My UL tube project...

[SHigSpeed]

Okay ladies and gents, exciting progress tonight. I wanted to do a full blown (pun intended?) bladder tonight so I made a fully sealed "drybag". Did it so it was slightly bigger in diameter at the middle than the tube to make the pressure vs. seam stress as bad or worse.

I'm going to try some video this time. Bear with me here...

<half an hour later...>

GRRR!!! Can anyone tell me if it's possible to embed flickr or youtube videos on this forum?

Anyway, here's a LINK to the initial inflation:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LF1g_c1i1ZA

I didn't go full tight because I wanted to make certain that the perimeter welds were nice and straight and full.

Here's a LINK to the "Ping Test". I think at this point I'd maxed out my lung capacity and said "screw it" and used the pump to go WAY harder than I'd ever taken my Fish Cat (and I enjoy a "ping tight" tube). I think the gauge read around 3 psi:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1aTaSQOGSg

And finally, after the pillow was stupid hard, I decided to really lay it on Samsonite gorilla style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqREz_nOyfM

Mind you, I was using the LIGHTER fabric. This is the fabric I plan to use on the lighter stressed seat, while using the heavier fabric for the main bladder.

I'm pretty sure that I won't be having any problems as long as I can keep making good consistent seams.

Seams:



Here's the only section of seam where I feel that I didn't get it quite right. You can see a bit of a bulge that's not in line with the rest of the seal, but I could go back over it and re-heat it. Don't think I need to though.



Here's the whole pillow in all of its glory!:



So, I think it's time to start cutting some patterns! Wish me luck...

_SHig
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