Saturday 18 January 2014

Model tents

Take one set of plans; mark out on 4mm ply and join the dots.
Then take a 3mm drill and drill holes judiciously.
Take some springy electric cable ties and then add plastic sheeting......
Simmer for a while as you grapple with tucks and cuts and then leave
Come back after several cups of tea and survey...........



Well I made one tunnel tent and got an idea of what it looks like in terms of cloth and cuts. I then tried the square tent using the BBQ sticks.



Now I just have to trim to shape and measure out and scale back up again to the real thing.
It was a fun couple of hours leaving me plenty to think about




Steve
at

4 comments:

  1. Lorenzo19 January 2014 at 07:37

    Great work Steve, it inspires me doing something similar. How do you plan to sew the cloth to make the tent when you'll get to it? I thought that in order for the seams to be watertight the sewing requires special inlaid tapes and other complicacies...
    Lorenzo

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  2. steve19 January 2014 at 09:03

    Hi Lorenzo
    Only just thinking about that but I think I will use the approach in my Rohan mountain jacket. You can tape over the seams with a special sticky backed tape and sealant - so you stitch things together and then over the join put the tape. Also there is a really good sealant I have used before on my tents that comes in a tube which you squeeze and put on the outside of the stitching - its name escapes me but it is like a stretchable, flexible sealant. having priced things up - the fabric is quite expensive; aluminium tubing and connectors nowhere near as much as I was expecting. Anyway now I am looking and costing up all options - cheap tents and butcher them; build my own. I'll let you know how I get on

    Steve

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  3. Steve-the-Wargamer19 January 2014 at 12:55

    That tube one is neat... tent poles and some rip stop?? Not sure how waterproof rip stop is, come to that...! :o)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Anonymous19 January 2014 at 18:53

    Hi Steve, the seam tape you refer to is actually iron on, and is very easy to do. It makes a good watertight professional looking seam, Phil.

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for taking a look at my blog. All comments and advice are welcome - drop me a few lines. You can always find videos about Arwen at www.youtube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy. Look forward to hearing from you.
Steve