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Thread: Need DIY ideas

  1. #1
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    Need DIY ideas

    If I wanted to make a DIY hammockish contraption under the following circumstances, what would be the best way?

    Situation: I live in a bunk bed right now for the foreseeable future. It's gonna get hot soon enough, and I'm interested in keeping cool. From exerience, I figure a hammock is cooler than a mattress. Probably more comfortable-- but then again sleeping cross-ways accross a doghouse would be more comfortable than my mattress.

    Restrictions: I cannot hang a conventional hammock. Just can't be done. Not near enough room, and not near enough structure to attach it to. Hammock stand also out-- not near enough room. I cannot sew-- at least not very well. But I can cut, tie, and duct-tape with the best of 'em. Nobody lives in the top bunk. Easy access to paracord, but I'd have to order webbing or non-stretchy line.

    Assets: Well, that bunk bed is built like a tank. I could tie off or otherwise attach things to the corner posts and/or the rails of the top bunk and be suspended safely. I think I have access to whatever fabric one can order off the internet. I already have some cotton sheets that I could use.

    My thinking only takes me as far as hanging some fabric off the top bunk. It looks like I could create some sort of bridge-type hammock-ish thing. After that, I'm kinda at a loss.

    Sorry for the long post. Any thoughts from the goup?

    And, no. No, I am not in prison.

  2. #2
    Senior Member KerMegan's Avatar
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    If you can get hold of some extra wide fabric, it might be possible to make a hammock that you could lie down almost entirely perpendicular ( think the bottom of the U-shape) this would take less room length than a conventional banana or diagonal hammock. I tried this once when I hung up my eno double as a seat/swing one time, where all I had was a single huge branch. pretty comfy, but was not trying to sleep in it at the time.
    HTHelps, KM

  3. #3
    Senior Member gargoyle's Avatar
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    Try tying up some fabric (an old sheet for test fitting) to the four corner posts. Think a big bridge. The distance should be good, and setting the sag will be done when tying out. If the sheet looks like it can work, order up some ripstop or suitable fabric. Raw factory edges will work. If you cut, you need to hem. So obviously the two short sides will need a hem. Fold, pin and sew with needle and thread, by hand. I t should only take an hour or two to hem the two sides.
    Use a sheetbend knot to attach the hammock suspension.

    Or simply tie a knot in the fabric for a gathered end style, adjust length of hammock to fit your span. A ten foot length of fabric (raw edges on the long sides) and twist a knot in the ends. If the sag is too much, undo one knot and move it in. Tie suspension on behind the knots.
    Your Bed---
    Looking solid and being solid are two different things. Hang at your own risk.

    I screwed hooks in my walls and hang from those. I burnt the bed

    Pics and dimensions might help.
    Last edited by gargoyle; 03-24-2011 at 17:13.
    Ambulo tua ambulo.

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    Quote Originally Posted by gargoyle View Post
    Trying tying up some fabric (an old sheet for test fitting) to the four corner posts. Think a big bridge. The distance should be good, and setting the sag will be done when tying out. If the sheet looks like it can work, order up some ripstop or suitable fabric. ...

    Pics and dimensions might help.
    Well, I thought about the big bridge idea. But the problem is I can't tension the ends of the hammock. Not enough room and nothing to attach to. So the long sides of the fabric have to attach to the long sides of the top bunk-- if they're gonna attached to anything. Same thing goes with the short sides. What I'll have is fabric hanging down with a U-shaped cross-section. I'm guessing if I don't do something else, I won't be a guy lying in a hammock-- I'll be a guy getting squeezed in a cloth envelope.

    No pics. But as for dimensions... The bunk bed frame is about 6'4" long by maybe 3'6" wide. I didn't bring a tape measure, but I'm pretty sure it ain't an adult-sized bed. I have maybe 3'6" of open space between the bottom of the upper frame and the lower mattress.

  5. #5
    Senior Member JohnSawyer's Avatar
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    Like this:


    It's a quasi-bridge hammock. If the fabric (100% polyester or Nylon ripstop) is strong enough, the unfinished edge should hold fine. I've made these for my kids by simply tying an overhand knot (I'd do a Double-overhand) in each corner, and then tying each corner to the bedframe with some rope and a larkshead.... Play with the sag on the hammock until it's comfortable...

    I tied loops and used large s-hooks on one end to make for easy setup and take down.

    By tying it under the top bunk, failures leave you bouncing on your mattress....

    John
    "Do or do not, there is no try." -- Yoda


  6. #6
    Senior Member gargoyle's Avatar
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    "...Bunk bed is built like a tank", ..."nothing to attach to"..????

    Okay, color me confused???
    Its a bunk bed, what is holding up the top bunk?
    Boards? Steel? Is there a frame for the top bunk?
    Heres what I'm envisioning. Only on a twin-sized bunk bed scale.


    By removing the mattress and tensioning between the posts/upright on the four corners, you got a hang spot. Forego the spreader bar and use bed's frame as a "spreader" BAR.

    Its your bed. I can't say that STRUCTURALLY it will work. By leaving the typical framework of the mattress supports in place, it should reduce the risks of collapsing your "tank-built bed". Additional bracing may be needed.

    HANG AT YOUR OWN RISK!

    Here's smaller hammock that may work in your room.
    Ambulo tua ambulo.

  7. #7
    PapaSmurf's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Nails View Post
    ...I can't tension the ends of the hammock. Not enough room and nothing to attach to. So the long sides of the fabric have to attach to the long sides of the top bunk-- if they're gonna attached to anything. Same thing goes with the short sides.
    Just thinking out load here.
    If you can make something like Gargoyle suggests. Could you make straps out of webbing that attach to the support above? This way you would put much of the force downward, the way the frame was designed to carry the weight and you would have 4 solid attachment points.

    Here's a rough drawing.
    The dark blue strap carries almost all the weight & the green strap serves to adjust the outward tension.
    Attached Images Attached Images

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    Quote Originally Posted by PapaSmurf View Post
    Just thinking out load here.
    If you can make something like Gargoyle suggests. Could you make straps out of webbing that attach to the support above? This way you would put much of the force downward, the way the frame was designed to carry the weight and you would have 4 solid attachment points.

    Here's a rough drawing.
    The dark blue strap carries almost all the weight & the green strap serves to adjust the outward tension.
    Hmmm.... Interesting...

    I'll have to do some experiments. We have lots of strapping around here. I'll let yinz know.

    Thanks.

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    You've got the heat idea down though. I'm sleeping in my hammock now and have been for 3-4 months? I guess it was around the first of the year. In a bed, in winter I was sleeping in light shorts over underwear and a thin, floppy, almost worn out tank top. The house is around 72-74 degrees though I wold program it down to 68 at night, my wife a little uncomfortably cool BUT she has a couple dogs and a cat that keep her warm. Me, until December I was sweating my rear off. I put a towel over my pillows just to keep from covering them. Swapped to the hammock and now I'm in flannel PJ bottoms with socks and a big old, heavy T-shirt AND I get cold about halfway through the night. Sunday was 90 degrees and my room not much cooler. I napped in comfort in my old short and tank in the middle of the day. Gonna work out great come summer.

    Do you HAVE to have the top bunk there if nobody is in it or are you just using the frame. I'm thinking ventilation and head clearance. You could always store the top mattress under the bottom one and then attach to the corners like Papa's drawing.

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    Quote Originally Posted by MrClean417 View Post
    Do you HAVE to have the top bunk there if nobody is in it or are you just using the frame. I'm thinking ventilation and head clearance. You could always store the top mattress under the bottom one and then attach to the corners like Papa's drawing.
    Nobody's using it, but removing it isn't gonna give me anymore space. The parts of the bed that support the mattresses are just a series of iron rungs. No matter what's on top of 'em, as you approch from underneath you run into the rungs. It's kinda like they built the bed outta 4 vertical posts with two sections of wrought iron railing between them for the bed platforms.

    Thanks, though.

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