Cuben Wallet

I've had the urge to make a cuben wallet ever since I saw pictures of one on Backpacking Light. One of my main problems wit a wallet is carrying my passport. Being an American living in Germany, I'm required to carry it. I designed this to hold my passport, 6 cards, and money. It's a bifold design with 2 card pouches. I reinforced all of the edges with an extra layer of cuben. It only added about 1 gram, and made it a lot stronger, so it was well worth it. The Velcro closure make sit sit better in my pocket without sliding around and deforming.

Materials: Cuben Fiber CT0.6K.08, Cuben Tape 3M 9485PC, velcro 1cm width

Total Weight: 4.9 grams (0.17 oz)

Pot Lifter

For this project I basically copied the MSR Lite Lifter design from a picture, and freehanded it onto the aluminum sheet. It's made out of 1.5 mm aluminum. The padding on the handle is 1 mm thick sticky-backed neoprene. Total weight 23 grams. That's a whopping 20 grams lighter than my Trangia handle, so I almost cut the weight in half! It's not quite as bomb-proof as the Trangia, but it does just fine lifting my Trangia 1.5 liter pot full of water. Here's a few pics:

Cuben Fiber rain pants

I think rain pants are the least-used item in my pack. I still remember my first rain pants; a pair of rubber overalls that probably weighed in at a few pounds. I've had many pairs of rain pants since then. The last pair I purchased was a pair of o2 rainpants, weighing in at 126 grams (4.4 oz). That's pretty damn light, but I still don't feel good about carrying around an extra 1/4 pound of rain pants that I've only ever worn twice. So I recently ordered some cuben fiber and got to work.

The cuben fiber I'm working with is CT0.6K.08 and weighs 15g/sq. meter (0.5 oz). I initially bought it with the purpose of making stuff sacks, and had the idea for rain pants along the way. I dissected a pair of old EMS goretex rain pants that had long seen their glory days. I then laid the parts out on thick plastic and made a mock pair to try on. They fit well, so I was able to use the mock-up parts as a pattern.

I'm using cuben tape for all the seams, and some leftover elastic cord from my tent poles for the waist. The finished rain paints weigh in at a whopping 35.5 grams (1.25 oz)! I think I've achieved absolute minimum wieght on these. Here are some pictures:

 

Here's a close-up of the taped seams:

and they pack up small too...

Adventures in Cuben

I've finally taken the plunge and ordered some cuben fiber. I've been curious about it for a while, and decided to get some for making stuff sacks out of. Well, here's my first stuff sack. It's for my tent, and weighs 8.9 grams (0.31 oz). The cuben fiber I'm working with is CT0.6K.08 and weighs 15g/sq. meter (0.5 oz). It's put together with cuben tape. There will be more cuben fiber projects for me in the future!

a really warm lightweight fleece jacket!

I've been searching for the perfect fleece jacket for a number of years. Most of the ones I've seen are just too plain heavy and have so many unnecessary features that really detract from the basic function I want. That's why I designed my own. It has a full length zipper, no pockets, and an extra tall collar that zips not quite to the top, leaving a little breathing spot for the nose. I left the bottom of the jacket pretty long, and it comes down about 2cm below the zipper. This gives me a good overlap between my layers.

The material I chose to use is 6 oz microfleece from Malden Mills. It's incredibly warm for it's weight, which comes in at 145 grams/sq. meter. The total weight of the jacket is 206 grams (7.26 oz)

 

I made a minimalist Primaloft Vest

I like wearing vests, but when made out of fleece they can aren't as light as they could be. I had the idea to make a minimalist vest out of something lighter, and decided on 2.5 oz primaloft sport synthetic insulation (60g/sq. meter) quilted to 1.3 oz quantum ripstop nylon (32g/sq. meter). I took a vest that has been one of my favorites for years (an old softshell fleece from Ragged Mountain) and based my design off of it. One feature I really like is that it is longer in the back, covering the typical gap that lets in cold air between the pants and shirt. It has a number of "Features", such as:

-no Pockets
-no collar (I hate having 3 or 4 collars all stacked on top of each other, competing for neck space!)
-ultra-light elastic edging, to keep it snug around my body and not let wind in

I'm very satisfied with the result. The final vest is really warm, and weighs a total of 87 grams (3.06 oz). A great addition to my lightweight kit for cold weather.

Here are a few pictures of the finished vest:

a view of the creative quilting on the back:

and one more of the front:

Self-made Tunnel Tent

This is a tunnel tent I made. The material is 1.1 oz silnylon for the shell, and 2.2 oz PU coated nylon for the floor. It’s a single walled design with a bathtub floor.

Dimensions in metric: the interior is194 cm wide, 330 cm long, 130 cm high, with 60 cm vestibule at the door. Total weight, 2182 grams.

Dimensions imperial: the interior is 6 feet 4.5 inches wide, 10 feet 10 inches long, 4 feet 3 inches high, with a 2 foot vestibule at the door. Total weight 4 pounds 8.9 oz

some pics:

The door can be opened to the top or the bottom.

Here's a view to the back:

This is a single-walled tent with a bathtub floor and netting attaching it to the shell. The shell is made of silnylon, the floor of PU coated nylon. The poles are lightweight aluminum.

Here are some pics of the tieouts:

 and one of the whole thing rolled up: