Framebags (bragging) has anyone taped theirs?

[jguk]

Bought a sewing machine a while back and decided to make a frame bag as my first adventure with sewing projects. It may have been a bit ambitious, but it turned out alright! Corners were a bit different, but I couldn't find any decent Youtube tutorials on how to deal with them.

So part of this post is to brag... because my wife is sick of hearing about hiking/biking/camping equipment, and you're a captive audience.

Also, I saw some mentions in other posts about people seam sealing their frame bags, but I hadn't seen much in the way of tips/tricks/suggestions for that. Are people using liquid sealants, tape, what seems to be the preferred method? I was half tempted to just duct tape the crap out of it... that fixes everything, right?

[Adam Alphabet]

Congrats on your first bag, nice work!
I've made a bunch of frame bags, never seam sealed one of them. Never really saw a point and that stuff's just messy to work with imo. I keep the stuff I want dry in bags (stuff sacks, zippys, etc..) inside the frame bag and have never had any issues. Other's may argue otherwise. My 2 pence, cents, peso's...

[Racingguy04]

I've never seam sealed one, but I haven't made one that I was super in love with yet either... If I were going to seam seal it, I'd use mcnett seam grip. http://www.mcnett.com/gearaid/seam-grip#10510 I did have a sweet bag that I made out of tyvek. I seam sealed it with tyvek tape, which is basically super sticky packing tape, I'm not sure how well it would work with fabric, and it's a pain in the butt to work with.

[jeremy11]

I tried to seam seal a seat bag once with Seam Grip and it was messy and not worth it.  With Dimension Polyant fabrics (X-Pac) I only get minor leaking at the seams, but then again I live in the desert so it doesn't matter often.

[dream4est]

I use this one or ones like it:

http://www.rockywoods.com/Hardware-Zippers/Seam-Sealers-Seam-Tapes/Seam-Sure-Seam-Sealer

I ditch the cap applicator (messy) and use a small fine paintbrush to coat the seams. Works well. Fills holes and gaps too. I would say a definite upgrade from no sealer. Not seam tape though. Very easy for the most part to use but only about 90-95% watertight IMO. I think that is just due to the nature of water/rain, seam holes, fabric stretch and only using water resistant zippers. YMMV.

[j.j.81]

I seam sealed my commuter's frame bag because I used to live on the Oregon coast. Despite multiple sealing and very waterproof fabric, I never got to the point where in moderate to heavy rain on my hour long commute, stuff wouldn't be damp. I blame the zipper: it was water-resistant, but I forgot to add a storm flap, so rain got in. I started packing so plastic was against the zipper. And I always still made a point to pack things I wanted dry in some sort of dry bag.

[Smo]

Nice bag!  It's always satisfying to start out with some fabric and thread and make something truly useful.    For the next time I'd consider cutting out the ends of the triangle, since the space is hard to use.  Making it flat on the bottom and flat on the front, basically.  It means an extra two panels to sew, but I think it's worth it.  Also, great job on fitting the zipper, it looks really good.  I'd recommend folding the edges of the fabric back under themselves and sewing again, where you cut out for the zipper.  That's if you left enough room to do so.  It hides the raw edge of the fabric.

What's your fabric?  It looks like cordura to me, but it's hard to say over the internet.  I don't think cordura is waterproof enough to bother with sealing.  Fabrics like Xpac have a fully waterproof layer laminated inside them, but cordura is just a coating.  If I were to use a sealer I would use SeamGrip or another liquid sealer before tape; I haven't taped seams before but I'm unsure of how well it would adhere to the cordura texture.

As for using seam grip, I hear that masking tape helps to make clean lines of sealant.  I'll be trying it out sometime this week when my 8oz tube of seam grip shows up in the mail.