I blame my wife for getting me into the Christmas Spirit way too early this year. She has been shopping for gifts and discussing plans with me since Labor Day weekend, and I just got sucked right in. I decided that I would make my wife a tablecloth hammock for Christmas, so I started doing the planning for materials, and I settled on the following:
- Hammock Body -Tablecloth from Tablecloths Factory
- Suspension -Straps and cinch buckles from ReadyStrap (Thanks Gary)
- Continuous Loops and Structural Ridgeline -Amsteel from dutchwaregear.com (Thanks Dutch)
- Whipping for the Hammock Ends - Some extra 550 cord I had lying around
Including shipping, I spent just over $50 for the whole thing.
I ordered everything and got it within less than a week, which was actually quite a bit faster than I was anticipating. Being the impatient guy that I am, I just got way too anxious to build this sucker. Since my wife and kids were out of town with in-laws, I took advantage of the time between getting off of work and heading down to meet them to make the hammock. The whole thing came together in about an hour, and that included me scrounging up all the tools and double-and-triple checking the directions on how to splice the amsteel. Not bad, considering that this is my first project of this type.
Once I was finished, I went to the park a couple blocks away from my house to set it up and test it out. This is where I ran into my first and only problem with the materials I got. I bought the straps from Gary based on their color, not their size, and the shrink tube he uses on the thicker webbing straps was too wide to properly fit through the cinch buckles that I also bought from him.I resolved to figure that one out later, and I just grabbed the thin ratchet straps that I use on my own hammock so I could at least test everything else. Here is a look at the tubing that I was talking about:
CAM00036.jpg
As far as that everything else is concerned, it surpassed my expectations for comfort. The whole thing set up super easily and was ridiculously comfortable compared to my GT Ultralight, and I think that hammock is pretty darn comfy! I think the extra size and thicker material are what really make the difference. Here is a close-up of the suspension and a few pics of the hammock in action:
CAM00032.jpg
CAM00033.jpg
CAM00034.jpg
After I got to my in-laws, I decided to see if I could cut off that shrink tubing to make the straps fit through the buckles properly. I had to be really careful, but I got the tubing off and the straps now fit into the buckles beautifully! I am now super excited to give this to my wife in 2 more months. Heck, I might not even be able to wait that long, I'm so excited.
Reply With Quote
Originally Posted by HuffNPuff
Bookmarks