cubic inches of space] all day to snuggle into fleece rather than nylon.


i think the big question raised is will the fleece hold in the down well?”

“You could back it with something that did. Of course that would add more weight.”

“And it would be even easier if you just toted along a fleece bag to sleep in. I've got one and it's real nice to sleep in. Takes up space though.”

“YOU don't get wet. Your body heat drives the moisture away from your body, where it collects on the inside of the vapor barrier. The fleece acts not only as an insulation, but in this case as a wicking layer, too. The fleece next to your skin stays dry and you stay very warm. The moisture that is trapped allows you to retain all the heat that would have escaped due to evaporative cooling. Water is one of the best heat conductors around, so eliminate that path for heat loss and you stay toasty. And dry - as long as you use a wicking layer.

Try going out in the cold with a vapor barrier (ziploc, silnylon baggie) on one hand and a fleece glove with vb over that on the other hand. Both will stay warm, and the one with the fleece glove will also be dry.

Off-topic, a vb by itself is a great emergency shelter. Everyone thinks that the "space blankets" are so useful because they are silver. Actually most of the heat they trap isn't radiative heat (reflected by the silver), it is the evaporative heat trapped by the plastic. You could use a white trash bag and get the same effect.”

“sacco - Unless the fabric is listed as 'downproof', it most likely will not hold down in.
Even in my high $ WM down bags, a few feathers will work there way out.
I would think fleece would have so many quills sticking out, you might look like a pincushion after sleeping under it.”

“3 homebuilt gear related threads on the same day? What's the world coming to?”

“Armageddon.

It's there, in Revelations somewhere, I know it is...”

“And you're not even counting the stove thread that I posted to today about my exploits over the weekend with making my own alcohol stoves...”

“bp - i've got a fleece bag/liner, too. i'm a pretty warm sleeper, so i don't even use it for the warmth,i just bring it when space is not an issue cause its so comfy.

since i'm gonna make the quilt anyway, i thought i'd try to get the best of the fleece (the comfy-ness)with only a slight increase in weight/space and without having to carry an extra liner/bag [ + 1lb.]

SS seems to be killing my idea with the pincushion factor though...”

“sorry....I'm just the dream killer today.. ;-)”

“maybe i could just do the backing thing..

i guess it would just add 2 oz. of nylon to my original idea anyway.”

“Hey sacco, you got a buddy named Vinzetti???”

“How about building it out of ripstop and then sewing about a 12" wide band at the top of the quilt and that could be out of fleece. You could then get a fleece covered pillow or a fleece bag for inflated water wings and then you'd have all fleece at the exposed skin areas.”

“Fleece with little ducks on it would bring the perfect touch to a quality project.”

“FG - yeah, but he got executed. [ what are you a history buff, too]

DH - my problem is that i can't stand sleeping with pants or long sleeves on. so most of my skin is exposed

SS- funny u should say that. one of the reasons i wanna make this work so bad is cause this weekend i found 5 yds. of microfleece on clearance for 15 bucks -- for 3 bucks a yd. i couldnt resist buying it, even though it's blue with yellow little duckies on it.”

“sacco - you have no idea how funny that is. I made a hat and some gloves out of the same stuff and took it on a tt trip. I'll post a link. Needless to say, it was a big hit with the locals.”

“Here ya go

BTW, where are you from?”

“BTW, that guy standing beside dayhiker in the ducky photo is me.”

“now that is some funny shi%.

BTW, i'm from upstate, ny”

“SS - FG is one of the few folks that refers to me as DH. Just an observation.”

“didja get that fleece for 3/yd too?”

“those are cute dayhike!”

“those are cute dayhike!”

“I think I paid about $7, but I only bought a half a yard.”

“I think cute about sums it up!”

“Whew! It's like a Seinfeld episode, much ado about nothing. I started reading this thread and thought, where did I say silnylon? I just like fabric with nap. LOLOLOL!!”

“Of course if dayhiker had centered the duckies onto the palm of the mits with the tail going up the finger they would be MUCH nicer!
That's what I would have done. ;-)”

“Are you having duckie envy?”

“silnylon, lizs?

i heard it somewhere that you shouldn't use that stuff for a sleeping bag - unless it's over 20 degrees.”

“LOLOL! Why, that's right, isn't it?? ;-P

Good luck with your duckies... hope you get them all in a row.”

“

Found this can opener that cuts the side off of a can. Don't know of a gear use yet but you gear tinkers might.
last edited: 5/28/07 5:55:49 PM”