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Make an Ultralight Day Pack/ Assault Pack - £0-10, 10-73g!!!The Mk1 Ultralight Day Pack was the easiest way to convert a stuff sack into a usable ultralight backpack. It used a reasonably good quality SilNylon stuff sack as the core of the pack and then just added some simple school-bag-style string handles. It's usable but not the most comfortable of things. The Mk2 here adds a webbing shoulder strap for a bit more comfort and ease of use. Of course that piece of webbing adds about 13g to the overall weight of the pack. However that extra 13g means that it's now a viable pack for day-long use and not just short trips. The idea is that I can now have a stuff-sack in the pack that is used as a stuff-sack most of the time but when I want to do a day-trip or a supply detour I don't need to take all my stuff with me. This stuff-sack/day-pack weighs about 24g more than the stuff-sack it replaces.
Materials
ConstructionThe basic principle is that you are sewing a single shoulder strap onto an already tough stuff-sack. To help strengthen the thing I have sewn through the seams (and the seam tape) in a few places. If you want to build the thing from scratch using Cuben or spinnaker then of course you can. I've chosen to go for a quick and simple solution that is strong. 1. Cut the webbing to 45cm and 5cm and seal it. The 5cmx5cm piece will be used as a backing for the stitching to help prevent pull-through. 2. For a lifeventure sack cut through the bottom pull-strap and fold over a 4cm strip to form a little loop. Bar-tack this through the seam and the base to create a strong anchor point .
3. Cut 10cm of the 10mm webbing and bar-tack it to one end of the webbing (see below). Then fold over the webbing to make a tidy taper.
3. Place the 5cmx5cm webbing fragment inside the stuff-sack near the top and the strap on the outside of the stuff-sack so that the 5cmx5cm webbing fragment matches up with the bottom of the strap (see below). Pin it in place and then flag-stitch the strap to the stuff-sack. Reinforce the top row of stitching. Also note how I've sewn over the main seam and the seam-tape to add strength.
4. (Optional) bar-tack a 5cm piece of the 10mm webbing onto the top of the shoulder strap to act as a guide for the cording.
5. Thread the cording through the top of the stuff-sack and back through the cord-locks. The cord is tied to the loop at the bottom of the strap and then on to the base of the stuff-sack. The other loose end is tied off as a taut-line hitch (mainly to keep it tidy). The cord is tied onto the bottom of the shoulder strap so that the strap rather than the cord is carrying tension - this stops the cord digging in to your shoulder blades. The taut-line hitch and the tension of the strap and the cord means that the cord-lock is not actually loaded when carrying the bag - so that the bag will stay shut. The cordlock itself has been left fitted so that it's easy to use the bag as a stuff-sack which of course will be how it's used most of the time... Construction Notes1. If you are not quite certain what it is that you are doing just take a look at any backpack. The shoulder strap is a basic copy of that. The cording is acting as part of the shoulder strap and also to keep the stuff-sack closed. 2. Using a commercial stuff-sack as a donor is actually a cheap way to buy a nice piece of SilNylon in a colour other than green together with the cordlock and misc. bits that you might want. It also saves an hour or more of construction time. Summary73g is heavy for a 15L stuff-sack but very light for a 15L daysack. A 15L daysack is big enough for most ultralight day jaunts and of course is big enough for several days worth of food. Since it's replacing an existing stuff-sack (in my case for clothing) it becomes a viable luxury item for a few grams of 'extra' weight. Long-Term TestThis pack was taken with me on my last major trip - Offa's Dyke. It worked exceedingly well. A 15L bag was just perfect for picking up a few days worth of supplies on an evening or for wandering down to the pub with life's essentials. The extra-wide strap made it useful for carrying items for a mile or so without discomfort.
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