TCosbyJr
Jr. Member
- Joined
- Jun 3, 2012
- Messages
- 95
- Reaction score
- 24
- Golden Thread
- 0
- Location
- Bedford, IN
- Detector(s) used
- Current: Tesoro Outlaw, BH Tracker IV, HF MD6008
Ex: White's Coinmaster Pro, BH Discovery 3300, Tesoro Cibola
- Primary Interest:
- Metal Detecting
After trying the two pocket coin/nail apron/pouch and some hunting pouches, I decided to make my own tool pouch to hold my MD tools. I carry my B&D multi-purpose garden tool for digging/plug cutting, a boot knife I bought back in the 90's to dig in gravel, and my pinpointer.
I also carry a small towel to place dug dirt on (easy to put dirt back into hole and keep grass clean) and another to wipe the sweat as it reaching the mid/high 90's lately. Of course there are other things that are needed such as spare batteries for the MD and PP, a way to haul found trash, pocket for found treasure, etc.
So I found some thick fabric from a old portfolio case I had so I cut it to the sizes I needed and stitched it together. I made it as I went and here are the results...
I had other pockets I wanted to add, but put it to use before wasting more time. I'm glad I did because I only used the tool pouch once. My tools were hard to get out and especially back in, and the pocket with just a bit of canslaw would no longer hold anything as the pocket was flat.
So I removed everything from the tool pouch and decided on a creating a new pouch which would work much better for me. To save myself time and hassle I decided to create a tool pouch from paper first. That way I could alter it easily, and put it together in a few hours. I used cheap printer/copy paper using a glue stick to tack it together to make it the size I needed. Here is my paper "tool pouch"...
It included three small pockets (two for batteries and other items - and the other to hold my treasure), a larger pocket to hold any junk/trash, easier tool access, places to hang bags from if needed, a Velcro strap to attach any additional tools in the future, and a large holder (beside my tools) to hold my towel and possible small tools (or even a bottle of water).
I took the basic measurement and my layout and created a pattern template in Adobe Illustrator. Here are all the piece of fabric, straps, and Velcro to make my tool pouch.
From my pattern I created my new tool pouch. I bought a thick khaki material for the fabric, and double it for every part that wasn't a pocket. One of the most important features is that the pockets expand to a full 2+ inches to hold as much stuff as needed in them. One of the hardest things was to track down what type of pocket it is called and how to create them.
I tried a simple pleat/cargo pants type pocket and it did not expand much better than a flat pocket. I found the expanding pockets I wanted are called a bellows pocket.
A basic pattern for a bellows pocket that I found online, and another site that shows photos to help figure out how to sew the pocket to work correctly.
Here are the results of all my effort on creating a tool pouch...
My new tool pouch easily fits all my materials and finds (including a camera, lots of metal junk/trash, three baseballs I found while detecting, and everything else on my last MD hunt) with room to spare.
The new pockets work better than I hoped and was well worth the effort to track down and learn. I did reinforce the back panel with a thick plastic sheet for strength/shape and it has worked great. I gave the new tool pouch a MD test for about 5 hours yesterday (Saturday) and it worked perfect.
The only downside of the project was the amount of time required to create my tool pouch, even with my sewing machine, it took 35+ hours to create. As there are a lot of points to enforce and many long seams to hand sew as any sewing machine is unable to sew once it is being put together. If you plan to create a tool pouch figure out the proper order to sew the various section/parts together - as they must be sewn at certain times in the project or it will not go together.
Total cost of materials was under $10 for a custom tool pouch that has my MD tool sheaths/pouches mounted inside, room to expand, and fits my needs perfect.
If anyone is interested in my tool pouch pattern I have the images (with sizes) in multiple PDF files for printing - just PM me for the files.
I also carry a small towel to place dug dirt on (easy to put dirt back into hole and keep grass clean) and another to wipe the sweat as it reaching the mid/high 90's lately. Of course there are other things that are needed such as spare batteries for the MD and PP, a way to haul found trash, pocket for found treasure, etc.
So I found some thick fabric from a old portfolio case I had so I cut it to the sizes I needed and stitched it together. I made it as I went and here are the results...
I had other pockets I wanted to add, but put it to use before wasting more time. I'm glad I did because I only used the tool pouch once. My tools were hard to get out and especially back in, and the pocket with just a bit of canslaw would no longer hold anything as the pocket was flat.
So I removed everything from the tool pouch and decided on a creating a new pouch which would work much better for me. To save myself time and hassle I decided to create a tool pouch from paper first. That way I could alter it easily, and put it together in a few hours. I used cheap printer/copy paper using a glue stick to tack it together to make it the size I needed. Here is my paper "tool pouch"...
It included three small pockets (two for batteries and other items - and the other to hold my treasure), a larger pocket to hold any junk/trash, easier tool access, places to hang bags from if needed, a Velcro strap to attach any additional tools in the future, and a large holder (beside my tools) to hold my towel and possible small tools (or even a bottle of water).
I took the basic measurement and my layout and created a pattern template in Adobe Illustrator. Here are all the piece of fabric, straps, and Velcro to make my tool pouch.
From my pattern I created my new tool pouch. I bought a thick khaki material for the fabric, and double it for every part that wasn't a pocket. One of the most important features is that the pockets expand to a full 2+ inches to hold as much stuff as needed in them. One of the hardest things was to track down what type of pocket it is called and how to create them.
I tried a simple pleat/cargo pants type pocket and it did not expand much better than a flat pocket. I found the expanding pockets I wanted are called a bellows pocket.
A basic pattern for a bellows pocket that I found online, and another site that shows photos to help figure out how to sew the pocket to work correctly.
Here are the results of all my effort on creating a tool pouch...
My new tool pouch easily fits all my materials and finds (including a camera, lots of metal junk/trash, three baseballs I found while detecting, and everything else on my last MD hunt) with room to spare.
The new pockets work better than I hoped and was well worth the effort to track down and learn. I did reinforce the back panel with a thick plastic sheet for strength/shape and it has worked great. I gave the new tool pouch a MD test for about 5 hours yesterday (Saturday) and it worked perfect.
The only downside of the project was the amount of time required to create my tool pouch, even with my sewing machine, it took 35+ hours to create. As there are a lot of points to enforce and many long seams to hand sew as any sewing machine is unable to sew once it is being put together. If you plan to create a tool pouch figure out the proper order to sew the various section/parts together - as they must be sewn at certain times in the project or it will not go together.
Total cost of materials was under $10 for a custom tool pouch that has my MD tool sheaths/pouches mounted inside, room to expand, and fits my needs perfect.
If anyone is interested in my tool pouch pattern I have the images (with sizes) in multiple PDF files for printing - just PM me for the files.
Amazon Forum Fav 👍
Upvote
0
