recycled dome to tarp – cording the poles

[bj bretzke]

Although my real ounce crunching days are over I have always enjoyed MYOG. That being said, as I sit down to destroy another perfectly good tent I realize I have forgotten how to shock cord my poles. I know it's easy I just stored the data in a now non-existent brain cell. (probably from procurring cans for alky stoves:)
Oh yeah, first post. Best myog forum ever!

[Matthew Roberts]

"procuring cans" :) That is witty!

Extract is from the following website:
http://www.questoutfitters.com/tent_poles.htm

Step #1 Lay out your poles in the order you want them. (cut them to the right length, if it is neccessary, using a hacksaw or even better a pipe cutter-quite inexpensive at Home Depot or Lowes or Harbor Freight, ect)

Step #2 Knot one of the endtips onto to one free end of the shock cord and push it into one of the hollow ends of the pole sections. Thread your shock cord through each pole section.

Step #3 On the other end tie the other endtip onto the shock cord. The tension will vary but as a rule of thumb do not pull too much tension on the cord-if you do when you break down the poles they will want to instantly spring back into shape and they will be hard to pack away. Push the second endtip up into the other hollow end of the pole. If the shock cord is not tight enough remove the end tip and re-tie it a little tighter. As a general rule to determine the amount of shock cord you need: For 18" poles add the number of all the pole sections you want to shock cord together and divide this by 2. ie: if you want to shock cord 8 sections together you would need 4 yards of shock cord. For the 26" poles multiply the number of poles by 26 to get the total of inches. Divide this number by 36 and this will give you the amount of yards. ie if you have 9 sections together you multiply 9 x 26" = 234" divided by 36 = 6 1/2 yds

[bj bretzke]

Matthew,
Thanks. That helps.

4×24 / 36=2.66666 yds. Cool. The 90 degree pole joiner from the link you provided is exactly what I need for this project.

Finished dissecting the dome. It turned out far better than anticipated. I basically just removed the floor and kept two of the dome panels saving all three pole sleeves. What was four hours ago a reasonably functional 7×7 Hex dome is now a very serviceable three season shelter that is not only very versatile but looks pretty cool too. It's been snowing/raining for three days so a yard test isn't looking too promising. I had a basic shape set up in the living but my camera batteries are dead:(
Bonus:That bulky (7"x26")dome backpacking tent now fits in the original pole sack (3"x24")with 5 poles and room to spare. It was a good day!!

[Matthew Roberts]

I can't wait to see it!

[bj bretzke]

Here are some pics of this year's gear. I'm still working on a UL pack design. In the loaded pack picture the gray stuff sack contains my shelter, sleeping pad, and footprint(tyvek). The cooking system is a combination of many different styles and ideas, some original, some not. It will boil water under field conditions (20 mph winds, 45 degree water, 2c, rolling boil) in four minutes:)

These stakes are made from motorcycle spokes
I'm heading to the Bearpaw Mts. this coming holiday for a solo shakedown. I did have to deploy the shelter last weekend to avoid a thunderstorm on a practice hike. Wind gusts of 32 mph didn't bother it to bad.
I'll try to get some weights eventually. I had 5 litres of water plus my full grub sack and it seemed quite acceptable.

If you can't rock on, walk on…….

[Author]

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