My first hammock! =)

[HuBBa]

Just look what happens when you get your hands on 20 m of Cordura nylon, 50m worth of webbing and a sewing machine

Hammock in bag:

Contents of the bag. Hammock down left, bag top, webbing (2x6m) on the right.

Closeup on the load point. This is the thai style shown on the DYI section of BCUK.

And on the scale. Weighing in at 1222 grams total. A bit heavyish perhaps but it's 100% cordura and with all webbing. The actual hammock weights 1075 grams.

Now next project is the mossy net And if i get hold of some good tarp material, a nice tarp to go with this..

Will return with more pics when i've strung it up out in the woods. Right now it's pouring down so will do that later

Can't imagine why more of us blokes haven't gotten a sewing machine. This is just too much fun

/HuBBa

 

[Abbe Osram]

great job mate, I love when people make their own stuff.
Great doing
cheers
Abbe

 

[arctic hobo]

Looks excellent! Have you tried it yet?
I am getting into the sewing lark too - I am making a woolen cloak and a zeltbahn - both are nearly finished and seem very good designs. Making your own kit is not only cheap, it is a lot of fun too and you know it will always suit you as the user best

 

[rapidboy]

That looks great
We need loads of pic's of this.

 

[HuBBa]

Heh. Haven't tried it yet but all loadbearing seams are double and all thread is grizzly thread (ie. extra strong) so i'd be very suprised if they don't hold up.

In the case they do start to break, i will replace them with quadruple seams instead.

If weather permits i'll try to get a field test tomorrow.

 

[CLEM]

Theres loads of proper talented types on here,sadly i am not one of them.Well done mate,it does look great and like Rapidboy says we needs lots of pics.

 

[wentworth]

That looks fantastic Hubba! My girlfriend is making one up at the moment (since on our camping trip a couple of days ago she used my hammock and I slept on the ground!)
Is the length of the thai hammock long enough to lie on the diagonal, so you have a straight back?
The good thing about making your own gear is that you can accumulate more and more without having to justify the price!

 

[HuBBa]

I've made two length actually (yes, two hammocks). One 3 m and one 3.5m. Will see which becomes most comfortable. i think both will actually be good enough for diagonal resting (ie. the infamous asymmetric . I plan on making a proper asymmetric in the future but right now i have the somewhat mundane problem of not having a workingspace wide enought to draw out the pattern on so i have to wing it a bit. This of course makes anything other than 90 degree seams very hard.

And more pics will be coming soon

/HuBBa

 

[HuBBa]

Fieldtest #1

All strung up. Note that 6 m webbing might overdoing it a bit but hey, better too much than too little when you need it

Noted it has a tendancy to slide together when bunched up. Might have to work on a solution for that. it can ofcourse simply be adjusted but would be nice to have it arrange itself regardless of how i adjust it.

Another detail.

And laying on the diagonal (well slightly anyway

As you can see in this pic, it's both strung up unlevel and to close together. But i wanted to take the pictures, not sleep for a night. Still damn comfy though

Can it be better than this?

 

[spamel]

Yup, that looks very good!! I do like hammocks, and I have two at the moment. I bought one of those miltec net hammocks for 10 euros, and as it is so small that it goes in my pocket whenever I fly. I like to use it whenever I fly on RAF hercules aircraft. If you speak to the load master nicely, he often lets you put it up!

The other one, a friend of mine bought a job lot of. It is made of parachute silk, and has two webbing straps with a metal buckle to attatch around trees. I tried it and it was crap, it was only just wide enough at the shoulder end for me, and I am not a big bloke by any stretch of the imagination!! The other night, I decided to adapt it.

It was made of two sections or panels of a parachute doubled over and sewn together, so it was one panel wide. It has all of the webbing tape along the seams and is double stitched, so was very strong. I took it apart along the sewn edge so that I had a two panel piece laid out, and then tied the ends as a thai hammock. I adjusted the outer edges so that they are fractionally shorter, put a knot in the material at either end and put a line through the knot and around the fabric. I then use the tapes that originally came with it to secure it to the tree.

The width of the fabric ensures that the hammock closes over at the top when I'm in it, and my initial test proved it was strong enough to take my feeble weight (I'm about 60 odd kgs, 9.5-10 stone!) and it was very comfortable.

I also found that when the wind changed and smoke from my fire blew around the hammock, I didn't breathe any in. It kept the smoke out and I had nice fresh air, although I could feel the heat from the fire still. A great bit of kit that weighs next to nothing.

I'd like to be able to get hold of enough of this material 'off the roll' to be able to make my own from scratch, but I have no idea of a supplier of parachute silk fabric. I am impressed with people here making their own kit, I've seen it before when somebody sees a bit of kit and asks "Where can I get one of those?" and they get told "Nowhere mate, I made this myself!"

 

[Neil1]

Spamel,
Pointnorth do a rip-stop nylon in olive, which is very lightwieght an you will need a double thickness on the base, possibly with a panel of IPK in the centre, just to make sure.
The downside of this fabric is it is only 90cm wide, and the ideal is 150cm. I have several in the combination and they work very well.
Hubba,
You've made a great job there and I hope it gives many years service, I know it will.
Neil

 

[HuBBa]

Neil, thanx for the comments m8. This wont be the last hammock i do however. Still gotta try a asymmetrical design

Btw. if the fabric is only 90 wide, i'd use that in the center, since the main load will be there and thus it would prob be better with as few seems there as possible.

Cordura nylon has the disadvantage of being heavy & expensive. But on the other hand you are just as well off with a single layer. If you want a double layer to put in some foam pad, you can use a cheaper material outside the cordura since this wont have any load on it.