Activity

@Tomi made this very cool video of his DIY Packraft made from plans! Awesome!!

a white water spraydeck – would be fine! looking foreward to it!

Ok Matt,

I will order materials directly from you for my next packraft. Quite soon, I think.

My extreme textil packaft floats and works but for more serious wilderness use I will make better quality raft. I don’t want count how many hours I struggled with sealing that fabric… The good thing is that now I know the making process, tools etc.…[Read more]

I should add that I had no idea that extremtextil’s current tpu fabric is different to the lot from 5 years ago, and it was only discovered when testing to find the right temperature for the new tool. In the end I had to abandon that project and write off the money and time spent on it. This was hugely irritating, but even though these were going…[Read more]

@Tomi

I used the 210D fabric from the DIY Packraft shop for the multi-colour packraft how-to videos – you can see that it bonds quickly without melting. (I use the same temperature to bond the 40D fabric, too.)

I did a lot of research before deciding what fabrics to purchase for the DIY Packraft shop… I tested TPU-coated fabrics from other…[Read more]

For me the spraydeck (with or without the Velcro) or the White water version, and the T-zipper like this model

I own this boat (without the t-zip) but if you want i can give you some size and good pictures from the spraydeck and construction.

For me the spraydeck (with or without the Velcro) or the White water version, and the T-zipper like this model

For me the spraydeck (with or without the Velcro) or the White water version, and the T-zipper like this model

OK, I’ve just seen that post and added one for the iron I’m using. The original 70den/170gsm tpu fabric I bought 5 years ago from extremextil welds very well at a temp of around 280C, but the new lot just melts at anything more than about 160.

It seems to me that anything extremtextil do not list as “high-tenacity 6.6” is only “nylon 6”. Matt…[Read more]

The soldering iron I have is this: ebay 58w iron, very cheap but effective.

It uses solid tips of 6mm diameter and I made a welding shoe from heavy copper tube, hammered flat and smoothed off to 11mm width. Having seen the clover iron I have bought a large shoe and will soon add a set screw to the iron heater to hold the clover shoe in place.…[Read more]

I have no equipment to measure sealing temperature. See “heat-sealing tools”-thread for description of my setup.

I’m not sure, but I have feeling that for 40den and 210den the melting point seems to be quite same. Could it be possible?

This is my robust but cheap heat sealing tool setup:

1. bulk 40W soldering iron (“absolutely too hot”, cost 8 eur)
2. light bulb dimmer 0-100% (cost 7 eur)
3. tool tip from copper tube (quite heavy tip for more stable tip temperature)
4. spare soldering iron tips for different shape sealing tips (3 eur, not needed)

Here in Finland the dimmer can…[Read more]

This is my robust but cheap heat sealing tool setup:

1. bulk 40W soldering iron (“absolutely too hot”, cost 8 eur)
2. light bulb dimmer 0-100% (cost 7 eur)
3. tool tip from copper tube (quite heavy tip for more stable tip temperature)
4. spare soldering iron tips for different shape sealing tips (3 eur, not needed)

Here in Finland the dimmer can…[Read more]

Next… 2-person packraft and then spraydeck for current packraft 🙂

Thanks Matt for your work on https://www.diypackraft.com
I think this must be the best outdoor & diy web page of this year!

This is interesting. I also got some of their 40den/70gsm fabric, as at the time I intended making two sleeping mats: one from 70den and one from the 40den.

Before starting I made test strips 2cm wide and welded them together at different temperatures. I am now using a converted soldering iron with temp control from 150C to 450C, and a shoe 11mm…[Read more]

Hello All,

I got blue 210den nylon tafetta, transparent TPU-coating, 275g/sqm fabric from
http://www.extremtextil.de for my packraft.

For inflation bag I got 40den nylon, TPU-coated one side, 70g/sqm from same source.

I found that it was challenging (read: also very slow) to make make good bond with 210D fabric. I had same feelings like Chris.

My…[Read more]