how many people here have jacksrbetter down sleeves

[tight-wad]

...I probably wont make mine purple though...(but awesome job tight-wad...I plan to use that PDF of your instructions to make my own).

I finally got my shipment from featherind.com. Some donations from friends and family made order 2lbs of 800+ white goose down possible! . DIY projects here I come! Man, that bag of down was huge! I will post pictures...

Adam

Aw - purple is pretty... Thank you.

Have you ever worked with down before? It is amazing stuff. If not, a couple of pointers:
1. put a square of mesh between a vacuum hose and the small crevice attachment. You will need to clean this relatively often because only a little bit of down can choke the air flow to nothing. Make the square big enough and the fit tight enough that the vacuum doesn't suck your square into its innards. I make mine big enough to also hold when holding the magic wand.
2. go slow. Just moving you hands can create enough wind current to send the fluffs flying. The vacuum can really grab the ufo's out of thin air.
3. move smaller, weighed amounts, from the large shipping bag to a working bag, pin both, use the vacuum
4. did I mention a vacuum cleaner? Use it often

[GrizzlyAdams]

Aw - purple is pretty... Thank you.

Have you ever worked with down before? It is amazing stuff. If not, a couple of pointers:
1. put a square of mesh between a vacuum hose and the small crevice attachment. You will need to clean this relatively often because only a little bit of down can choke the air flow to nothing. Make the square big enough and the fit tight enough that the vacuum doesn't suck your square into its innards. I make mine big enough to also hold when holding the magic wand.
2. go slow. Just moving you hands can create enough wind current to send the fluffs flying. The vacuum can really grab the ufo's out of thin air.
3. move smaller, weighed amounts, from the large shipping bag to a working bag, pin both, use the vacuum
4. did I mention a vacuum cleaner? Use it often

I learned about this trick here on HF. Last weekend I spent an afternoon moving 11 oz of down, 2 grams at a time, from a shipping bag of down into the quilt. Measured the weight of the shipping bag every now and then to see how much progress I'd made on any given chamber. Takes out the middle "working bag", so the down just gets transfered once.

While slow, it is clean. I could chase down the few little tuffs that got away and put them where they wouldn't be lonely.

Grizz

[stormcrow]

You should have seen my wife's face when I opened the the shipping box that had the bag of down in it. Of course some of the down had escaped.. so when I opened the box a dozed or so of them went flying....and she just glared at me...

Her eyes pretty much said "You better learn how to handle that stuff before you open that bag...OR ELSE!".

I have not had a chance to post pictures of this bag but it is huge. The bag is almost 6 feet tall. I could easily fit in it and I am 6'2" and about 185. You can just imagine with all that room to run that my little 2 lbs is going nuts in there! I just have a feeling that working with this stuff is going to suck. I will be finding the smallest room in my house (bathroom) to contaminate I suppose. I will definitely use the vacuum suggestion though.

Adam

[Schneiderlein]

YI just have a feeling that working with this stuff is going to suck. I will be finding the smallest room in my house (bathroom) to contaminate I suppose. I will definitely use the vacuum suggestion though.

Adam

Adam, don't stress out over it. I found that if you are careful, working with down is not messy at all. I have made a few down projects, and I never even had to vacuum up any leftover down after I was done.

[stormcrow]

I did not read all the way though this thread before my last post so it might have seemed like I was ignoring you Grizz. Sorry about that.

Cannibal got most of it nailed down the email he he posted. Funny about their website being under construction. I was put off a bit about that too. Apparently it is hard to get a webmaster in Canada because it has been that way for 2-3 months at least, and I suspect longer...

It started out being around $73 a lb. After the surcharge for the SMALL 2 lb order, and the shipping charges, and the exchange rates, the total for it all to be shipped to Ohio was $212.34. The only way I could afford it (read: I was given money for it from certain family members) was if I promised to make some items of "downy goodness" for "payback"....anyway, I still think that is pretty stinking good...

Speer Hammocks site comes to @ $309.68/2lbs for just the down (not including shipping costs. (900+)

Thru-Hiker is better at $276.80/2lbs (also shipping is not included) (800+)

Of course there are the differences between 800+ vs 900+ fill powers and all of that but I still think I got a decent deal on this stuff. I will bring a sample of it with me to the Mt Rogers hang for you all who have ordered from the normal places to compare it to.

A previous thread where this was discussed
( http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ead.php?t=3233 )
Some people were thinking about a group buy. It was killed because of the way they HAVE to ship it in those big bags. Then there was shipping of all the 1lb here or there that people were going to split up that was going to make it not really worth it. If the logistics could be figured out this just have group buy written all over it...LOL. I dont know

Adam

[Peter_pan]

I did not read all the way though this thread before my last post so it might have seemed like I was ignoring you Grizz. Sorry about that.

Cannibal got most of it nailed down the email he he posted. Funny about their website being under construction. I was put off a bit about that too. Apparently it is hard to get a webmaster in Canada because it has been that way for 2-3 months at least, and I suspect longer...

It started out being around $73 a lb. After the surcharge for the SMALL 2 lb order, and the shipping charges, and the exchange rates, the total for it all to be shipped to Ohio was $212.34. The only way I could afford it (read: I was given money for it from certain family members) was if I promised to make some items of "downy goodness" for "payback"....anyway, I still think that is pretty stinking good...

Speer Hammocks site comes to @ $309.68/2lbs for just the down (not including shipping costs. (900+)

Thru-Hiker is better at $276.80/2lbs (also shipping is not included) (800+)

Of course there are the differences between 800+ vs 900+ fill powers and all of that but I still think I got a decent deal on this stuff. I will bring a sample of it with me to the Mt Rogers hang for you all who have ordered from the normal places to compare it to.

A previous thread where this was discussed
( http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ead.php?t=3233 )
Some people were thinking about a group buy. It was killed because of the way they HAVE to ship it in those big bags. Then there was shipping of all the 1lb here or there that people were going to split up that was going to make it not really worth it. If the logistics could be figured out this just have group buy written all over it...LOL. I dont know

Adam

Buy American .... Buy Hammock Forums... Buy your down from ED Speer... You'll be glad you did.... Quality service counts.

Pan

[Cannibal]

Buy American .... Buy Hammock Forums... Buy your down from ED Speer... You'll be glad you did.... Quality service counts.

Pan

Tough to argue with that.

[NCPatrick]

Somebody with free time (meaning: NOT ME) should ask Ed Speer if he'd be willing to do a HF group buy.

[Cannibal]

Somebody with free time (meaning: NOT ME) should ask Ed Speer if he'd be willing to do a HF group buy.

Geeez, I'd absolutely LOVE to see what 20 lbs of down looks like; still having a difficult time wrapping my little brain around that one.

Maybe if it came pre-bagged for each buyer in the group buy, but that would kind of defeat the idea of 'bulk' from a supplier so I doubt that would happen. As pointed out earlier, can you imagine having to separate, weigh, and package each buyer's order? It would be a nightmare unless someone had some kind of contraption...hmmmmm.

[NCPatrick]

Well, I think Ed ships in separate 3 oz bags of down. So we could set limits, etc.