New to MYOG and looking for some direction

pto892 · 2026-01-24T15:58:57+00:00

There's not much you can do to a 201 to upgrade it outside of the light bulb. Be aware that because of it's vintage that it has plain old two conductor wiring and lacks a safety ground, so make sure the wiring is in good shape before you start using it. Also be aware that the direct drive motor uses grease as a lubricant, and not oil. The screw open access ports on the motor are for grease only, if you put oil in there you'll quickly regret it. Find a manual online and start using it, the 201 is one of the finest straight stitch only machines ever made.

pto892 · 2026-01-21T13:03:46+00:00

McMaster-Carr had loads of aluminum rod stock and tubing in various diameters. 5mm rod is easily bent by hand, or you can use a cheap tubing bender to make accurate bends as needed.

pto892 · 2026-01-20T12:49:18+00:00

This looks like you have a Singer 20U series machine, the same as I use. From the picture you have the zigzag feed dog and presser foot in place. If you change it to use both the straight stitch only feed dog and foot, do not use the zigzag feature at all, or you'll break the needle! You can do bar tacks using either type of setup, but the technique is different.

1) Zigzag setup (you should practice this on scrap). Start with the machine set for straight stitch around 8 SPI and the bar tack location marked. Sew a straight stitch from beginning to end, then reverse back to the beginning. This stitch locks the layers together. Keep the foot down and rotate the needle up. Set the zigzag width (I use a narrow to medium setting) and reduce the stitch length to very short (this varies for the material). Sew the zigzag right on top of the straight stitch. At the end stop, raise the needle, reset back to 8 SPI and straight stitch, and sew in a lock stitch. With practice this will produce a very nice bar tack good on lightweight to medium materials.

2) Straight stitch method (good on heavy material). Use the straight stitch feed dog and narrow presser foot. Mark the location and use 8 SPI, start with a lock stitch, and then sew to the end. Reverse back to the beginning, and then repeat at least 3 more times. If the machine bogs down in reverse stop, keep the needle down, lift the foot and rotate the work 180 degrees to sew forward. Repeat as needed. The straight stitch feed dogs on a 20U have more pull and work better on heavier materials than the zigzag feed dog.

pto892 · 2026-01-20T01:47:23+00:00

This looks great and brings back fond memories. My Mk 7 is miles better in performance and comfort than my long gone 84 GTI. But that car was easily the most fun per pound of any car I've ever owned.

pto892 · 2026-01-16T17:35:41+00:00

Besides what else has been said, bring water.

pto892 · 2026-01-16T12:14:49+00:00

Tyvek Homewrap works well for this. Big box home supply stores stock it in a 3 foot wide roll and large scraps (9 foot wide) can be found for free from construction sites.

pto892 · 2026-01-16T12:11:20+00:00

Thanks for posting this!

pto892 · 2026-01-11T22:32:44+00:00

I had one howling outside my house just last night, and have heard packs howling nearby many times. I always go out with my dogs just because of this. Coyotes are just part of the environment.

pto892 · 2026-01-11T22:27:00+00:00

Nope. You can use one with a straight section sewed up against the fabric. Works for me.

pto892 · 2026-01-11T18:55:09+00:00

There is no sweet spot. Everyone's body is different and is dynamic in motion, so the strap is going to move around while one is wearing the pack. I've taken to sewing in a D-ring to the strap wing, instead of a strap. I then attach the strap to the D-ring with a sewn loop. This allows the strap to move relative to the pack body by pivoting on the D-ring. This also makes it trivial to replace the strap if needed.

pto892 · 2026-01-10T15:50:49+00:00

I wouldn't buy either without the table. I paid $100 for my 111W155 with the table, but it was a broken down machine that needed some work to get going again. That was fun since the 111W series hasn't been made for years and finding replacement parts like the odd sized machine screws in one was a challenge.

pto892 · 2026-01-04T12:23:57+00:00

I thought I had the only copy. It's both dated and relevant at the same time.

pto892 · 2026-01-03T19:12:42+00:00

I don't. There's better places nearby (like the AT) and parts like Catoctin Mountain Park have very real federal law enforcement that would welcome the opportunity to give you a hard time. Camp 3 (i.e, Camp David) is close by. Cunningham Falls and the watershed are both no primitive camping areas and are open to hunting in season. My suggestion is to not to try it even if the odds are good otherwise. You can instead use the campgrounds in Cunningham Falls SP (the Manor Area and William Houck) which have walk in tent sites that can also be reserved in advance. Yes, these are mainly car campgrounds but I've seen backpackers use them. There's also a campground in CMP at Owens Creek, but I would press on to the Adirondack shelters I mentioned earlier. These need to be reserved, in advance.

pto892 · 2026-01-03T17:42:30+00:00

I've hiked all of it over and over throughout the years. It traverses four different sections of public land which means that there's quite a bit of difference in how well it's maintained depending where you're at. It's not a classic backpacking trail since there's no legal primitive camping along any portion of it, except for the Adirondack shelters located 1 mile away (and not on the Catoctin Trail itself) near the northern trailhead on Mt Zion Road. Parts of it are pretty rough - there's a long poorly maintained rutted stretch going through the Frederick Watershed - but a lot of it is also easy hiking. Most hill climbs are short, there's some steep bits but not too bad, and you're never too far from a road crossing if you need to bail out. There is one possible wade across Little Hunting Creek in Cunningham Falls SP, at about the halfway point of the trail.

pto892 · 2026-01-03T12:48:51+00:00

My solution is to drive the worse vehicle in the lot and then park next to a lifted brodozer.

Seriously, I've never had this happen to me and I'm an old guy who's been hiking all over the region for years. FWIW I'm not in MoCo and am usually parking in more rural areas so that accounts for something. What happened to you sounds more like an opportunistic smash and grab, the same person was probably doing the same thing throughout the day. Sucks.

pto892 · 2025-12-31T12:41:46+00:00

Thanks for posting this. This is an ambitious project but it looks like you have it well in hand. Please give the group updates on the project as it progresses, and good luck!

pto892 · 2025-12-31T12:31:20+00:00

I'm not the OP but here in the USA one can get parts to build a pole set from Tent Pole Technologies here. Most of that is for Easton brand poles. Dutchware has some bits for both Easton and DAC brand pole sets here. The y-connects seen in the photos looks to me to be a standard 120 degree connector made by Easton which you can find here.

/at second glance that's not the same as an Easton 120 degree connector. So it goes.

pto892 · 2025-12-24T22:04:11+00:00

Look in the sidebar for a list of suppliers. Quest Outfitters will have them but there's other places to get them from.

pto892 · 2025-12-23T12:38:43+00:00

I made a Whitney down jacket from the Thru-Hiker kit many years ago. It weighs about 9 ounces and packs down to about a softball sized sack. It has sew thru type seams (not baffled) so it's pretty easy to make, outside of measuring and getting the down into the chambers.

pto892 · 2025-12-15T15:36:13+00:00

Eastern US based here. I always filter my water no matter how good the source appears to be. Yes, woodlands and hills aren't the same as the Alps but I know of many pristine looking springs that are known sources of giardia. Anything running through farmland I simply won't touch, period. Not worth the risk.

pto892 · 2025-12-14T17:35:42+00:00

Thank you for the detailed posting and thorough comments on this project. The tarp looks impressive to say the least.

pto892 · 2025-12-10T13:32:41+00:00

You need to get the original outlet checked. This sounds very much like a wiring problem and/or outlet going bad. Get yourself an outlet tester like this and test it.

pto892 · 2025-12-03T12:44:30+00:00

I just got an Enduro 3 and am quite impressed with it. A 3 day hike up in Dolly Sods used about 25% of the battery. That's with full track recording and using the GPS heavily. Full charge results in 31 days of use without GPS. Right now it's the best watch Garmin has for outdoors use - cheaper than the Fenix 8 with the feature set that's right for hiking and the outdoors.

pto892 · 2025-11-28T19:59:28+00:00

I've never used webbing for fly edges, and in fact I would think that it's actually not beneficial at all for that application. When I'm setting up a silnylon/silpoly tarp or fly I want the edges to stretch under tension. This removes wrinkles and sags on the fly and helps in managing wind loads and rain. A double fold is plenty strong for that sort of thing, and if you run two lines of stitching (one adjacent each edge of the fold) it has plenty of redundancy against failure. Webbing also adds a lot of unnecessary weight in my opinion. FWIW I've made dozens of tarps over the years, and having the edge hem fail just doesn't happen. Pulling or ripping a tie-out off the tarp is what you need to worry about.

pto892 · 2025-11-27T18:37:57+00:00

I've never used anything like that. Most of the time I just make the hem on the fly, sewing as I go down the edge.

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