Cheap source of outdoors fabric for various projects.

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tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
A long time ago I picked up a pretty much unused a Lichfield Combat 1 tent for a fiver on a carboot with the intention of letting the sons use it rather than them liberate my more modern stuff. However further finds of better tents meant it was instantly redundant so its languished in a wardrobe since bought. Recently I've been digging out kit to get rid of and I thought I may get a tenner for it. My usual inertia meant it was still there when I needed some PU nylon to make a lightweight footprint for my shiny new DD mesh A frame tent. I sniffed around ebay etc and with postage just the material with postage would havecost me threetimes what the whole tent cost.

Big Monster of this parish was kind enough to offer to machine sew the hems of the foot print for me so I’ve posted him a large section of the fly. This still leaves me with large pieces of the fly to make stuff sacks or small sit mats etc.

I've just finished deconstructing the rest of the tent and here's what I've got to work with.
20211021_153316.jpg

A large piece of thick white viscose from the tent inner. Not decided what to make from that yet.

2 heavy duty tent poles and ridge pole. I'll make a pair of awning poles with them, I've a decent pipe cutter and shock cord for that if I make them a certain length I'll be able to use them with the Mesh A frame when not using a ridge line. The same with the Mk 2 backwoods bungalow and saves me cutting poles when weights not a issue.

A bunch of pegs in a strong pouch

A long OPTI zip

12 strong rubber peg tensioning rubber bands.

A large stuff sack

A triangle of bright orange PU nylon I will back with some of the spare OG PU nylon fly to make a signal panel/ sit mat / table cloth / brash bag. I've some big brass eyelets but could recycle the backed eyelets that the poles went through the inner and fly.

Most usefull of all is the heavy duty rip stop bath tub ground sheet that I carefully unpicked from the zip and viscose inner tent. I could use it as is but it would benefit from a little work, adding a tape to the edge and some thick rubber uprights to help the sides stand up with hard points at the top to guy out to the pegs, there's already hard points at the bottom stitched into the material. It's a little large and heavy for one but for two under the 4 x 4 m basha or for a kitchen area in a bigger camp it will be just the job. I've a bought lightweight bathtub ground sheet for when I'm on my own and have to carry everything myself anyway.

So if you have a old tent that you'll never use again or can get one cheap it may be worth recycling the parts, it just takes a little time. A quick-unpick speeds up the process and prevents wrecking the fabric and wrapping some tape around your hand sticky side out or using a hoover with a narrow head attachment speeds up removing the little bits of thread that are left over from the quick- unpick. Picking them out by hand is a pain.

ATB

Tom
 

lostplanet

Full Member
Aug 18, 2005
2,122
241
53
Kent
Great stuff. i'm itching to make an old bergan PALS compatible, looking at sewing it myself by hand, just need some 25 mm webbing ill find eventually. its more for the experience than necessity.

Will be interesting to see how this unfolds when you get your bits together.
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
Cheers!

5 minutes googling ( less faff than unpacking and measuring then repacking) showed me that the A frame mesh tent and the backwoods bungalow required 115cm poles and a quick measure showed that would be more than enough to use as awning poles to hold corners of a basha up if I should so wish.

10 minutes with a pipe cutter made the two 16cm extension pieces I needed and I transfered the plastic feet to them. After supper I'll add shock cord inside them to keep the parts together.

20211021_202523.jpg

Atb

Tom
 

spandit

Bushcrafter through and through
Jul 6, 2011
5,594
308
East Sussex, UK
Can always make stuff sacks with the inner fabric. Good to recycle tents - there are thousands just chucked after every festival. Make some little zipped pouches and list them on Etsy
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
Good idea! I could do with more thin Ally' poles as folk now want me to make them freebie awning poles to suit their various tents, which is what comes of showing off.

I found the 115cm poles I cut to size neatly fit into a unissued webbing aerial bag i bought about 20 years back in case I ever needed it

Atb

Tom
 

Tengu

Full Member
Jan 10, 2006
12,770
1,500
51
Wiltshire
Old tents are a great way of getting fittings...They arent cheap new.

I salvaged two chair bags when at the Wilderness Gathering, the chairs were broken though I suspect if I had had the room in the car I could have brought them back too
 

tombear

On a new journey
Jul 9, 2004
4,494
556
54
Rossendale, Lancashire
Found some more thin tent poles ex a worn out 2 man dome we had years back so made some 115cm awning poles to fit in the canvas aerial bag mentioned above. All held together with shock cord , 5 minute epoxy and knots.

20211030_202542.jpg

Atb

Tom
 

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