Sanding alloy tent pole sleeves..

[Myself]

Okay so it's not technically making my own gear, but it seemed the closest forum here to the topic.

Anyway, I have a 4-season geodesic tent with four alloy multi-poles, and took it outside for a test-pitching the other day. The tent only took 20mins to pitch, and probably 30minutes to pack-up again. The whole tent looks nicely made, and the poles are great: smooth, perfect jointings all that.

Being the first time I've pitched this tent, I did notice that the poles - if pulled through or slid-in too quickly - do occasionally catch on the edges of the tent's sleeves. Not because of any nasty burrs in the metal on the poles or anything, just because there's the slightest, I mean *tiniest* of inset rings where the poles joints connect. A picture says a thousand I know, but it's dark now, and we've had a bit of rain today and packing it away wet is just not going to be something I do.

To clarify though, the poles don't have actual gaps when they've been slipped together, or manufacturing issues, it's just the slightest depression no doubt caused by the ends being rounded smlightly or machined smooth to prevent it tearing.

That's a pretty ambiguous description, but I can take pics tomorrow if ya'll don't quite get me yet, but the question is, is there any reason I can't very slightly polish the ends of the poles just to be good and sure there're no edges at all that catch so that the poles slide it without ever pulling at all on the fabric even momentarily?

I would use ultra-fine 1200 grit carbide wet&dry to do it, since 1200 is fine enough to polish almost anything, and certainly too fine to actually sand scratches into the poles.

I just figured I'd get feedback beforehand, though for such fine sandpaper, I can't see it weakening the alloy at all: It's be tedious but if it tweaks the poles that bit more, why not right?

The tent I got myself was a Kathmandu Boreas v2, though I hesitate to add that surrounded by tent/tarp/whatever owners for fear of an inevitable flaming of some kind. The price tag was $599 cut down by 50% to $299 and I know Kathmandu overprice *most* of their stuff, and it wouldn't be worth $600, but it looked like a decent tent for $300, and seemed to shadow similar offerings from Blackwolf. It's a 3-man too, while other tents I looked at where only 2 and still in the $250 range.

So any reason not to 'hone' the edges to mirror-smooth perfection?

I'd only do the very edges, and only lightly.

[Redback]

that could work. I'm no expert in this, but I would consider using wax or oil first to see if that fixes it. Mainly because it is not permanent, and can be undone if it doesn't work.

[Myself]

I hadn't actually thought of that, wax would certainly work, and be less effort than sanding, well buffing really. Considering how fine 1200 grit wet & dry is, it's not really right to call it 'sanding' but it'd probably take a while. 4xpoles with ten or more segments, and two rims/edges each would be the kinda thing you'd do while whatching TV or something

I could examine the edges, and if I find anything that looks imperfect, buff it, otherwise leave it then wax the sleeves as I go. It's not like they'll rust or such but it certainly can't hurt to have some on the inserts.

*thumbs-up*

Here's the tent's link, http://www.kathmandu.com.au/camping/ten ... -sand.html .. I'm pretty happy with it, and if I didn't didn't do anything to it I woldn't lose any sleep over it.

[Franco]

My suggestion would be to pitch that tent again a couple of times before you do anything to the poles.
Remember that you never pull a pole through those sleeves , you always push it in setting it up and push it out taking it down.
If you pull a pole it will catch the fabric as the ferrule comes slightly apart from being fully inserted into the next section.
Try this.
Hold one corner of the inner up in the air at elbow level.
Insert one yellow pole pointing the pole (fully assembled) downwards into the sleeve and feed it in.
Do the other yellow pole sliding it in from the same side (same end other corner)
Insert the pole tips into the corners at the other end but not the at the end you used to feed the poles through.
Now insert the metallic colour ones
Next insert the yellow poles ends into the grommets on your side (the shelter will be now free standing) and now attach the metal colour poles in the grommets too.

[Myself]

+1 No like button here I noticed.

I am pretty liberal with my application of Likes when they're available though, it's the thought that counts

Something I haven't been able to find on google, is how much bend these poles can take before they kink or break, and you sound like you'd know this

I mean, I would expect - logically - that bending them dead center is the safest way to flex them, but can they handle being flexed - inadvertently - from one side or the other or is it a case of "ONLY flex them in the middle, or expect breakage"?

And ty ty I *will* do at least a few more practice pitching/pack-ups before it's time to go. I love the material it's so silky compared to the last tent I set-up, which was - admittedly - probably 15 years ago ;D

[Myself]

...
Insert the pole tips into the corners at the other end but not the at the end you used to feed the poles through.
Now insert the metallic colour ones
Next insert the yellow poles ends into the grommets on your side (the shelter will be now free standing) and now attach the metal colour poles in the grommets too.

Something else I've wondered too, is whether the first pole I flex can hold the weight of the other three poles?

The other day, I did both yellow poles, which had it free-standing, then slipped the bronzey-grey ones in the standing tent and flexed them, I was a bit sketchy about the first pole bearing the dead weight of the other three flat poles at least until the second yellow one was flexed and socketed too.

[Franco]

The reason why I suggested that way of inserting the poles (having all 4 in the sleeves before you bend them into the dome shape by inserting the loose ends into the grommet) was to make it easier to insert the second lot (the silver poles)
Inserting them with the tent already standing because of the gold poles keeping it up will cause the silver poles to possibly get stuck or bend them in the wrong place.
I recently shot a short video clip to show how and why poles brake :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7FfPki ... ex5BMVK4vw

Any of those pole can hold the weight of the others , after all a moderate (20-30 kmph) winds will put a lot more pressure on them than those 300-400g poles plus 1 kg or so of inner can.
BTW, you should be able to put that up and take it down by yourself in 10 minutes or so , you just need some practice.

[Myself]

Yeah you're video explained it spot on.

Well, as long as the pole that goes up first can handle the weight, I'll have a bash at stipping all four in first next time. I found packing up was much more involving than setting up, because I knew I'd have to roll it tight and with the poles and pegs inside.

Probably because of the difference in thickness, the fly tended to want to roll-out and do it's own thing, so keeping the whole thing the same length, while rolling all the straps and cords in and keeping it tight enough to slide back in the stuff-sack took almost twice as long as the pitching did

Good videos though Franco, you should do more!

[Myself]

Okay so it's sortted then. No hasty modifications to the poles, till I've practiced my technique some more

[Franco]

I have several videos on my channell (Franco Darioli) but many are Tarptent specific.

One tip packing up the tent is to first spread it out on the ground so that it is as flat as it can be , then start to fold and roll.
Something similar to the way bed sheets are stored...

[Myself]

Oh yeah that's how I did it, and I watched all three videos while i was there

The reason the fly was more difficult was it's shaped like a folded circle, so it's wider at the apex, and thin at the ends. The inner was pretty easy by comparison, and as I folded both inner, then fly, I ran my forarm flat against the fabric to push-out the air. Each time I folded it again, I'd smooth-out the air so it was nice and compressed by the time I started rolling them with the poles.

[Myself]

So I've set it up and down a few times now, and it all goes together well enough. I haven't worried any further about sanding the ends of the poles.

Couple of loose threads around the tent, but not "coming undone" loose, just "could've been snipped closer to fabric" loose.