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| Messages 1 - 10 of total 10 in this topic |
hobo_dan
Social climber
Minnesota
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Jul 17, 2018 - 05:47am PT
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I like building stuff and I'd probably be up for a kit BUT it seems like it might be better to have something like that built correctly--especially the sewing. What about a kit where you assemble the frame but the Fly and other sewn parts are already stitched up?
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2018 - 06:05am PT
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The sewing is really where the craft and care of details come in, and thus harder to find a good production facility; whereas the frame needs to be engineered well, but once engineered can be built more readily en masse to top quality strength and durability standards.
I see a lot of really poorly designed DIY frames out there, either too weak a material, or wrong size, or crappy joints that will fail in time. One was just posted recently on a British site and got 1000’s of views already. I feel bad for folks who take that advice—they might do a hellava lot of work to end up with a ledge that will last a wall, maybe two, but not more.
But if you are sewing it yourself, on the other hand, it’s easier to take the time to really create bomber seams, but it is time consuming which is one of the reasons why the cost of ledges is high—lots of labor in the sewing.
I was talking of this with Barry and Luke this trip, people really have no idea of how much work goes into a portaledge until they build their own.
Any opther DIY’ers out there with some insight?
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jeff constine
Trad climber
Ao Namao
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Jul 17, 2018 - 06:38am PT
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My friend Randy is up on a wall with his homemade ledge, we shall see if it holds up.
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ontheedgeandscaredtodeath
Social climber
Wilds of New Mexico
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Jul 17, 2018 - 07:33am PT
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Me and a partner once made ledges out of lawn chairs and actually used them in Zion. We called them lawn-a-ledges. Pretty uncomfortable and crazy heavy. Worked though.
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hacky47
Trad climber
goldhill
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Jul 17, 2018 - 11:21am PT
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if it came with a pattern to help cut the fabric that might help
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2018 - 11:46am PT
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^of course...
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Don Paul
Social climber
Denver CO
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Jul 17, 2018 - 12:44pm PT
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^ the pvc version looks strong enough to hold your weight. Only one way to find out, lol. My first couple of walls were with a borrowed Gramicci ledge that always wanted to twist into an hourglass shape and toss me out. I never figured out why. I don't think it was because the strap tensions were different. Well, it's a lot easier just to buy a real one on ebay.
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JLP
Social climber
The internet
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Jul 17, 2018 - 05:19pm PT
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I did a diy ledge back in the day. I thought the metalwork was easy, the sewing construction by far the crux - fabric selection, tensioning, etc., all nontrivial. I actually called up A5 in Flagstaff looking to buy just the fabric portion - denied - kept asking me why and I lied, told them all was damaged in a rockfall - they didn’t believe me - didn’t want to admit I had copied the frame and suspension to save money. Eventually I bought new and still have it. I actually used it for a few dozen nights too.
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deuce4
climber
Hobart, Australia
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Topic Author's Reply - Jul 17, 2018 - 06:54pm PT
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Maybe there are enough second hand ones that making one’s own for the $400-$500 material cost and a few days of labor (when making a one-off) isn’t worth it. I still plan to publish some more new DIY info, as pretty much everything out there these days are copies of my A5 design, and there are better ways now...
Still might offer framesets and patterns for some of my smaller designs...
Thanks for input, please keep it coming, as well as any more links to DIY info.
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| Messages 1 - 10 of total 10 in this topic |
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