As part of my effort to continuously improve the DIY Packraft instructions, I’ve made a new, more comprehensive video about heat sealing. It’s pretty long, but it’s everything you need to know, all in one place, and my hope is that even experienced DIY Packraft builders will learn something useful from it.
To make it more digestible I’ve divided the video into chapters, which you can navigate using the progress bar at the bottom of the frame, or by using the time stamps in the table of contents below.
Video contents:
- Intro: 0:00
- How Heat Sealing Works: 0:21
- Heat Sealing Irons: 2:24
- Work Surface: 3:53
- Ironing Technique: 5:11
- Finding the Best Temperature: 6:45
- Effects of Timing: 14:01
- Effects of Fabric Thickness: 16:47
- Peel Test vs. Actual Seams: 17:45
- Color Change: 19:23
- Fabrics with TPU on Both Sides: 20:18
- Welding Long Seams: 22:50
- Undoing a Weld: 23:28
- Welding Curved Seams Over a Form with a Seam Strip: 25:11
- Check Your Work: 28:17
- Fixing Damaged TPU: 29:13
1 Comment
Daniel · July 11, 2023 at 10:58 pm
Great Video. I’m just about to start assembling my second packraft and I know my sealing technique needs improvements. After using he first packraft a few times I found the edge of the seams would develop little bubbles of delamination between the TPU layers which I spot hit with the iron. I think not having to move the iron back and forth along the seams during the sealing will help me get a better initial weld.