Wednesday 9 February 2011

Ninja Tarp!

The last couple of weeks have been quite busy on the making moments front.  It’s hard to find the time to sew when you’ve got a lot on in general.  Another factor is that cutting out fabric for tarps takes a lot of room.  That room usually has to be found on the front room floor by moving furniture about, which in turn takes even more time to move stuff, tiptoe around the room not treading on fabric, cutting fabric, moving all the furniture back.  So, to cut say, the two panels for a cat cut tarp can realistically take all evening.  I have to feed and water children and make them go to sleep before any of this happens.

Three things I have bought to make life a lot easier.  An 8’x 4’ sheet of ¾” plywood which sits on the kitchen table.  A soldering iron with a very fine tip.  Some sheets of hardboard.  Two panels of a cat cut tarp and all re-enforcement panels and various other bits can now be cut in less than an hour.  I’ve made templates of the panels with hardboard.  The material is placed on the plywood, the template over the top and I “draw” round it with the hot soldering iron.  Very quick, leaving heat sealed edges – no fraying.  This may be excessive if you’re just making a few bits and bobs for yourself but in time I do hope to start making a few things to sell.  One of which is the following…





This has been made for Mr. Horner, his selection of fabric.  My own designed (lets face it most of these are pretty similar designs) tarp.  The material is a coated nylon of some sorts, it’s tough, waterproof and very black.  In fact everything on the tarp is black.  I love the look of this.

At the moment, before seam sealing, it’s 292g, not the lightest in the world but light enough, it packs down small but it’s yet to be tested outside.  That’s a job for Steven and I do hope it works as good as it looks. 

I’m not taking orders as such yet, mainly as I don’t have that much time and I don’t want to leave people hanging on for stuff for ever, but expressions of interest are always welcome

16 comments:

Unknown said...

Another UK cottage in the making?! Nice =)

All black = EPIC. Waiting to see it pitched by Mr. Horner on a mountain.

Unknown said...

Looks the business and I hope you find the time to start making more. Brilliant. Love the attention to detail.

Anonymous said...

Looks really good, John! Love the niftyness of your soldering approach, two jobs in one. And great labels!

chris wallace said...

Not sure I'd enjoy a black tarp. Too gloomy in foul weather.

Chocolate Fish said...

Nice bit of kit and genuinely useful:-)

Londonbackpacker said...

That looks sweet :-) I wish I was good with my hands :-(

Martin Rye said...

Good luck with the business John. Nice Job on the design for Steve.

Shed Dweller said...

Thanks for all the positive comments people.

Hopefully things will be up and running in a couple of weeks. I'll do a post nearer the time. I'm hoping to do

Flat Tarps
Cat Cut Tarps
Waterproof breathable overmitts
Bivi Bags (water resist sleeping bag covers)
Inner tent/bug bivi/bivi combo

Later on I hope to be doing

Packs and single skin shelters but the R+D takes ages for these so it could be a long while yet!

selfpowered said...

I'd be very interested to see your bivy bags, please!

waterproof gloves for my GF sound good too...

Shed Dweller said...

David the bivi is here http://sheddwellersmoments.blogspot.com/2010/06/making-moment-bivi-bag.html

Hopefully I'll get a prototype of the waterproof mitts on the site soon. Thanks for your interest.

Steven Horner said...

Can't wait to get my hands on it. I should be out on the 19th Feb testing it. Then will do a post the following day.

Personally I love the black :-)

Shed Dweller said...

I can't wait for you to get hold of this and releasing it into the wild. The black is cool. The stuff sack is also cool.

Keith said...

Looks fairly epic! I like to support cottages when possible so will look forward to some more on this.

Mungo said...

Very nice! What are the dimensions of the black tarp?

Mungo

Shed Dweller said...

Keith, the Tarp should be out tonight in the wild. Mr Horner is taking it out all being well. Hopefully he should put some pictures on his blog hen he gets five minutes.

Mungo, off the top of my head I can't remember the exact dimensions. I work off a template. When I'm back home I'll get the measuring tape out.

Anonymous said...

what type of sewing machine do you use?