Probably the most useful piece of camping kit I’ve made (to date) plus as a bonus you can see pretty hot porn video with this piece of kit in action ;-).
Googling the other day I came across Exped Minipump. This is an awesome idea, but I’m not sure will fit other brands than Exped. They making quite ok camping gear, but unfortunately too dear for me. So I tried recreate more less same product.
I made valve connector with cable gland. Just cut inside to fit valve.
Cut ripstop in a shape of big lollipop as below. (already looking hot ;-))
As ripstop is quite thin I had to reinforce hole with a bit of stronger fabic. Tested and sewn to leg of one “lollipop”.
A “bun” been made with foam I found at office. The additional holes are to decrease slightly volume of the foam (will pack smaller).
In other lollipop piece i made air intake hole, and everything has been put together. Voilà, ready to test. Uhh! Ohh! look at that hot pictures below!
And now promised porn. Do not watch it if you’re under 18! Camera! action!
Final thoughts. Obviously that is prototype or MK1 if you like, just to prove the concept. The pump works ok, but I didn’t pay too much attention to details (as I wanted quickly test it), so I think the air leaks are the main problem. Other than that the test was promising enough to make another iteration in the nearest future.
Mistakes. “Foam bun” is too small, should fill completely wider part. I’m planning to add valve in “hose” part of the lollipop as I got feeling that air been sucked back a bit. The hose is not acting completely as expected, I thought negative pressure will squeeze walls and act as valve). I hoped that stitching need to be air tight so next time I’m going to glue pieces together and than sew it. Intake hole need to be a bit smaller.
Time for Mk2, stay tuned!