Forum Replies Created
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Replies
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Hi Logan,
Sorry for the delay – I’m currently traveling with limited access to the forum.
It’s not uncommon to have some misalignment but this amount seems like a lot. It looks like your piece 2 might be a bit wrinkled where it’s attached to the floor, which may account for it – make sure to keep the pieces flat and tight when sealing. Can you send me an email at info at diy packraft dot com? Ideally with a picture of the bottom of your packraft showing the misalignment (the full length of piece 2 at least) and can you tell me the measurement in cm or inches of the length of the outer edge that piece 2 is being attached to?
The best way to proceed from here will be to trim the excess floor material from the outside corner where it meets the edge of piece 2 to the end of the slit.
Hi Daniel, there are some whitewater pictures you might enjoy in the Pictures topic thread. I’m not much of a whitewater paddler yet myself, so I’ll leave the comments to others. Cheers!
Hi Sean, I’ve posted pictures and a description of the form in Step 4.2 of the V3 instructions. Cheers!
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!
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 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 grips and pull on the T-zipper handle. Thread a dowel or something through the webbing loop to make a larger handle, if necessary.
That first opening will require a lot of force, but the zippers are very strong, so you shouldn’t be able to break them if you pull steadily (don’t try to jerk them open though).
After it’s open, adding the silicone lubrication to the zipper will help, and after it’s been opened and closed several times it will start to loosen up. It will always remain fairly tight though, compared to a normal zipper.
My recommendation is to open and close the zipper a few times before installing it, but to wait and lubricate it after it’s installed so you don’t risk getting silicone on the fabric, which could interfere with the heat sealing.
Cheers!
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 “set it and forget it.”
I recently added a video to the Proper Heat-Sealing Technique page under the How-To menu to show how the fabric behaves when the iron is set to the right temperature.
I’m obviously an advocate of the DIY approach, but after modifying several different irons myself with mixed success, I’ve come to the conclusion that for most people it’s worth spending $20-30 on a reliable iron that works well straight out of the box instead of spending a bunch of time making one from scratch or modifying an iron that was designed for a different purpose. If you’ve got the skills and the inclination to tinker with electronics though, that’s a totally different story!
Oh, and the fabric melts at around 240 C, but you shouldn’t need to get anywhere close to that hot. Your DIY iron sounds cool! If you’re finding it takes too long to seal the wider welds, it might be worth adding an inexpensive model airplane sealing iron to your quiver – the large foot makes quick work of the tube-to-floor welds.
Hi Aaron – is that 215 degrees C or F? Assuming it’s Celsius, that should be plenty hot – maybe too hot, by the sounds of it. Maybe try around 200 C. You should be able to heat a small area, remove the iron, press on it with a rag for a few seconds to allow the weld to set, and then it should stay like that. You may see an occasional small bubble, as in the picture below, but larger bubbles might be caused by too high heat and/or trying to heat too large of an area at once. Here’s a picture showing what it should look like after heat sealing 210D (yellow) to 1000D (darker 210D fabrics aren’t as translucent, so you can’t see the weld like this).
The pieces cannot be peeled apart without destroying the TPU. Once the temperature is dialed in, you shouldn’t have to repeat the sealing process – just heat an area for a few seconds (pressing firmly and sliding the iron a bit), remove the iron, and press on the weld with a rag while it cools for a few seconds, and then move on. If it lifts or bubbles after you remove the rag, press a bit longer to allow it to cool more or use a lower temperature. (When lowering the temperature, check to make sure the weld is still sound.) Practice with scrap material until it’s dialed in.
Cheers!
Hi Lyn,
The manufacturer doesn’t indicate a pressure rating so I can’t guarantee anything, but I’ve tested them up to about 5 psi (350 hPa) myself and they showed no signs of stress.
For reference, a 170 lb (77 kg) weight distributed over an area of 12 x 18″ (30 x 45 cm) on an inflatable seat exerts about 0.8 psi (55 hPa) – quite a large safety factor.
Great idea, Bruce! It looks durable and very easy to pack. Using a wooden form to seal the circular ends is a great idea, too – it’s a useful tip for anyone who wants to create round drybags of any type. Thanks for posting!
Hi Matteo – welcome to the forum!
All of the DIY Packrafts are capable of carrying over 100 kg. I probably wouldn’t use an Ultralight packraft for bikerafting though, as the ultralight fabric is more fragile, but you could do so if you were more careful.
Each DIY Packraft kit comes will scrap fabric to make attachment points and grab loops, and you can place them wherever suits your needs. To figure out where to locate them, I would first build the packraft and then balance the bike on top, with the wheels and everything placed as they would be during paddling, and then mark the locations where tie-downs would be best located to attach directly to the bike’s frame.
You may also want to add an airtight zipper to your packraft so you can store gear inside the tubes, as you will not be able to store as much gear on top of the bow if your bike is there. You will certainly have more room if you choose a larger packraft.
Cheers!
Hi Mike,
Most of the fabrics available are only coated on one side, except for the heavier fabrics in the DIY Packraft shop, and possibly some sold elsewhere. I used to have fabrics with PU coating on the other side from the TPU, but PU is not as good as TPU. You will find that most PU coatings are not airtight or waterproof and can rub off with a hot iron.
