28L 210 D Dyneema Gridstop and Hyper D 300 or 2.2oz Hex 70 Climbing/hiking Pack/backpack

Here is a shot at playing with lighter and more high tech materials to make a larger volume bag that weighs less than the weight of the 20L climbing pack while being almost double the volume. Thanks to Justin03 for the site for the body fabrics. Packs with frames that are made from Dyneema run over $200 and well into $400, this is an attempt to make a pack that comes in well under $50 and is still simple to make (took me under 8 hours).

Here are the layouts for the materials, if I did it again, I would use black Dyneema and Olive yellow Hex 70 as to have more material to play with for other projects, and a better look. The blue Dyneema is more light in color than I care for. The orange Hyper D would also look really good with the black!

Materials from http://ripstopbytheroll.com/ :
- Gutermann MARA 70 thread - $3.60

And

- 210D Dyneema X Gridstop - $13 (1/2 yrd)

And

-HyperD 300 - $4.65 (1/2 yrd)

Or

- 2.2 oz HEX70 XL ripstop nylon - $8.50 (1 yard, you will have half a yard left for other projects)

Materials from http://www.questoutfitters.com/ :

- 5" of foam 3/8 mini cell foam - $2.75

- Prima loc toggle for 1/8" cord - 25 cents

- 2, 1" Heavy duty ladder locs - 90 cents

- 2, 1" Double adjust slide release buckles - $1.80

- 3/4" Latch cam Slide Release - 95 cents ( can substitute for an organic climbing crash pad buckle ( http://www.organicclimbing.com/collections/extras/products/metal-buckles )

-1 yrd of 1/8" draw cord - 27 cents (can also use it for lashing of gear)

- 2 Sternum slider- Duel - 92 cents.

- 2 yards of 3/4" medium wt webbing - $2.40

- 7 yards of 1" medium wt webbing - $5.53 (could prob go with 6, but better safe)

- 1 -3/8" grommet - 22 cents

- 5 yards of 1" grosgrain ribbon - $2.50

Other materials: 1/8" 6160 T6 aluminum rod for the frame

Cut out and layout everything, it is helpful to mark centers and quadrants on the material to help with line up the bottom and the other points (the thinner lines on the layout that are inside of the rectangles are lineup points, DO NOT CUT THEM, THERE IS NO SNIPPING OF ANY KIND IN THIS PATTERN, EVEN ON BENDS AND AROUND CORNERS).

After you cut the foam, it helps to cut a wedge where it is sewn in, like at the point of the shoulder strap where it meets the bag, the hip strap where it meets the back and the back pad where it meets the bottom.

Sewing:

Cut and melt the cut ends of 1" webbing: two pieces of webbing at 20", two pieces at 24", two pieces at 10" and two peices of webbing at 18".

Tack the two 20" pieces of webbing on the shoulder strap tops with 1" hanging over and the center of the webbing on the center of the end of the fabric.

Tack the two 22" pieces of webbing into the seam of the hip strap on the small end in the center.

Fold the 10" pieces of webbing over and sew leaving aprox 1.5" unsewn at the ends. Add basically where they are in the pic. It may work better if you had them set towards the bottom, while the hardware would bump you more, it would be easier to clip too.

Lay the two uncoated sides against each other and sew the seam on the hips with a 1/2" tolerance and and the seam on the shoulder straps with a 3/8" tolerance, back stitch the ends of the seams. all seams are sewn with a 8 to 10 stitches per inch.

Bar tack over any webbing.

snip the hard corners out to reduce bulk in ends (see pic)

Turn the shoulder straps right side out by pulling the webbing hanging out the end.

Put the HD ladder locs on making sure that the webbing is pulled well to make sure the shoulder strap is fully right side out, bartack twice, once right behind the ladder loc and once about 1/4 ish away, making sure to catch the webbing underneath.

Stuffing:

Stuff both hips and shoulders with foam, keeping the non-wedged side towards the inside of the shoulder strap and about an inch from the open ends..

If you machine can go through the foam (my home machine does), sew a line down the center of the strap stopping at the bend in the shoulder strap and roughly 2" away from the end of the hips.

slide the sternum slide on, bend the shoulder strap so the webbing has enough slack to allow the shoulder strap to bend naturally and bartack the webbing down through the foam at the point highlighted on the pattern of the shoulder strap. if your machine can't go through the foam, cut out a rectangle where the bartack goes in the foam and then sew through both layers of material and webbing.

Cut off the webbing excess webbing after point where strap meets body of bag.

Take the two pieces of 18" webbing and send them around the shoulder straps and through the sternum slides, bartack them with a little left past the bartack.

I am doing a 1/8" aluminum rod frame, the frame can be anything you want from an hdpe frame sheet, a peice of foam, or potentially nothing.

To do a wire frame, you want to do what you see on the second pic and then basically tape both overlapping bits together, you can also make a sleeve out of 1" webbing and slide it over both overlapping bits to bind them together, like what you see in the first pic. as long as it is smooth and does not poke the material, it is probably good.

I arched both the bottom and top bars so they did not touch my spine and put the overlapping part on the bottom.

when bending it I would recommend making it maybe an inch too long as it loses some length with the S bend and you can always turn the sides inward to relieve pressure on the material.