Monday, March 25, 2013
by

Project: Somewhat Portable DIY Hangboard Mount - Part 2

In the previous post, I posted pictures of my homemade hangboard mount/Blank Slate imitation.  Here are the schematics for the board:











The board component costs are as follows:

  1. Iron Gym Pull-up Bar (like this one): $30 retail - can be found for $15-20.  I bought mine for $15 from clearance at Target. 
  2. 3/4 inch x 2 feet x 4 feet of plywood.  I bought this for $24 at Home Depot, although I'm sure there are cheaper sources.  Which reminds me -- the height of the hangboard is actually an even 2 feet to account for the plywood dimensions.  I just shaved half an inch from the top and half an inch from the bottom.
  3. Wood glue/4 large bolts/4 large nuts: ~$10.  EDIT: 8 nuts/bolts, sorry!
The mount was pretty easy to make.  The "face" is pretty self-explanatory: just cut to dimensions and round the corners.  The back section that connects to the pull-up bar was made by gluing two layers of plywood together to make a 1 1/2 inch block and then cut to size.  To connect the back section to the face, I embedded 2 nuts into the back block (before gluing the two layers of plywood together) then used 2 flat head bolts (3/8 inch, 16 thread count) to fasten. I think gluing the back would work, too, if you didn't want an easily removable back.  If you're going to glue the back, make sure it's bomber because the glue will essentially be supporting the entire rig.

As you can see, the top and bottom of the back block are separate so that the angle of the mount can be changed. I connected the top and bottom by, again, embedding 2 nuts to the top and using 2 bolts to fasten the bottom. I'm not sure what other methods can be used to connect the two parts and make it easy to disassemble/adjust.

Overall, it took about 2 days to complete.  The longest part was waiting for the wood glue to dry.  Not bad when compared with the Blank Slate.      

Wednesday, March 20, 2013
by JPL

Project: Somewhat Portable DIY Hangboard Mount

Hi.

Here's a hangboard mount I built with an Iron Gym Pull-up Bar and some plywood.  It's similar to the Blank Slate, with some advantages and disadvantages vs. the Blank Slate, which I will detail further in a separate post in the future (along with schematics and instructions).  For now -- pictures!






UPDATE: Part 2 here.
Monday, January 28, 2013
by JPL

Project: Ultralight Tent

If you are an avid backpacker, then you know about the big three.  The big three are (typically) the heaviest items that you take with you on the trail, i.e., your backpack, sleeping bag and shelter/tent.  If you want to lighten your load, they are the best places to start.

When I looked into going light, I saw that I would benefit most from a different tent.  I had been using a conventional tent that weighed in at around five and a half pounds -- not a back-breaker, but I thought I could save a pound or two with a new tent.  After looking at a number of different designs, I was drawn to the Six Moon Designs' Lunar Duo and the Nemo Meta 2P because of their simplicity and aesthetic appeal.  Those two tents also met my only "must haves": (1) they fit two people and (2) they were fully enclosed tents.  I backpack with my fiancee so any tarp shenanigans are out of the question.

During that time, I had also been poking around BackpackingLight.com's "do it yourself" forum.  After some research and consideration, I figured making my own tent would be a doable project.

The first step was to draw up the design.  I used Google's SketchUp and it was perfectly fine for my purpose.  Here's what I came up with:




Next, I went off to Ebay and snagged most the important materials: silnylon and no-see-um mesh.  Here's the breakdown of materials and components:

  1. 10 yards of 1.1 oz silnyon - $55.00 + $5.50 shipping
  2. 10 yards of no-see-um/mosquito tent netting - $17.95 + $5.00 shipping
  3. 2 x 6 feet sleeping bag zippers - $10 
  4. Permatex Flowable Silicone Windshield Seal (to seal the seams on the tents and fix minor nicks) - $4.99
  5. Webbing/rope - free scraps.
So the entire cost of materials was a hair below $100, compared with $310 for the Lunar Duo and $400 for the Meta 2P.


Construction was fairly straight forward.  As you cans see from my drawings, I chose not to incorporate catenary curves in the design, which made it a lot easier to sew.  The most important thing about sewing is to make sure the pieces of fabric are folded over before being sewn together for additional strength, like so:
Another thing to remember is to reinforce all loading points, as shown below (thanks to Henry Shires):


Once completed, the seams need to be sealed using a silicone-based sealant.  My personal preference is to use Permatex Flowable Silicone, which can be purchased at any auto-supply store.  It's primarily used to seal windshield wipers, but it works great for tents because it's just the right consistency -- you don't need to dilute it with water or anything.  I also use it to fix pinprick holes.

After a number of seasons on the trail, I'm very happy with the tent and my design.  At 38 oz, it's reasonably light.  The tent is also very spacious -- plenty of room for two and maybe three if in a pinch.  The double entries and vestibules are great for accessing your items and leaving the tent without disturbing your partner.  Here are a couple pictures of it on the trail:



Please feel free to ask me any questions if you'd like detail on any part of this project.