Pipe insulation, like what's on the cold, fatter, line on your air conditioner.

That's what I did, wasn't sure if there was something more official that I was missing.

Officially, you can suck it up. Unofficially, there is a hardware store in town. :-)

I liked how he used the tranny straps to rig up his nut ruck...and was able to rig up an Agilite Six Pack the same way.  It might be an option for those who normally use nut rucks as E&E, admin or ifak pouches.  But it really highlights that those tranny straps can have multiple uses beyond your intended purpose.  Now I am experimenting with leveraging the tranny straps to secure a bum roll or similar.  Have you considered creating a bum roll or similar type pouch that is specifically designed to secure to the rear using the tranny straps?

This is my first post, I joined after stumbling upon this thread, which I have spent days reading through.  I was impressed by all the knowledge being shared here, without all the drama that soured me on forums like this decades ago, and pleased as freakin punch to find some fellow old jarheads who are around my age, and have not turned into total couch potatoes.   I did my time 77-86, shipping over to swing with the wing after doing my first three as an 03 (couldn't pass up that $1500 combat arms enlistment bonus, even though my ASVABs gave me my pick of just about anything.) I won't pretend that I still have the same girlish figure as you and @parrisisland1978, my 34 waist jumped to 36 like ten minutes after re-upping....and decades pushing a cushy civilian desk job is why I had to go with the XL DZ rig.    

I look forward to participating more in this forum going forward, especially this and other related threads, and hopefully giving back and contributing what little I can.  Semper fi.

As far as an ifak insert for the DZ mag pouches, this is what I am using for now.  It fits more stuff than my ATS insert and is easier to yank out of the pouch than a ziplock bag, especially if you are wearing gloves covered with your own precious bodily fluids.  Not tacticool, but usable. 14 bucks on Amazon



https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01I30DJG0

Hey man, welcome and stick around if you want.  Ask questions.  Post pics of your projects.  Just hang out.  There are a few other threads in the Tactical Gear forum that are loosely associated with this one.  The Sustainment gear one is a good place to start, I think I have some links I added to other similar threads in the first post of the sustainment gear thread.

Bum roll:  I've modded a couple of USGI molle buttpacks (the long skinny ones) to use for bum rolls.  I run 8 point harnesses, and two of the D-rings are about where the tranny straps are on the Diz rig.  I am modding that D-ring by attaching a female fastex buckle there, so I can plug the buttpack in there, tensioned with bungie cords.

Eventually I'm going to get around to fabbing up some prototypes for bum rolls and making them to sell.

Use Closed-Cell pipe insulation to pad pack frame.  As the pipe insulation is vulnerable to tearing, wrap the insulation with appropriately colored duct tape.  Wrap the "top" of the insulation well, so as to deter ingress of water.  Tape side-slits in the closed-cell foam also.

Leave the bottom of the closed-cell foam free of tape, so as to allow ingressing water an escape path.

When installing such foam padding, strongly suggest one has at least one ALICE "Cargo Shelf" on-hand in order to arrange the pipe insulation and duct tape wrapping to accommodate the mounting of the Cargo Shelf on the frame; sometimes TWO Cargo shelves needed, one on the middle cross-member, the other on the bottom cross-member.  All this ALICE Cargo Shelf stuff recently discussed above.

I have an ALICE frame with ALICE Cargo Shelves (plus straps) in order to transport 5 Gal water/fuel cans (one shelf) and multiple ammo cans (two shelves).

I use the hard-to-find LC-2 "Enhanced" ALICE shoulder straps, and an adapted Molle load-bearing waist belt.  Commercial substitutes for both are available.

Granted, this is a niche application, but an extremely useful one.

Thank you...I know that you work for a living, so I won't call you sir.  
I plan on sticking around. I really appreciate all the great information that everyone, including yourself, have been providing.  I hope that I can contribute even a skosh in comparison.

I'm usually referred to as  'that asshole'

No. Absolutely not. You are ‘that asshole that can sew’ at the very least

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TATCS?  Maybe Romanize it a bit.  How about Taticus?  Don't know where that leaves me?  Old asshole that can sew?  Or Oaticus.  Been called worse.

Hey welcome aboard Devil Dog!  I wuz with 3d Racoon about the same time, chilling on Oki, then Korea, and the PI.  This is the rig I wish I had back then, no lie.

You know, you might be onto something there.  I like the idea of sewing the tranny straps straight up (no 90 deg fold) and then letting you knuckleheads do want ya want with them.  Even putting another pair towards the rear for a bum roll or whatever.

Good shit bros!

We need a sewing thread.

I attempted to make a book cover out of a M81 jacket that was fire damaged the other day.

I am out of practice and new sewing machines suck ass. Lol.

I did hem the drapes for a lady I met at church…….. which basically summarizes a lot of the problems with dating these days. O……. You would like me to hem your drapes and come over with a chainsaw when your tree comes down also?

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I've been trying to save up the $35 I need to order a camera mount so that I can film myself sewing.  If I can get that, I'd totally stream myself sewing stuff and make little how-to videos and such.

But alas, I keep doing responsible things like  're-invest in actual money making stuff'  instead of buying camera mounts   :-D  

Follow up video of the Diz rig and the CF2.  

I was a Hawaii Marine, which of course meant dets to Japan, Korea, Oki, and da PI.  My final years were in freakin Yuma - dry heat my ass, you get down in them orange groves it gets humid af.  I wish I would have had something like this back then as well, but back then I would have probably wanted a bigger butt pack (I have a Fireforce on the frankenrig I've been tweaking for 20 years, since dumping ALICE for MOLLE).  But in the month that I have had the Diz rig, I am singing "I don't wanna bump, no more, with no big fat butt pack!"    Besides being the most comfy rig I have ever humped, pairing it with a small day pack is much better suited to patrolling my little corner of Amish farm country.  Thank you, not only for creating a great piece of kit, but for so selflessly sharing your knowledge.  Shit, at 65, you got me considering learning to sew for my "retirement".

Fuck yeah man.  It's prolly a good retirement gig.  

Hopefully Taticus will have some vids out sooner or later.

My wife and I are just setting up our basement sewing center in our new retirement home.  She does quilts (and hopefully woobies one day), and I do, well you know what I do.  

The biggies for most folks are getting a good (industrial) sewing machine, and getting good patterns.  Then you just teach yourself how to sew.  

Honestly, you could just start out with any for-shit home sewing machine and rip-stop cammie material, just to see if it's something you want to do.  Back before the internet and all this info, that's pretty much all you did.  I then got torn up pouches n shit from surplus stores, took them apart and figured out how this stuff was made.  

One of these days, what I'd like to do is come out with kits to makes pouches n stuff.  Sourcing small quantities of materials can be a PITA.  And you then have a good pattern as well.  Takes awhile to learn the various ways to make a pouch, and then down-select the right one for your particular app.  And maybe even add your signature to it. But anyways, my goal would be to put this capability in as many people's hands as possible.  Back when I was a wee lad, every home had a sewing machine and mama made lots of clothes for the kids.  My sisters had homemade dresses.  My college roommate had home-made suits; and they looked pretty good too.  There's no damn reason I can think of that we shouldn't be getting back to these things.

Back when I wuz a parachute rigger, I attended the Parachute Rigger's Symposium in San Diego.  There was this famous PR named "Raggs" Ragganti.  He gave sewing seminars which were just phenomenal.  I always wanted to do something like that myself.  But now we have the internet and youtube so we can maybe take that a step further.

I can certainly understand, especially after the many quality years of experience with, a hesitancy to ditch the old butt pack. Especially when I see you are in OH. Being near you, I understand how our shared climate can really demand absolute flexibility when it comes to what environmental factors we might encounter. With your experience across these and some even more extremes, would you say that between the belt utility pouches, bum-roll/waist pack, day pack, and full pack as options, one could achieve a scalable system that can tackle most anything we are likely to encounter?

(specific needs/tolerances of the individual user notwithstanding)

Anyone know a good US supplier for easy sew on molle like this?

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Yea, here ya go.  I've used these on a few pouches - while I'm hesitant about laser cut stuff, these seem fine for light-duty pouches.  ie, you don't want to use them on a buttpack that you're going to have a pack on top of.  I've got a buddy who's deployed overseas who has a couple nalgene bottle pouches with these for attachments, they're still working fine.  Sew on easily.  I don't know if they are cost effective compared to time saved, but hey.  Also, if you buy 2 or more, that price goes down 25%.

WTF is a good company too, I've ordered from them for random stuff a number of times. Their gear isn't bad either, for what it is.  It's pretty different than alot of stuff out there.

https://www.wtfidea.com/wtfats-m4-laser-cut-pals-backers-w-integrated-pals-straps/

Definitely, this would make a good retirement gig.  You can take it any number of directions - gear, clothing, clothing mods and alterations, etc.  Find your little niche and expand from there.  It doesn't even have to be tactical stuff.  

Find an older domestic sewing machine used - one of the ones from the 60's or older, when they were made out of metal internals.  If you shop around, you can probably find one for $25-50 in good running order.  I got mine at a thrift store for like $10 or $15 or so.  I already knew some basic sewing, but really busted my butt learning on that for 6 months or so doing lighter gear until I outgrew the machine, then went and dropped money on an industrial.

Get that used domestic, a good pair of scissors, a big spool of coyote colored bonded nylon T69 thread, and a half dozen other small items  (ruler, seam ripper, mini plastic clips, chalk, etc.)  You can probably get up and running for $200, with decent stuff.  Pretty much everything you buy other than the sewing machine, you can use with the nicer machine.

Then go buy some fabric - if you are doing a domestic machine, 500d Cordura isn't bad as long as you are careful.  Go on ebay, find a deal on 5 yards of 500d Cordura (or 300D Cordura, 400D Packcloth, etc.) - you should be able to find something decent for $10 / yard shipped if you shop around on there.  Then go to Rockywoods, get a dozen yards of 1" webbing, couple dozen 1" fastex buckles, a yard or two of velcro if you want to go that route.  Maybe a couple other little tidbits, maybe a yard or two of zipper coil and a half dozen zippers.  You can probably get all the materials you need to get started for $100.  5 yards of fabric will go a long ways for small projects.  (You can also get fabric from rockywoods too, but sometimes ebay has good deals with free shipping on fabric)

Take a careful look at the gear you have - probably start with small stuff.  Look specifically at how they put it together - ie, which fold comes first, which stitch goes on first.  Simple 2 mag USGI style mag pouch for instance.  Then get a piece of paper (I got a big roll of 48" wide craft paper) and sketch out the pattern you think the mag pouch is made out of.  Cut the pattern out, try folding it into place, holding it in place with mini clips.  If that pattern doesn't work, re-figure it.  I can send you some pictures of some of my patterns if you want.  They are bit more complicated, but you can get the idea.

Once you get a paper pattern that you think will work, try sewing one.  Try the mag pouch.  Try a small zipper bag.  Maybe try sewing up a MOLLE style USGI canteen pouch.  Learn to properly space our MOLLE fields.  After you get halfway decent, try a simple recce style chest rig with simple 2 mag pouches.  If you are careful, you can do one on a domestic machine.

I'd avoid trying to do binding tape unless you really need to.  At least until you get the basics down.  It's annoying until you get specialized equipment.

Once you can do that kind of stuff, figure out what your niche product is going to be. Give it your own flavor.  Even something as simple as little zipper pouches, if done well and not overpriced can sell well.  Everyone needs a little zipper pouch to throw stuff into.  Those little pouches are one of the thing that got Maxpedition up and running for instance.

Also.  I may or may not have a camera stand on the way...........

Chest rigs still have a place in that mix.   I think "scalable and extensible" are as applicable to kit as they are to software.

I'm all on board the belt kit wagon.  But I also have chest rigs, large and small.  Specifically for home defense and vehicle based stuff.  Not that I ever do that.  But ya know.

I leave the sewing to my wife.  I have made small repairs to my clothing and kit, but it usually results in blood, broken equipment and words that use the Lord's name in vain.

Seriously, I was thinking of getting into selling kit and milsurp at gun shows, flea markets, etc.  Online sales would be easy, considering my IT and ecomm experience, but because of that experience, it's just not fun anymore - I want to enjoy a low-stress retirement.  Repairing kit would probably fit with that nicely tho, and maybe, MAYBE, get me to the point of creating something myself without putting the world as we know it at risk of destruction.  

Can you post some pics of the way you have the bum roll attached? I've got one of those and I've been trying to figure out the best way to attach it.

100%. I like my micro rigs for small, easy, grab and go stuff. Can be used with the belt kit, even, though we're getting pretty strappy, now :) I have a small collection of micro-expanders, too, because I like options.

For full-size chest rigs I like them split, for the same advantage the belt kit offers: nothing right centerline.

So I cut the skirt off 2 of the surplus pouches and I like the way they turned out. @raf thanks for the idea to turn the pouches inside out, it worked like a charm. I also added some shock cord to one just by running it through the existing MOLLE. We'll see how it does but I think its going to be pretty good. I almost wonder if these were actually supposed to be something other than mag pouches. It would make sense with the large skirt and they are also so big they can actually fit 4 mags.

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I also had the idea to make this abomination with extra pouches and an extra MOLLE placard I had laying around. it will hold 4 .308 mags but I think its really too big for this application.

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I ended up adding one to my chest rig. I’m thinking it can be a misc pouch and hold extra mags, a radio or any other items and be able to be cinched down. Similar concept to the new onward research clench pouch but not $70

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Yea, I'll try to remember to get some take tomorrow.  But it's easy. 3/4" fastex buckle on both sides of the buttpack - you can sew or tie or whatever.  Attach the other half of the 3/4" buckle to the mag pouch D-ring (since I'm running an 8 point harness, I have 4 forward webbing straps - 2 on each side.  I use the rear mag pouch D-ring.  You can tie it in anywhere, it kinda needs to be a bit forward of the water / canteen pouches though)

Basically you just clip it into the buckles.  You want the bungies to have JUST A LITTLE tension, so that it keeps it snug up against your back, but not overly tight.

You can throw straps over the top - I'm running a buttpack, so I just use the buttpack lid straps if I want to do that.  Or just let it rest via gravity on the buttpack.  Pros and cons to both approaches.

That sure looks like a nalgene or canteen pouch, not a mag pouch.  My Danish mag pouches didn't have the skirt and definitely wouldn't fit 4 mags.

However, they look like they turned out ok for what you are using them for.  They definitely are a good price.

A giant euro pouch with extra protection……. Must be a huge kit to make tea and shave. Lol. Morale is the tip of the spear.

Don't forget looking good.  Looking good is at least half of winning the battle after all.

So I was over on sotech's page today, and saw these.  They have a set of jungle kit out - I don't know if they had been discussed yet or not.  

They have a 6 point harness, but it's an H-style harness.  Doesn't come down to anchor farther down  the back.

However, one thing I saw that was interesting was their jungle belts - they have three different heights too.  This is the tall one.  What was interesting to me was the construction - one of the first good uses of laser cut stuff I've seen.  At first glance, this looks like a generic laser cut molle grid - but what they did was put the laser cut fabric over a laser cut tegris molle panel.  HEck, they might even have laminated them, I dunno.  I think this fixes alot of issues with laser cutting.  The tegris gives it stability and rigidity and stops the ripping of the molle holes that the laser cut stuff has seen in the past.  

I do not know what the long-term issues that might pop up from this - tegris falling apart, de-laminating, wearing the webbing that goes through the panels under load, etc....but at first glance this is an interesting idea.




https://sotechtactical.com/collections/featured/products/jb4sbplc

Yeah, 4x deep AR pouches not common, for various reasons.  Vendor may have misunderstood original intent of these pouches and labeled them as mag pouches.

I'd like horizontal stitching between each of the horizontal PALS laminate webbing. At least top and bottom, which encounter most stress.

While I agree the stitching could probably be upped a bit, the Tegris under the laser cut fabric would preclude the need for horizontal stitching.

Perhaps I'm missing something essential.  Please elaborate.

Tegris is stiff.  Think the plastic used in pack frame sheets meets a thin kydex. It will bend with the body, but had high vertical stiffness.  (that'd definitely not the technical term for it)

This will take all the weight and distribute it through the stiff panel.

I could see doubling up on stitching, but I really don't think you'd need horizontal stitching, not with the vertical stitching only spaced out ever 1.5".

Though I guess you could argue for a stitch line running across the top and bottom.  I could get behind that.  Especially the top.

Which is my point.  I admit my ignorance, just suggesting "augmenting" stitching.

On the pouches, it looks like the female buckle is hard mounted to the lid, and the male buckle below.

I like this idea, as it will avoid junk jamming down into female side.

Yea, no problem there.  Heck, I'm the last guy to shy away from stitching usually.

Most people I know have requested on purpose the female mounted to the body of the pouch.  I have yet to have someone ask me to do it the other way.

Not saying you're wrong.  Just an observation.

I greatly prefer the male on top. I use the usmc grenade pouches for m1 clips and 308 bolt gun mags and hate the female buckle on top

Female buckle on the bottom. Especially a QASM or Surface Mount. That way it’s easy to stab the male buckle in one handed.

Same same. I like being able to stab the male part down into the female part….of the buckle

They made a version with the buckles reversed.

A buckle is a buckle and a buckle hole is a buckle hole.  Sometimes things fit better than others.  Sometimes it needs a little help.  Maybe it's dirty and needs to be cleaned out and possibly lubed.  And sometimes you can fit more than one buckle into a buckle hole.  

But let's face it, Diz's newly invented buckle and buckle hole is far better than prior options.  Though the Spanish ones come close.

Agreed.

Aw, shucks, guys.  But thanks.  

Yeah the Spanish buckles are pretty good.  It's just that, if possible, I'd like to be able to re-fasten pouch, one-handed.  Without looking at it.

The one drawback, is you don't have quite the positive lock, as the tab in the bale of the Spanish buckle.  Or a SR buckle for that matter.  But, on the other hand, it is not as fiddly as either one of these either.  

On the new poches we've added a new wrinkle to the tuck tab, which I hope will give it even more versatility.  Not to mention make it snug up into the tuck tunnel more securely.