Filling a quilt with down

[andrewa]

Filled and finished my "ultralight" quilt today - 220g shell, 200g of 900 loft down, 5cm loft throughout.

Below are some piccies showing how to fill a down object cleanly, with hardly any mess. The pictures of the finished quilt are under my post "ultralight down quilt"

I made a "fitting" for my vacuum cleaner with some mesh over the end of it, from a small bit of plastic tube which was just bigger than the vacuum end, with mesh over the end, and surrounded by some packing foam and electrical tape, to make it just the right size to fit inside the cardboard tube into which the down was sucked, so that it also worked as a "plunger end" for pushing the down into the baffles.

Down and filling tubes.jpg (58.45 KiB) Viewed 89631 times

Inside a big container, the down is weighed into a smaller plastic container that sits on the scales, ideally still clumped. I used 13-15g per baffle. Fit the vacuum cleaner attachment onto the cardboard tubing, and suck/stuff the down from the small plastic container into the cardboard tube. Remove the vacuum nozzle, leaving the "fitting" in the end of the cardboard tube.

The cardboard tube is then pushed into the baffle, and the plunger rod attached to the fitting

Filling baffle.jpg (61.18 KiB) Viewed 89631 times

, which is used to plunge the down into the baffle.

Filling baffle 2.jpg (65.69 KiB) Viewed 89631 times

Remove, tape baffle shut with masking tape, and I annotated the down weight for that baffle on each bit of tape, in case I needed to do some adjustments later.

Closing baffles.jpg (51.71 KiB) Viewed 89631 times

. Prior to filling the quilt, I had aligned the free edges, and inverted them, holding them in the right position with short sections of large contrasting stiching, which is removed after finished the edge properly. Sew closed, removing tape as you go, and unpicking the stitches used to align the edges

Use the vacuum cleaner to suck up any stray plumules as you work, and there is absolutely no mess at the end of the process.....and, you can weigh the down fill per baffle by the gram.

Andrew Allan

[Robatman]

hey Andrew,
nice job,
thinking of repacking my sleeping bag- where did you get the down from? Do you think i could just buy a cheap down pillow????
Robert

[forest]

Very nice.

I've been thinking about tackling a M50 light summer TQ myself and like that way to fill the baffles.

Thanks for posting the pic's.

[SPNRCastiel]

Also interested for a source for loft/down? I wanna make my own sleeping quilt. Nice pics

[Macca81]

Also interested for a source for loft/down? I wanna make my own sleeping quilt. Nice pics

I found [url]diygearsupply.com[/url] to be the cheapest, and quality is good. Locally, there is very little in the way of places to get it, and even fewer to get it at a price that is even remotely reasonable. the above sells it for $6.50/oz where locally the best i could find worked out to be $27/oz. Shipping from the US still makes diygearsupply far cheaper.

[andrewbish]

Filled and finished my "ultralight" quilt today - 220g shell, 200g of 900 loft down, 5cm loft throughout.

Andrew Allan

Hi Andrew

Have you used your down quilt in winter? How was the warmth?

[andrewa]

No. Haven't used it in winter ( as on snow camping) as I don't think it has the insulation I would need, even when wearing insulated trousers and jacket underneath. Another 150-200 g down would be fine for me in mid winter in the snow, but please note that I would be sleeping under it in Montbell thermawrap pants, some form of bivy boots, and one or two insulated jkts.

A

[andrewbish]

No. Haven't used it in winter ( as on snow camping) as I don't think it has the insulation I would need, even when wearing insulated trousers and jacket underneath. Another 150-200 g down would be fine for me in mid winter in the snow, but please note that I would be sleeping under it in Montbell thermawrap pants, some form of bivy boots, and one or two insulated jkts.
A

Ok. With similar clothing on I got a bit cold in my synthetic quilt on a couple of recent snow trips, so I think down would be an improvement. Do you think moving to sleeping bag, which can be sealed more effectively, would be an improvement?

[andrewa]

No. For snow camping I normally use another quilt just like the one shown, but with more 550 loft down in it. It weighs 800g. The quilt with 200 g of fill was made for summer use, using 900 loft down, and I hoped it could be extended a bit. I will top up the fill some time by another 100-150 g.
A

[andrewbish]

No. For snow camping I normally use another quilt just like the one shown, but with more 550 loft down in it. It weighs 800g. The quilt with 200 g of fill was made for summer use, using 900 loft down, and I hoped it could be extended a bit. I will top up the fill some time by another 100-150 g.
A

Thanks, A. Will stick with my original plan to make a down quilt for next winter. Cheers.

[andrewa]

Yep quilt is perfect, esp with an Exped down mat underneath. Although my current winter ( ski touring ) top "quilt" could function as a sleeping bag, I haven't used it as such for 2-3 yrs, hence my opinion about using a quilt.

I think I've sorted out the ideal dimensions for a quilt for my use. If you are going to make one, I'm happy to provide any input that you need. The sell will weigh about 200g. Ideal fill would be 4-500g of 900 loft down for winter ( snow) use ( itch clothing as described), and 2-300g for shoulder seasons.

A

[Onestepmore]

I watched this vid, but was puzzled at how the down is purchased - in prepacked platic bags. I am assuming these are each a standard weight. When people here have bought down here in Australia, how is it packaged? In one large plastic bag, or it it all compressed?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCJp2C4EFjU

[andrewa]

The stuff I got in Oz was just in a big plastic bag. The stuff from thru-hiker compressed into small bags of ?100g each. That's why you need a big bucket to empty it into in bits. Otherwise it makes a really bad mess all over the house -way worse than Labrador hair!

A

[Orion]

I can't say anything about suppliers in Australia, but I've ordered down twice from thru-hiker and both times it all came in one bag. The first order (340g) was compressed. The second order (85g) was much less compressed as it was in a similar sized bag. I used the same method as Andrew except that I left all of the down in the original bag, set that on a gram scale, and subtracted weight as it was removed by a vacuum cleaner.

There's just no way I could have done what that guy in the video did with the way the down I had was packaged. It would have been a huge mess.

[Onestepmore]

There's just no way I could have done what that guy in the video did with the way the down I had was packaged. It would have been a huge mess.

Notice he's sitting in the bath, with the curtains closed around him.
Andrewa, you were brave doing it in the loungeroom on a cowskin rug. Weren't there bits flying around everywhere? And definitely time to lock the dogs away.

[Orion]

Notice he's sitting in the bath, with the curtains closed around him.

Yes, I noticed. I couldn't fit everything in our shower enclosure so I just closed the bathroom door. Down is messy.

What I couldn't have done well was cutting the package with scissors like he did. The bag I got was pretty large.

The vacuum method works well. It minimizes the amount of flying down. After filling my quilt I cleaned up and the total loose material amounted to something far less than a gram. Still worth doing in a small room but I don't think wearing funny shorts is required.

[Onestepmore]

Haha , I had to go back and check out his shorts
He'd clash badly with andrewa's cowsking rug