Activity

Hi Sean, I’ve posted pictures and a description of the form in Step 4.2 of the V3 instructions. Cheers!

Hi @brucecampbell ,

Just double checking that you are in north America?

The second two links (with the better cords) only seem to come with uk/euro plugs
and suggest that when operating at 110v the temperature range is max 130deg Celsius.

Do you think these are the same as your unit?

The description in the first link (the one you bought) just…[Read more]

Hey Bruce!

I also want to thank you for all your inputs – really helpful! 🙂

What you mean by filing the foot is to make the bottom side completely flat, right?
Did you do this by hand? Is it hard to do?

I also work with the Jingda-Iron and so far, I’m happy with my results (hadn’t much time to built yet though).
I checked the temperature with…[Read more]

Thanks for posting the links, Bruce – I was looking for one of these irons and couldn’t find it. It seems like it’s one of those designs that gets branded with different names, so it can be difficult to find if you’re just searching for it by the brand name. Hopefully the links will stay active!

I have tried several irons and can now enthusiastically recommend the JingdaLeather Iron ordered thru Aliexpress, and initially suggested by Lyn, thanks Lyn. I have used the Leather Iron by Jingda Thermoelectronic Products to build both V2 and V3 rafts, one of my own and helping with several built by others. I can complete seams in roughly half…[Read more]

thanks Matt,

do you have any links or instructions on how to construct these forms?

(i had a quick look but couldnt find anything

Bonjour,

Bravo pour votre site , j ai hâte de recevoir ma commande pour pouvoir tester tout çà

Great shots, Patrick! The packraft looks good!

It’s certainly possible for the boat pressure to increase if the water is warmer than the air temperature, so give it a squeeze every so often when you’re paddling to make sure it’s not feeling over-stressed.

Thanks for mentioning the shrinkage issue – I’ll look into that. Cheers!

Hi Sean,

The stainless bowl should work – you might try wrapping some masking tape around it the “wrong way,” with the adhesive side facing out. The tape will hold the fabric in place as you work. That’s what I do on the wooden form I use, and it works well. If you have a jig saw or a band saw, you could make a wooden form yourself.

Cheers,

Matt

I finished my V3 raft about a week ago, and have been chasing down leaks! The build went pretty well,  I’m now much more curious about commercial welding techniques.  I did have some issues with the fabric contracting upon sealing, really only noticiable over the length of the two long red center tube sections. Once welded, the ends came up a…[Read more]

hi

just ordered the v3 kit and irons

Living in Calgary, Canada but originally from Australia.

I’m really looking forward to building this.

Great site Matt, I can finally get into packrafting!

cheers

Sean

I merged this topic into the Help & Questions topic, but it messed with the order of posts… I’m trying to fix it, so far with no success 🙁

Hi Perrin,

Don’t worry – the zippers are very tight to begin with, but will loosen up over time. They’re especially difficult to open before they are mounted, because you have very little to grab on to. If you want to try them out before they are installed in the packraft, you can clamp one end of the mounting fabric in a padded vice or vice…[Read more]

Ah, yeah, I should have asked where the temperature sensor was, as there’s always a temperature gradient between the heating element and the surface of an iron. In theory, you could calibrate it to display the surface temperature, but it wouldn’t really be worth your time – once you find the correct temperature by trial and error, you can just…[Read more]

Question about zippers:

I just received my kits – all very exciting, like a kid on Christmas ‘n all that – but the zippers are proving a bit of a challenge. All five appear stuck and despite a fair amount of traction, to the point of where I’m afraid I’ll do damage, I can’t get any of them to budge.

They all look to be in good condition and have…[Read more]