DIY Hammock with Footbox

[craige]

Great thread TZ, I had a go at this the other day, I modded another hammock so aesthetics in the footbox area are somewhat compromised but it works fine.

I made mine 126" finished length and at 6'3" it is still a little short for me, it was definitely better for my sister (6') but still coulda been a bit longer. My friend who is 5'10" is going to try it soon, it will probably be fine for him.

I missed the post where you say you now recommend a 15" diagonal on the head end on the first read so mine is 20". Does it make that much of a difference?

I am ordering more fabric to play with come payday so I will get to play with this design again.

[TZBrown]

Craige

The largest difference is in the loose shoulder side.
If it is to long it gets pretty sloppy, if the sides are to short it is very difficult to get out of the hammock.

I have used the long, 156 inch, table cloth blanks recently, and they work pretty well. don't cut to shorten it until you do the head end.
Trim width to 63-64 inches, and then re-hem the one side.
Add the foot box triangle, it will significantly shorten the side when you do it, basically removing 60 inches of length and only replacing it with 30 inches.
Hem the foot end, and gather, knotty style' will have to re do this when adding the zing it line, tie fit the head end and try it out. be careful of the foot box junctions.
After you have the length as you want it, hem the head end then add the zing it per the length of the side channels. tie both ends, knotty style, including the zing it, add a ridge line of about 80% and try it out

[Andyaux]

Oh ok because I was looking at the original post and was confused because it had a picture of a parallelogram instead of a trapezoid.

so I'm still confused if is or isn't supposed to be trapezoid? Really wanting to make a hammock based off this design and I've also been having a hard time wrapping my head around it. A pic of the finished hammock laid out flat without whipping would help due to the way my mind works.

[TZBrown]

In the original design, I started with a parallelogram, after putting it together the shoulder side was to loose so I cut about 4 inches from the end on an angle from 0 at the right side to 4 at the left side.
That changed it to a trapezoid. In the pic above it is confusing. My drawing skills are near 0. That would be a view from below the hammock, the footbox,( triangle) is on the right, top in the pic, of the hammock when hung and the side that was shortened is the non footbox side which was taken from 116 down to about 112. Then I re did the zingit in that side to shorten it to fit.

What I would do is complete all but the head end, leave it square and not hemmed. Tie a sheet bend in the end doing a fan fold type whipping, taper the fan fold, bundle and sheet bend it to a line, to shorten the footbox side and try a lay in it. Careful not to stress the footbox.
When you have the lay you want take it apart and cut to fit on the diagonal and then hem. After that make the side lines to fit the lengths of each side, then re tie the ends to include the side lines.

Hope it is a bit more clear now. I can't take apart the original as I am heading out for most of the month of Oct, but maybe after that.

[Andyaux]

Thanks i think i got it now honna start on my own tomorrow.

[Off The Grid]

Hey everybody, I'm new to hammock hanging but a seasoned Adirondack camper. So I need to get this right the first time or close, Ha Ha.
I was a little nervous at first cutting up my Grandtrunk. Chickened out on cutting the total wedge so I went with 15" instead of 30" on the side edge of the hammock, then used the 30" side of the 30x30x42 and ended up with about 12" for my footbox. (this needed to be extended because it would be to short on the 15" cutout edge side so I could run the zing-it lines at a later time. then sewed it to the hammock. Works awesome like it is without the zing-it lines, although I will add them later. I made a little loop with the extra material I had not sewn into the hem to pull up the foot box a tad. This brings the hammock into a more comfortable position. and opens up around the shoulders. I did nothing at the head end as of yet. I may not need to. Durability without zing-it lines has been tested two nights, No Problems! I will creep up on the proper parallelogram starting at the head end. does that make sense? because I like the way the foot box hangs.

[TZBrown]

Good Job Off the Grid

First post too, Welcome to the forum.
You tackled a pretty hard project for the first one.

Can you post up a couple of pics of your completed work?

Glad you were thinking "out of the box".
I had not thought to add a wedge to an existing hammock to get the footbox effect.
I have a bunch of projects to convert now.

[Deadphans]

Shhh yes. Look what has surfaced, love this site.

[Off The Grid]

I'm working of the head end of the hammock right now so pictures will be posted after the modification. Thanks TZ for the great posts. I look forward to posting other DIY projects I have in mind.

[Dabberty]

Hello all, i went through this thread a couple of times, including others, but to me it is still not clear, trapezoid, parallelogram, and especially the calculations.
Below a pic of both versions to explain my questions.

Please explain to me:
1. Left side, parallelogram, like a previous poster mentioned, if you remove from both sides the same amount, or one slightly more then the other, it still does not make up for the missing 17" missing (minus 2x30 = 60, plus 43).
Does it mean head side should indeed be longer ?

2. Right side, trapezoid, also suggested by some posters, if from 1 side only 20 + 20" are removed, you have a minus of 40". If you do the triangle thing again on the other side, you are only 17" short (130 total length, minus 60, plus 43).
That would mean the head side is 23" shorter then the foot side...

3. If I shorten with the given triangle the footside 17", should I not remove from the head side in total 17" as well ? Not calculating the hems etc.
In that case both sides would be equal again.