easiest way to add loops to Tyvek groundcloth?

some 1/2 inch grosgrain a needle and some upholstery thread if you dont have a sewing machine

thanks- should a guy fold over the corners or anything like that?

I am planning to make a tyvek groundsheet for my Nemo Obi 1 this weekend. My intention is to fold over the two adjacent corners with a loop of shockchord sandwiched in between the top surface and the folded corners.

I will glue down the corners with water based contact cement. This is the adhesive that I saw suggested here, and that held up very well in my initial trials. Then, I will come back over the ends of the shockchord with a 'z' stitch on the old Singer sewing machine.

If this method holds up well, I will post some pictures and results here. Cheers, and let me know if you come up with any other ideas!

Chad- sounds great, please post pics when you get a chance. I was going to add shock cord to the loop, maybe I'll just stick w/ a loop of shock cord :)

Made my groundcloth this weekend. I will post a bunch of pics later in this forum (forgot my camera at home this morning), but I tested two methods of attaching loops of shock chord to the Tyvek.

I reinforced the corners and sewed in the loops as mentioned earlier. This worked, but the sewing had to be done by hand (the sewing machine wouldn't handle the Tyvek very well).

In the second method I just added 3/8" grommets to the reinforced corners. This method worked extremely well, and was much easier than I thought (I had never worked with grommets before). This is what I ended up doing with the final project.

As I said, I'll be happy to post my complete project outline once I transfer the photos to my computer.

Cheers!

I'd try the tyvek tape.

Added my complete assembly technique, with pictures regarding your question here, to the MYOG forum. Cheers!

read your thread- will have to give that a try, thanks

one question- your saying that w/ just a hole puncher you can correctly seat the grommets?

? on the tyvek tape- is it strong enough to hold w/o sewing?

tia

Mike,

I suggested trying the tyvek tape but haven't tried it myself.

I've had good luck with tape in general, however, when there isn't much tension on the pull outs. I assume that use as a ground cloth would require very little tension on the pullouts.

In recommending tape I was focusing on the key word "easiest" in your original post. I would experiment with, say, an 8" long piece of 1" wide tape. Putting a 2" long piece of tape at the midpoint of the 8" piece (sticky side to sticky side) will give a non-sticky loop for the stake. The remaining two 3" tails can then be sandwiched over the tyvek corners.

I've had very good luck with strapping tape also. It'll stick to most things.

Daryl

Daryl- tape would definitely be the easiest (although looks like it's kind of pricey)- shouldn't be a lot of tension on the pullouts using shock cord (some if the tyvek was to shift while moving around)

might see if I can find a small roll and give it a try

Mike

Mike,

I just used what I had on hand – grommets. Just folded over each corner onto itself and added a grommet – a little shock cord and I was done in 5 minutes. Tape would be just as easy. I've been using it on my one man tent for 5 years now. Shock cord makes it attach quick and easy.

Dave

that definitely sounds easy :) what's a guy have to spend to get a grommet setter for these small grommets?

Sorry, I could have added one more detail photo to my instructions. The punch in the picture was used to create the hole only, not to set the grommet (it's a hardened tool steel hollow ground punch set that I made when I used to be a machinist).

Next to the grommets at the store they sold the tool to punch the grommet in place. It was $6, and I'm a cheapskate. I looked at the tool, then went home and grabbed and old pin punch. I took the pin punch to my bench grinder and added the end profile (basically, it's just a rounded taper). I used that pin punch and a small brass hammer to set the grommets.

If one intends to do a bunch of work with grommets it might be worth the $6 for the off-the-shelf grommet setting tool.

Insert the step mentioned above between steps 5 and 6 in my little explanation:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/forums/thread_display.html?forum_thread_id=53813

They're pretty inexpensive, Mike. Ace Hardware has them, REI too.

http://www.acehardware.com/family/index.jsp?categoryId=2628107

thanks guys!- that's a small investment, I'm sure I'll use it more than just for the ground cloth :)

ended up w/ the 1/4" grommet set, $10 comes w/ setter, cutter and 48 grommets

4 grommets weighed in at 2 grams :) took all of five minutes to do- thanks gents!

Plastic grommets – just hammer in…

http://www.leevalley.com/en/garden/page.aspx?p=10529&cat=2,2030,33142