Cuben Decoder Ring or recommendation?

[Mike Barney]

I received a pricelist from Cuben Fiber Corp, for Cuben fiber, with some true weights per smyd (7.125 sq ft).

I was considering making a 1 man tent with this, but not sure which might be the best fabric for that, or what the nomenclature (ie CT0.3E.08) below mean.
Any info or recommendations would be appreciated.

CT0.3E.08 = ~0.26 oz/smyd
CT0.6E.08= ~0.36 oz/smyd
CT1K.08= ~0.4 oz/smyd
CT1HBK.08/KM.5= ~1.11 oz/smyd
CT2K.08= ~0.59 oz/smyd
CT2E.08/KM.5= ~0.95 oz/smyd

Thanks,
MikeB

[Sam Haraldson]

Searching through the BPL Forums returns this thread:

http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/xdpy/forum_thread/2346/index.html?skip_to_post=17660#17660

It appears upon quickly reading through it that the Cuben fiber denoted as CT1K.08 is the most popular for backpacking applications.

– sam_h

[Andrew Richard]

Where does everyone buy the adhesive (Either the 3M or the Ultra-Bond, or anything else for the matter) for their Cuben Tarps etc.?

[Paul Kaercher]

I purchased the 3M tape (94485pc) from R.S. Hughes Co.
Get a firm shipping price first, it can be outrageous.

Paul

[Kevin Egelhoff]

I have been using the CTO.6k.08 with good luck so far.
I have purchased all my tape from Quest and have an experimental roll of 3/8" wide and thin tape coming from Kite Studios to try out. In the Mid that I'm building and is about 75% complete it appears that the tape is aproximately 50% of the total weight now !!! Using LOTS of this stuff! Maybe too much ??

[Scott Van Doeselaar]

I am in the process of making a one man tent. I can tell you it is insanely hard. The three dimensional closed shape makes every joint a nightmare. I have settled on making the tent body with panels of Nanoseeum mesh sown to a frame of Cuben (CT1K.08) I have tried both the tape from quest and some tape from kite studios. The tape from kite studios is transfer adhesive with no plastic film. It is just the adhesive making it much lighter. At ambient temperatures I don't see any strength difference so I am using the kite studio tape to joint the cuben/mesh panels together. The rainfly will be mostly taped. I have used Urethane based bond similar to that recommended by the guys at Cuben and this works great but is not practical for any but this simplest seams. The glue I have used is called Aquaseal and is sold for wetsuit repair.

[Graham Williams]

CT = Cubic Tech, ie not sail cloth
CN = Cuben Fiber, ie sail cloth
That's mainly an internal accounting thing for them.

first number: amount of dyneema.
HB = High Bias, or double direction.
K, E, T, KM = Scrim Type.
Last number = scrim weight.

Don't worry about the scrim types. It doesn't matter unless you're planning to expose the thing to lots of salt water and sun.

good luck, have fun.

PS. the proper applicator for the urethane bonding agent works really well, but it's pretty expensive. You can order it from a loctite distributor.

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