scavenging parts

people do it, but it is high cost MYOG. Take a $200 pack apart and make one with $25 worth of materials. It is cheaper to make (or acquire from a supplier) the stuff fresh than to scavenge, unless you have a bunch of gear you have no use for, then by all means. Sometimes it is still cheaper to sell the old gear and use the money to get the raw materials (which are pretty cheap unless you need cuben or dyneema)

Shoulder straps seem to be intimidating to many people but are very easy to make. I have used the design from the G4 omitting the velcro and ability to use socks as padding and just put foam in there. They are easy to make and work pretty good.

-Tim

I scavenge whenever a piece gets 'retired' or modified. This goes for non gear too, like my little sisters old school packs. zipper pulls, plastic webbing buckles, tabs of velcro, cord locks, pack stays, elastic cord are all fair game. They will get used, even if just in a prototype, but then reused again and again. good times

oh…I'm not talking about buying a new piece of gear for the purpose of scavenging it. I'm thinking more of picking the carcasses of deceased gear.
Sure beats throwing it away.

Although I have occasionally bought a thrift store item for a few bucks to use the fabric or zippers. for example I've bought mesh shirts to use as pocket linings in jackets.

I've got a 3' cube box that's overflowing, mostly with scavenged bits. Zippers, straps, fabric patches from dead gear, bits I've cut off other things to make them lighter, etc.

I've had great success with buying gear specifically for hacking from two places: our local sports consignment (webbing and buckles off old packs cheaper than buying them in bulk) and the Patagonia outlet. A XXL capilene shirt for 2 bucks gives a lot of material.