Charlie Brown,
we are also planning to make an 8 or 10 foor extension of heavy visquine sometime this summer to put on the end of our current wall tent for use as a cook shack.
No doubt your cooking extension will be a custom job, but here is what we did, take it for what it may be worth.
First, this assumes the cook "extension" and the wall tent will "mirror" each other for height, width, and pitch of roof....
**Steel wall tent frame for the plastic to go up over.... butt it to your other tent rather than attach it.
**Diagonal rope the tubing to itself and the ground to give it some rigidity.
**6 mil clear plastic, up and over the top WITH 3' extra after touching the ground on EACH side --- we have used our current piece for 3 years coming up 4 --- no problems yet.
**Once the plastic is "up and over" temporarily weight it down with some rocks so it doesn't "take off" in the wind.
**Consider having the plastic "overlap" your wall tent by 2 feet or so (cut small holes for the wall tent ropes to go thru), so if it is a 10 foot extension, then you'll need 12' of plastic.
**ANCHORING THE BOTTOM: We use a 2" diameter piece of 3 strand rope and lay it at the "edge" of the 3' extra of plastic and then we all get on our knees and roll the rope tightly in the 3' of plastic until it "bumps" up against the frame, then we take 12" nails and nail right down thru the plastic and into the 2" rope (the 3 strand "parts" and lets the nail thru but it is tight) and into the earth with nails about every 18" or so. This will follow uneven terrain like a glove. Don't worry about getting the first side too tight since the opposing side is only lightly anchored with rocks and will just pull on over if you "torque" on it too much. But when you come to the second side torquing and tightening and tensioning is just what you want.
**ANCHORING THE TOP: We then put a poly pro tarp (with grommets and wall tent ropes) up and over the same plastic sheet and use THAT to rope down ala wall tent style with the plastic "trapped" underneath.
**SEALING THE GAP AT THE WALL TENT: We cut a piece of plywood 2' by 4' and "lean" it against the 2' of plastic that overlaps the wall tent and then take an adjustable pole and diagonal brace against it - having a little screw sticking out of the plywood for the pole (or a piece of conduit) to catch on helps on that part.
**CONDENSATION: With a plastic tent you gotta have a floor in it or the moisture in the earth will cause it to rain every morning when you heat it up which cooking will do, plus a "tarp" floor is just much better than a dirt floor, I know it is nice to cook over earth, you can be messy with no penalty but we have done it both ways and you want a floor (assuming you are going to put a "end wall and door on this thing).
**END WALL/DOOR: I 'll leave this one to your own ingenuity, but one thing to consider is to ask your tent guy what they would charge to make you a canvas "wall tent end" with zipper door that simply loops up over the top of the tubular frame and ties (many ties) and complete with sod cloth --- I'm thinking we paid $125 for ours --- heaven.
**FOR A GOOD SEAL on the end wall/door with your plastic do two things: (1) make sure your cooking tent "fly/tarp" extends over the entry end of things 1 to 2 inches creating a little "eve" over the door [the whole front end for that matter]. When you tension it down it will seal down hard on the tube. (2) lean yet another 2'x4' piece of plywood against the plastic side wall at the "front corner tube to tighten the seal between the plastic, the tube, and your canvas (or whatever) end cap.
We have had ours (16x32) in some tremendous thunderstorms and some 12-14" snowfalls with ZERO problems and the way the clear plastic lets in the light is really cool (hot actually, but you can always open the door)
There you go,
Trade secrets given away for free,
Enjoy!
Home Sweet Home!
EKM