I am working on a Climashield UQ and decided to get some of the components fabbed up before starting on the sewing stuff.

I found that I had some leftover 1/16" & 1/8" shock cord, but not enough to do the entire UQ in one size. I decided to cut the shorter 1/8" shock cord in half which gave me two pieces about 3'-4' long. I wanted to then attach some woven utility cord to both ends of each of the 1/8" shock cords, thereby still affording me some elasticity to the supports while making them long enough to reach the SRL of the hammock. I could not find any instructible on attaching woven cord to shock cord of similar diameters, so I worked up my own.

1. Trim the shock cord and slightly melt the nylon sheathing with a flame. While it is still soft (but hot) quickly shape the melted nylon into a point as well as you can. Do this on both ends.

2. Cut the woven nylon utility cord and gently open the end with a sharpened small diameter wooden dowel. Push the weave together to expand the ID of the cord. Gently slide the shock cord into the open, expanded end of the utility cord and work it over the outside of the shock cord for approximately 1"

3. Apply a few drops of Super Glue to the utility cord at the point where it starts to really unravel. Let dry.

4. Trim loose ends of the utility cord back to the dried SG.

5. Take some Dyneema or Spectra based fishing line and sew through the 2 cords using the lock-stitch procedure, the same as when anchoring an eye splice with Amsteel.

5. Pull the fishing line good and tight, tie the end off and run 3 beads of SG over the stitching to seal it. Let it dry.

6. Take a 2" length of 1/4" diameter heat-shrink tubing that reduces to 1/8", slide it over the junction and carefully shrink it with a flame. Be careful to not get the flame near the cords. If you have a heat gun, this is much better to use.

7. You will wind up with a clean and smooth junction between the dissimilar cords that should be strong enough to handle the pressures of holding an under quilt tight to the bottom of your hammock and still allow adjustments.

If you need photos, I can add them to this DIY.

Have fun.

SE