A few more. Apologies for the double-ups - on looking at them now, a few angles look pretty similar!
I've inflated the raft a few times now, but the first time I inflated it was definitely the most exciting! It was quite surreal sitting in my lounge room at 2 am one morning after a late night session working on it, and seeing it transform from this flat object I've only known it as, to a three-diminesional, fully-fledged packraft. I hadn't even seen/touched one in person until that point and after a few squeezes of the bag, it appeared like magic! It was quite amazing to say the least.
The job was still not over though. A number of minor leaks in the raft meant that it would slowly deflate again over time. As it stands now, I have patched most of them but there are still several present that are causing it to lose pressure. Hence why the tubes have a few wrinkles in them, in the photos above (the raft had lost some air by the time I took those shots
) To find them, I was fully inflating the raft and then running my face beside the seams to feel for air escaping. This has worked for all but the very faintest of leaks. For the rest of the leaks, I will now locate them using the detergent method Matt has just written about on the diypackraft.com website. On trialing it the other day, it worked very well. When I make my next raft, I will just locate leaks using this technique to begin with.
From the photos I've put up, you might've noticed the little white flecks of paper along the front and rear tube seams. When I get the chance I'm going to just scratch these off with my finger, but they are the result of pressing down aquaseal patches with books and a paper liner in between. In hindsight, that was a poor way of pressing down the patches. I'm now using the glass below, with much better success. Aquaseal doesn't bond well to glass meaning a paper liner isn't needed. Placing a book on a glass also increases the pressure on the patch (as opposed to a book straight on the patch). This glass is particularly excellent for the job because its base is perfectly flat (most other cups/glasses in our cupboard have a rim of some description around the outside which prevents an even spread of pressure).
I would say that 95% of the patches I've had to do, have been along the front and rear seams. This is because unlike the other seams I haven't been able to flip these over and give them a thorough iron on the opposite side. Also, I touched the iron against fabric outside of the bonding strip line on too many occasions (through not being able to visualise the strip underneath properly) which led to the TPU coating bonding to the helmet and becoming damaged when I removed it. When I make my next raft, I think I will mark out where the bonding strip margin should be on the tubes prior to welding.
To wrap-up, here are some brief summary comments:
Cost of the project: Approximately $225 (however, with use of less aquaseal and only buying 6 metres of fabric instead of 8 metres, the cost would have been $190) + time.
How many hours were spent on it: It's difficult to say given I made a number of mistakes along the way. I will also do things differently when I make my next one, which will fasten the process considerably. A very rough guesstimate though would be around 45-50 hours (I was working on the raft for around 6 hrs/night during the first week when most of the work was done. Although it's taken me a while to do this final report, the raft could have been finished a lot quicker had I not made mistakes/stuck with it more. A lot of time was also spent making additional templates - something others may skip over. When I make my next one, I will definitely record the time spent on it from start to finish).
Who is this project for: Anyone who is mildly crafty/willing "to have a crack", could make a packraft I would think. I would imagine that the biggest hurdle for most would be finding the time rather than the "skills" part of it. Hopefully I've helped exposed many of the traps/pitfalls in my write-ups - I know my next raft will be easier knowing this information and I wish I had of had it prior to making this one. Practicing your skills on scrap pieces first is definitely a good idea. The hardest part of the project (for me, anyway) was bonding the tube seams. If you can get past that part, you should be able to finish the rest of the raft. An eye for detail (i.e. making sure the fabric is cut out
perfectly from the template, tracing on welding lines exactly etc.) is probably the most important thing when making one of these I would think.
Where to from here: I still need to fix-up the last few leaks in the raft. After that I plan on adding a few tie-down points to the front of the raft so I can attach a pack. Then I think it will be ready for it's maiden voyage! As a side note, if anyone has any suggestions regarding a fun 2-3 day paddle in either NSW or Vic with grade 1 or 2 whitewater let me know
Something pretty fool safe would be best - I'm a good swimmer but haven't done any whitewater courses as of yet...
Anyway, I think that's about it. I plan on making my next raft over the summer so I will upload some photos of that when I'm done. If anyone has any questions on how to make a packraft, let me know. I'd be more than happy to provide advice/talk anyone through any of the steps.