Padded micro chest rig, first try

[SR Tactical]

After reading several posts from Gear Dynamics, I tried to make a small padded chest rig for my personal use.

This is the outcome:



I am not happy with the build quality yet.

[WPJ]

Looks very good, I hope you enjoy I.

[Gear Dynamics]

There is literally a bin of prototypes here that were burned through to try and figure out the best way to construct padded panels. It was a painful process and took a long time to perfect.

My points:

- Try and use a foam that does not stretch OR glue a thin non-stretch material to your foam.
- Use 1/8" foam so you can and another core material without adding too much bulk.
- Try laminating (gluing) the pre-cut piece of foam to one of your Cordura pieces. This will save a lot of time when flipping the panel. The foam will already be in place and all the seam allowance material will be on the same side.
- When sewing inside-out, leave gaps for your buckles, in addition to one gap for flipping. This will allow you to simply insert the hardware while sewing around the perimeter and will let you get the buckle closer to the panel.
- For 90° corners, simply cut off the excess seam allowance at a 45° angle to the corner.
- For angled corners (like mine) without buckles coming out of them, just trim along the angled part and leave 1/8" of so. The sides can stay at whatever your original SA was.
- For angled corners with buckles coming out, you'll need to take a 90° chunk out, perpendicular to each angle, and leave some seam material over the actual corner. With material left there, it's easier to insert the buckle afterwards.
- With ALL corners, make sure you use something pointy to push them all the way out after you flip right side out.

[SR Tactical]

Thank you for further input. I will give it another try!

[@less@ndro]

I like it. The king of the reverse way has already talk, from my side I can only say I'm not a fan of the seam between webbing,  in this case is also more noticeable because of the foam.  Another point maybe I would pass more stitches on the webbing used for the buckles.

[TwoWayTrauma]

Looks good.  I've sold a couple similar to that.  They were 8 columns by 3 rows like yours, but I have been using 1.5 inch webbing sewn into the front and connected to a ladderlock at the sides with no waist strap.  The intent was to carry a load of 6 mags (3 double stacked pouches), and have room for a blow out pouch.

I have one sew up with a GP pouch, a waterbottle/camera lens pouch ,and one of my first aid blow out pouches and it's what I wear when I am hiking.

Personally, I'm not a huge fan of padded shoulder straps on chest rigs.  If I am wearing one, there is a good chance I am wearing a ruck or pack over it, and putting a padded strap under another padded strap doesn't feel good for me.

The one in the picture is just a double layer of cordura.  I just started experimenting with 3mm foam to add my rigs and give them some structure, and I believe it takes them to a whole new level.

Future generations of my small rig will probably feature cut off corners and a strap attachment system like yours along with a waist strap.