The TurtleDog stand

[gmcttr]

We now end the math portion of this show and return you to your regularly scheduled thread on the TDS..............hopefully.

[oldpappy]

Whatever else, but my only experience with a TDS falling was to realize that the top rail coming down was more hurtful than the ground coming up. YMMV.

I would think this is due to the mass of your body falling will be distributed over a large area where the mass of the ridge pole will be focused on a pin point area of the head.
Or, ouch, that's going to bruise where the sun don't shine vs. o crap, that really hurt and this goose egg will be hard to hide under my hat.

[Tankosl]

Right........

I've decided tonight's the night to come back indoors!!!

I put my stand and hammock up on the 7th July and I haven't slept indoors since

We've had a week camping in the bell tent in between and then back in the hammock when I got back home

I've slept out in some heavy rain storms, just me and the cat and been totally dry.......

I've picked up a nasty cough now, and combined with the heavy rain storms today and getting soaked at work I'm retreating inside to my bed.....

But, it's been a great experience and it won't be the last time.........

[CrappyfishRman]

Just made my turtledog hammock stand. 6.5' legs for tripod. 2 top rails for a fence 6' long each, and one is tapered. Thing works great!!! Now i can annoy the wife and hang any where in the house!!!

[ibgary]

I find it better to hang outside after annoying the wife. :beer:

[sliver]

I'm guessing that you can probably annoy your wife regardless of where you hang. LOL

Just built one like yours. I couldn't believe how easy it was. I'm thinking about doing a bamboo one next. I kind of like the aesthetics of bamboo and rope/cord.

Have fun with it. Get out there. :-)

[Mountnman]

My first set of stands, I made another after this set for my Wifey

image.jpg

[skree]

Whatever else, but my only experience with a TDS
falling was to realize that the top rail coming down
was more hurtful than the ground coming up. YMMV.

Ha, no kidding. That's been my concern from the moment I heard
about this design.

http://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Jungle...dp/B005KUL00O/



This is a swing-set A-frame bracket.

It wants 4x4 posts and 4x6 for the beam. That's about 180 lb. for this
rig (including 9 lb. per bracket for the steel).

The 4x6 beam, alone, weighs 58 lb. (12').

Looking at 25 lb. per 4x4 post (8').

This A-frame would be a very safe and strong structure, and, I think,
would weigh in favorably, compared with other 'properly' scaled free-
standing rigs (A-frame or H-frame styles).

Nothing to prevent someone from shimming out this bracket with
smaller lumber, to accept smaller-dimensioned uprights and the
beam, if they think this is overkill, as designed.

I think this bracket is great, because it more or less sets the upper
limits of the design goal, and also establishes a reasonable price
point to expect, for such a bracket.

And, it gives an idea how it ought to be engineered, which is great.

_____
I have no financial interests in this,
only personal interest.

[samsara]

Ha, no kidding. That's been my concern from the moment I heard
about this design.

http://www.amazon.com/Eastern-Jungle...dp/B005KUL00O/



This is a swing-set A-frame bracket.

It wants 4x4 posts and 4x6 for the beam. That's about 180 lb. for this
rig (including 9 lb. per bracket for the steel).

The 4x6 beam, alone, weighs 58 lb. (12').

Looking at 25 lb. per 4x4 post (8').

This A-frame would be a very safe and strong structure, and, I think,
would weigh in favorably, compared with other 'properly' scaled free-
standing rigs (A-frame or H-frame styles).

Nothing to prevent someone from shimming out this bracket with
smaller lumber, to accept smaller-dimensioned uprights and the
beam, if they think this is overkill, as designed.

I think this bracket is great, because it more or less sets the upper
limits of the design goal, and also establishes a reasonable price
point to expect, for such a bracket.

And, it gives an idea how it ought to be engineered, which is great.

_____
I have no financial interests in this,
only personal interest.

I'm not sure that overkill is the correct term for this... overkill is drastically understating what you have here This wouldn't meet the needs that people have who are building the TD stand: ease/expense of construction and portability.

This would actually be a great option for a permanent stand in the back yard if you ask me. The brackets cost more than, and almost weigh as much as, the basic TD stand. I think (but I ain't no engineer) that when you start shimming it down then you will be losing quite a bit of the strength/sturdiness that these brackets offer but since it is so overbuilt to begin with it would probably be fine.

The original TD stand design from the first post in this thread will work just fine and, indeed, I used it for about a year before moving up to a "toprail on top" TD 2 because my tablecloth brazilian was so long and big that I needed lots of elevation. I'm 6'2" and weigh 230 pounds and have no problems using the original TD stand on a nightly basis.

The biggest keys to success and safety with this design are:

• Get good quality wood with a minimum of knots and no splits.
• If you are much more than my weight then you might want to move up to larger boards (2x3 or 2x4) and sturdier hardware
• Build it right and solid
• Make sure that you keep the attachment to the tripod and the attachment of your hammock to the toprail inline vertically. If your hammock is attached outside of where your tripod attachment is then your pole will bow up. Inside and it will bow down. You don't want bow because that invites failure (and failure is not an option ). This one is discussed in several places but if you attach your toprail and your hammock like I did in the first post then you will be fine (but I think there are much better ways of doing it that have been done since that first post... the hppyfngy eyebolt method is the best that I have seen yet).
• Use it appropriately. It is for sleeping/napping/relaxing in, not for kids playing or swinging in. Having said that... I often start my hammock swinging when I'm using the TD stand and don't have any problem when I do. It will swing pretty good but obviously I don't go crazy with it, I'm sure there is a limit somewhere but I just don't push it too far.

I really like those brackets though... would be great, like I said, for a permanent place to hang in the back yard if you don't have trees. It would be really easy to do with that thing. Hey, you could also hang a swing from it when you aren't using the hammock

Dave

[skree]

I'm not sure that overkill is the correct term for this...

Haha.

... about a year before moving up to a "toprail on top" TD 2

How exactly is that secured?

... Hey, you could also hang a swing from it when you aren't
using the hammock

Dave

It could be repurposed for a lot of things. It's a nice bracket.

Hi Dave (in saṃsāra),

I think the playground A-frame bracket could accept a 4x6 wooden
plug, say, 10 inches long, with a nice bore hole dead center, into
which a galvanized steel pipe (of any practical dimension at all)
could be inserted, which would act as the ridegpole.

For a very large diameter pipe, crosswise bores could be used to fix
the pipe to the plug (think set-screws, or they could align to cross-
bores made in the pipe itself, to accept a through-bolt).

Since the bracket is open at the end, the beam (or, the 'plug' dis-
cussed above, and whatever the plug accepts into its bore-hole) may
protrude out the back (away from the hammock and the center of
the stand).

No particular reason a vertical bore hole could not be drilled, into
the bottom of the bracket, to accept a pass-through lag eye, to
be used to hang the load (the hammock).


Also, having removed the 4x6x10 plug, now; there's no reason
the bracket cannot be shimmed out to accept a square, wooden (or
metal tubular) ridgepole of very modest cross-section, such as
1.25" tubular steel, 2x2 dimensional lumber, and so forth. It might,
in fact, be a near-ideal experimentation platform, to test material
strength.


Leg reduction

Instead of shimming the 4x4 legs, full timbers could be turned on
a lathe, to reduce mass, or various Colonial-era woodworking tools
can be used on them, to hew them into dimension more suitable to
this application.

The environmental Indian may start to cry.


Angles

The bracket is said (by a person reviewing it) to be 30 degrees spread
at the apex, in the same plane as the legs. They said that the distance
between the feet of the legs will be roughly the same as the length of
a leg. They also said that the overall effect of the compound angles was
10 degrees away from the vertical.





http://www.elevatorsllc.com/ seems to like an 8 degree compound
angle on their brackets, which I'm also considering in a similar vein
(they are not for A-frames, however; they're for elevated hunting
platforms, loft beds, workbenches, H-frames, and the like).

So, 8 degrees versus 10 degrees; they're in the same camp (and
align with my own thinking: since it's not a tripod, you can get
away with a much steeper lean-angle than a ladder against
a house!)

This could save serious floor-space, on a compact indoor
application, where space between opposite walls is quite tight.

. . .

I really like the enclosing, captured-ends aspect of the playground
A-frame bracket.

It is, at a minimum, 20 lb. of added weight. I suppose if mobility
was a critical issue, several holes could be drilled in the thing, to
remove some of the steel, without utter compromise of structural
integrity of these A-frame brackets.


Has the 2:00 a.m. Indian chief cried a single tear, yet? I usually don't
stop, until he does.

Thanks for your reply, Dave. It was a good synthesis, and I
appreciate it.

skree
NW Connecticut (73W41N)