Make Your Own Gear: Five Yards to SuperUltraLight Part 2, Stuff Sack

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This article is the second in a four part series on turning 5 yards of spinnaker fabric into a SuperUltraLight (SUL) tarp, pack, and stuff sack. Five Yards to SuperUltraLight, Part 1 showed how the fabric was divided efficiently into the various pieces for each project. In Part 2 we will construct a SUL stuff sack. I have used this stuff sack design for years. It has everything a stuff sack needs without extra bells and whistles, and can be made in under an hour. The simplistic design resonates in the 0.2-ounce final weight. ARTICLE OUTLINE

Overview
- Stuff Sack Project Ratings
Recommended Materials and Equipment
Construction
Final Step

# WORDS: 750 # PHOTOS: 16 # TABLES: 1

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Viewing 7 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

Author

Posts
Nov 29, 2006 at 5:27 am #1220448

Carol Crooker
BPL Member

@cmcrooker
Locale: Desert Southwest, USA

Companion forum thread to:

Make Your Own Gear: Five Yards to SuperUltraLight Part 2, Stuff Sack

Nov 29, 2006 at 11:32 am #1368718

Frank Perkins
Member

@fperkins
Locale: North East

Cool article, two things:

1) Can the cost be changed to only make the item identified in the article?

2) Mig asked in part I of the article where to buy Spinnaker online. Unfortunately, after searching through the forums, I can’t find any online sources. Anyone have a website that’s selling it online?

Nov 29, 2006 at 12:41 pm #1368732

David Olsen
Spectator

@oware
Locale: Steptoe Butte

I have some to sell as well as other
similar fabrics.

another possible source
http://www.therainshed.com/

Dave

owareusa.com

Dec 1, 2006 at 7:33 pm #1369076

Jay Ham
Member

@jham
Locale: Southwest

Frank,

Dave at Oware is great to deal with, and has the fabric. I would definately use him for a source.

Unfortunately, making a single stuff sack is less economical because you have to buy minimum quantities of fabric and other materials, and shipping cost won’t be reduced much. I usually make my stuff sacks from leftover material purchased for other projects. If you wanted to make several stuff sacks, your cost per sack goes down considerably. With a yard of Spinnaker, you could make as many as 10 small stuff sacks, or a fewer combination of larger and smaller, for about $40.

Jay
MYOG

Jan 6, 2009 at 2:11 pm #1468320

Nick K
BPL Member

@nkline
Locale: Northeast U.S.

I noticed the last post was made about two years ago. Since I am considering making the gear discussed in this project, I was wondering if there have been updates on the types of fabric to use and the sources to obtain them.

Other recommendations and/or lessons learned on this project are appreciated.

Thanks,

Nick

Jan 6, 2009 at 7:19 pm #1468387

Roger Caffin
BPL Member

@rcaffin
Locale: Wollemi & Kosciusko NPs, Europe

Not many changes in the last year or so.

Cheers

Oct 30, 2009 at 8:07 pm #1541373

Dan @ Durston Gear
BPL Member

@dandydan
Locale: Canadian Rockies

Thru-Hiker.com has a stuff sack kit that is an economical way to obtain the necessary materials. The 'premium' kit includes 0.7oz SpinTex, 5 small cord locks and ample draw string (although I do wish it was lighter spectra cord). You can buy this for $19.95 and make 5 stuff sacks with it. With some extra cord and cord locks you could make a lot more than 5 sacks if they were small ones.

So far I have made a small sack (about 2L) for my 'essentials' and another similarly sized sack for my pot. Both weigh 6-7g (0.2 to 0.25oz). I've also make a sack for my stakes that weighs 2g (0.1oz). I have a lot of fabric left (about 75% of it). I could definitely make some bigger sacks but I'm a bit nervous about using this material for higher stress applications like a food bag.
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