Like so many before me, I dreamed of owning the Perfect Tent. Years of disappointing store bought tents, the lameness of available designs and workwomanship, and the burning shame every latter-day utilitarian feels at owning things that are bright and new told me I would have to design and make my own.
What follows is what I came up with. It's not Perfect, but it's pretty good, and you'll enjoy having one if you decide to make it.
Best of all though, if you plow through these instructions, I try to pass on the confidence and basic know-how to design and make your own.
Pros:
CHEAP (almost free), durable, lightweight, roomy, very dry, good star visibility, versatile, sets up easily, DIY pride and skills-building. It's one-of-a-kind I guess, uses very few new materials, and like all great human endeavors, materially registers my existence on earth.
DURABLE: It's overbuilt and performing like a champ so far in downpours, snow, high coastal and mountaintop winds, crappy terrain, etc.
LIGHTWEIGHT: the post office weighed it for me in the bag and it came out to something like 4 lbs--not bad for a 2-4 person tent!
Cons:
I'd like a tent that blends in with the natural surroundings better, but I had no choice in this because the source tents were yellow and blue.
A con for some people might also be that my design uses guy lines and pegs, which you and your significant other will get into arguments over trying to set up, and then your drunk or stoned friends will trip over in the dark. For me though, these elements enrich the overall camping experience and were 'must haves'.
What follows is what I came up with. It's not Perfect, but it's pretty good, and you'll enjoy having one if you decide to make it.
Best of all though, if you plow through these instructions, I try to pass on the confidence and basic know-how to design and make your own.
Pros:
CHEAP (almost free), durable, lightweight, roomy, very dry, good star visibility, versatile, sets up easily, DIY pride and skills-building. It's one-of-a-kind I guess, uses very few new materials, and like all great human endeavors, materially registers my existence on earth.
DURABLE: It's overbuilt and performing like a champ so far in downpours, snow, high coastal and mountaintop winds, crappy terrain, etc.
LIGHTWEIGHT: the post office weighed it for me in the bag and it came out to something like 4 lbs--not bad for a 2-4 person tent!
Cons:
I'd like a tent that blends in with the natural surroundings better, but I had no choice in this because the source tents were yellow and blue.
A con for some people might also be that my design uses guy lines and pegs, which you and your significant other will get into arguments over trying to set up, and then your drunk or stoned friends will trip over in the dark. For me though, these elements enrich the overall camping experience and were 'must haves'.
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Signing UpStep 1: Planning, Materials
I. Tent Design
First, decide what you want in a tent, and what you'll use it for. Make a list of the features you'd like to have, and all the things that were frustrating or inadequate about tents you've owned and used in the past. Rank these in order of importance.
I wanted: a lightweight, 2-3 person backpacking tent, roomy enough for canoe-camping, with decent visibility through all sides, a mosquito-free view of the stars at night, a fly that came out at least 1-2 feet from the tent walls, and something that would be comfortable to hang around in on rest days, in the rain, without getting wet.
I hated: getting wet in every single tent I've ever used regardless of what it cost, not in the least because of crummy flys that allow the water to run onto or under the tent; poor visibility, crouching around in a too-low tent, clambering over people to pee at night, not having enough ventilation, and having the tie-down points and corners rip out in rougher conditions.
Look at tents on the market and see if any approximate what you'd like. "Borrow" from extant designs, and draw up some of your own. Buy a tent you like, copy down all its dimensions then return it, or just make some pictures using whatever doodling skills you possess. Don't get out the graph paper and start going to town--these don't have to be exact at all.
'III. Seek the Treasure: MATERIALS!
Garage sales and craigslist.org are old tent gold mines.
Families who camped together in their salad years scatter, divorce, get fat, blow out their knees, and buy RVs, leaving enormous tents to rot in someone's garage...and that's where you come in, like a crayfish to a discarded toaster.
I recommend holding out for a giant cabin tent, which will have more solid panels than a dome tent and be easier to make new parts from. When the monied clean house these come cheap, so wait for a deal. (I recently bought an enormous multifamily cabin tent with separate rooms porch jacuzzi tiki bar etc. for a mere 45 bucks. It has more than enough material for the tiny solo tent I want to make, plus next year's christmas gifts for at least a couple of lucky people.....and you can use the scraps to make compression sacks for sleeping bags and clothes, your tent bags, kites, whatever you think of.)
What you come up with will determine what you'll be able to make, so the design phase should really be folded into the materials-gathering phase. If you have an old dome tent or just its poles, you'll be able to make something different than what I made.
As with any DIY project, the genius of your design will emerge from the tensions between available materials, your design ambitions, and your skills set--all of which will be improved in the process: Innovation through Impoverishment + Improvisation.
My Pretty Great Tent is made from a crappy old cabin tent (blue and yellow) someone left the basement of my apartment house that got wet, mildewed, and had its colors bleed--hence the muddy-to-tie-dyed appearance of the top piece in the photos. I also used pieces from a worthy old 2-person (brown) tent a friend gave me after its corner tore out.
III.' Materials Preparation'
Washing: Whether you should wash the source tent(s) first obviously depends on their condition, and/or how much time and $ you want to spend. There are tent-washing detergents out there that might be worth the money. There are probably vegan baking soda and what-all concoctions safe for toddlers and fish that folks have made too; you'd have to check (and let me know b/c a homemade recipe would be great.)
I used a lot of regular detergent and a laundromat washer on the cabin tent for this project. It came out nice, but the waterproofing washed out. Re-waterproofing the cloth when I was done with the tent sucked!, so you should probably only do this if your source tent was as moldy and cat-box-smelling as mine was. (I used a 10:1 solution of mineral spirits and 100%silicone whipped up with the home egg beater to re-waterproof it, but we'll get to that later.)
Dyeing: I wanted to re-dye the material a more natural color: it didn't work on my test pieces, so I guess nylon resists bleaching and dyeing. I suggest seeking materials that are the color you'd like, or being happy with what the Lord provides.
Breaking it Down: Once you're satisfied with the source-tent's smell, begin to rip seams and see what you've got to work with. At this point, just rip enough seams to make the whole thing lie flat, leaving your pieces as large as possible. Don't be afraid to bypass the seam-ripper altogether and just cut through the seams--it saves time and you'll be able to patch together sheets for your Frankentent regardless. Use sharp scissors or better yet a fancy hot-knife which cauterizes your cuts. In the future I plan to modify my soldering iron tip to make it into a cutter for this.
***Be careful with, and SAVE those Zippers***--they're expensive to buy new. Also save all of the loops and webbing and whatnot.
First, decide what you want in a tent, and what you'll use it for. Make a list of the features you'd like to have, and all the things that were frustrating or inadequate about tents you've owned and used in the past. Rank these in order of importance.
I wanted: a lightweight, 2-3 person backpacking tent, roomy enough for canoe-camping, with decent visibility through all sides, a mosquito-free view of the stars at night, a fly that came out at least 1-2 feet from the tent walls, and something that would be comfortable to hang around in on rest days, in the rain, without getting wet.
I hated: getting wet in every single tent I've ever used regardless of what it cost, not in the least because of crummy flys that allow the water to run onto or under the tent; poor visibility, crouching around in a too-low tent, clambering over people to pee at night, not having enough ventilation, and having the tie-down points and corners rip out in rougher conditions.
Look at tents on the market and see if any approximate what you'd like. "Borrow" from extant designs, and draw up some of your own. Buy a tent you like, copy down all its dimensions then return it, or just make some pictures using whatever doodling skills you possess. Don't get out the graph paper and start going to town--these don't have to be exact at all.
'III. Seek the Treasure: MATERIALS!
Garage sales and craigslist.org are old tent gold mines.
Families who camped together in their salad years scatter, divorce, get fat, blow out their knees, and buy RVs, leaving enormous tents to rot in someone's garage...and that's where you come in, like a crayfish to a discarded toaster.
I recommend holding out for a giant cabin tent, which will have more solid panels than a dome tent and be easier to make new parts from. When the monied clean house these come cheap, so wait for a deal. (I recently bought an enormous multifamily cabin tent with separate rooms porch jacuzzi tiki bar etc. for a mere 45 bucks. It has more than enough material for the tiny solo tent I want to make, plus next year's christmas gifts for at least a couple of lucky people.....and you can use the scraps to make compression sacks for sleeping bags and clothes, your tent bags, kites, whatever you think of.)
What you come up with will determine what you'll be able to make, so the design phase should really be folded into the materials-gathering phase. If you have an old dome tent or just its poles, you'll be able to make something different than what I made.
As with any DIY project, the genius of your design will emerge from the tensions between available materials, your design ambitions, and your skills set--all of which will be improved in the process: Innovation through Impoverishment + Improvisation.
My Pretty Great Tent is made from a crappy old cabin tent (blue and yellow) someone left the basement of my apartment house that got wet, mildewed, and had its colors bleed--hence the muddy-to-tie-dyed appearance of the top piece in the photos. I also used pieces from a worthy old 2-person (brown) tent a friend gave me after its corner tore out.
III.' Materials Preparation'
Washing: Whether you should wash the source tent(s) first obviously depends on their condition, and/or how much time and $ you want to spend. There are tent-washing detergents out there that might be worth the money. There are probably vegan baking soda and what-all concoctions safe for toddlers and fish that folks have made too; you'd have to check (and let me know b/c a homemade recipe would be great.)
I used a lot of regular detergent and a laundromat washer on the cabin tent for this project. It came out nice, but the waterproofing washed out. Re-waterproofing the cloth when I was done with the tent sucked!, so you should probably only do this if your source tent was as moldy and cat-box-smelling as mine was. (I used a 10:1 solution of mineral spirits and 100%silicone whipped up with the home egg beater to re-waterproof it, but we'll get to that later.)
Dyeing: I wanted to re-dye the material a more natural color: it didn't work on my test pieces, so I guess nylon resists bleaching and dyeing. I suggest seeking materials that are the color you'd like, or being happy with what the Lord provides.
Breaking it Down: Once you're satisfied with the source-tent's smell, begin to rip seams and see what you've got to work with. At this point, just rip enough seams to make the whole thing lie flat, leaving your pieces as large as possible. Don't be afraid to bypass the seam-ripper altogether and just cut through the seams--it saves time and you'll be able to patch together sheets for your Frankentent regardless. Use sharp scissors or better yet a fancy hot-knife which cauterizes your cuts. In the future I plan to modify my soldering iron tip to make it into a cutter for this.
***Be careful with, and SAVE those Zippers***--they're expensive to buy new. Also save all of the loops and webbing and whatnot.
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I also find myself disillusioned with the Romance of the Tarp. Bugs and animals crawl on your face at night, and I don't feel protected against monsters and Satan the way I do in a nice, enclosed, candle-lit tent. *
Surely there's a comfortable mean between super-equipped 1960s Man Scout-style camping (canvas everything, Axe-n-saw for erecting a semi-permanant cabin, chairs, table, spruce-bough bed, etc. from the abundant "saplings" that are always supposed to be around in an inexhaustable supply), and the self-sacrificially-macho Ultralight thing where you "Toughen Up" and swing superiorly down the trail like Tarzan wearing nothing but a loincloth made out of beef jerky that supposedly doubles as raingear, tent, first aid kit, and food source. A nice lean-to for example.
I think I put the weight down here somewhere, but offhand, I think it was 4.4lbs.
And yeah--a brand name doesn't gaurantee anything one way or the other.
*Note to the over-helpful reader who is now itching to assert his greater knowledge and experience and importance in the world of manly pursuits by chiding me for using a candle in a tent: save it please.
I love that! My sentiments exactly! :oD
Nice instructable! Thanks.
My dad picked up the end of the huge sppols from the industrial sewing machines that made seat belts and safety harnesses. Brilliant stuff, and whatever you are sewing will break long before the thread will!
From the description sounds like he's making his own silicone paint with the mineral spirits as the solvent vehicle.
Spray it on, the spirits evaporate leaving behind silicone impregnated cloth.
Clever
I'm more of a solo tent kind of guy, and see some promise in the tent displayed in pic #4 and 5.
" " Instructable.
" " Author.
Great job on making something so usable. Might do this myself.
I've tried most all tents from lean-to to canoe fly to Baker, tube and beyond.
This is the most reasoned and proven approach I've seen.
Camo fabric is available online:
E.G. http://www.lurasfabricshop.com/fabric-choices/camouflage.html
Now I need a temptress; oops seamstress (first.)
I commend you on your spelling as well....rarely do I read an 'ible that has so few spelling errors. It made my reading very pleasurable. Your attention to detail in making your tent AND delivering your instructable is greatly appreciated!
Just emailed a PDF of your work to older (my out door hero) and younger brother (current multimedia guru for Gert's Co. somewhere in OR). I'd be surprised if one of them doesn't pull a couple of old tents out of the geerage up thar in the NW and make their own version of this beauty. Then again, this might just be the nudge I needed to finally find out if the singer passed on from my grandmother-in-law, who passed on, actually works or needs to be passed on. I've got an old tent and a father-in-law with more tarps, canvas, military extras and the likes to make me something I can be proud to call my home away from home. My only mod would be an access flap on one side about the size of a soup bowl and probably some extra waterproofing below it down to ground level. No sense in leaving the tent to pee. Course I'll have to keep it's purpose a secret until my wife sees how useful it is. The flap that is. She's convinced of the usefulness of... well... uh, never-mind.
I do have one question. Did you marry that gal that proposed in her comment?
And, though I wish I could pass on a story about connecting with a now-wife through this, and then write it up for The Reader's Digest with an uplifting and "deeply human" message of Hope, I figured she was referring to my far more photogenic brother, the model in the photos...
You have surpassed any recommendations about tailoring and manufacturing of tent with a canopy!
You are an inspiration to us all my friend.
2. One suggestion: you mentioned in another comment that you used a candle in the tent. Maybe a small vent at the top would help (like a chimney).
3. Most of this page is bold. It seems you forgot to close a bold tag in step 1.
:)
(Thinking about making a tunneltent myself.)
Thanks for sharing.