Building a (nearly) seamless frame for your pack

[nick.black]

I originally had a frame made from 21.5mm pvc out-flow pipe, with bends that slid over the top. However I have recently found that the frame is too small to allow the mortar tube to be attached, and so, as I have to make a new frame I thought I would endeavour to make it seemless. And I thought some of you out there would benefit from seeing that this can be done quite easily.

This is what my pack looks like with the 21.5mm frame and bends.

So I bought some 25mm conduit pipe (that is used for hiding wires) and that matcehs almost perfectly up with the bends. So I cut pieces of this 25mm pipe 2x 16", 2x 10" and 2x 2".

The next thing to do was use some 21.5mm pipe cut into small lengths to anchor the 25mm pipe to the bends. Cut 2 pieces of 21,5mm pipe for each corner.

And use E6000 or some other strong adhesive to glue them inside the bend.

Once this is dry glue the lengths of 25mm pipe ontop of these pieces and butt them up to the bend. You can see that they leave an almost seemless joint.

Here are the top and bottom pieces drying.

Bend your 16" lengths in half using a heat gun, to about a 30 degree angle. This is hard, and you will tind it hard to avoid crumpling at the bend, but this will be mostly hidden on the pack anyway.

Glue the whole thing together and this is what you get.

And your nearly seemless joints are easily better than before.

Hope this will help someone.

Nick

[DirtyBoy]

nice work Nick!

[Dark-GTI04]

very cool. thanks for sharing.