Tensahedron Stand

[Latherdome]

What are the preferred various options for poles?

I see Gadget used 2x2s.

I like the idea of a hollow pipe so that I can run some string through it.

What about canopy poles or steel pipe? Overkill?

Overkill in the strength department can often translate to cheap and worry-free, as long as you care less about weight/portability or aesthetics. It's only when trying to balance the various good qualities toward the light and portable end of the scale that cost and strength concerns become tricky. So, it depends! Basically each pole needs to bear 1/4 the hammock load statically without bending much or at all. But that load spikes when you plop yourself in it, or invite a friend, etc., to say nothing of safety margin or abuse/damage tolerance. The longer the pole, the easier it is to load it to the bend or buckle point, taking you down. My real quick sniff test is to arrange to handle the material in the proposed length, then brace it against an unmoving thing and try your hardest to bend it using your body weight on end alone, as if pole vaulting. If you can flex it more than the tiniest bit this way, you might be wasting your time or money.

The .742 7075 T9 tubing I tried sure felt stiff in short lengths, but it's a different story extended to >7'.

[GadgetUK437]

I've uploaded a Sketchup file folk might find a use for (scaling for poles etc).
This is a screengrab,


I had to rename the file as .TXT so that it would upload. If you want to work with the file, you will need to download it, then rename it from *.TXT to *.SKP

[MAD777]

Nice work there Gadget. In the real world and virtual world, LOL

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[Latherdome]

I've uploaded a Sketchup file folk might find a use for (scaling for poles etc).

Fantastic Paul! That's a pretty close model of my first working prototype. I actually started this process in January using Sketchup, to model the X Tensegrity stand. In February I hit walls, and since then have forgotten all I ever knew about using Sketchup, as my brain seems more and more aggressively to prune procedural knowledge not used as I age. Back on the horse...

[warbonnetguy]

Without having tried, I suspect the flatter suspension angle and longer min hang sort of take care of one another, at the expense of seat height for a given splay/stance.

Want me to send you a Ridgerunner to play with?

Email me your address

[Latherdome]

Shoutout to Turtlelady whose Bamboo stand (https://www.hammockforums.net/forum/...s-Bamboo-Stand) morphed into Turtledog and commercial variants thereof. I rode to the hardware store and bought 4 8' "ornamental" bamboo poles, hecho en China, for $27. Quite light! I'm told that certain specimens of bamboo compare favorably with mild steel in strength:weight, hence their occasional use in bicycle frames, scaffolding. Rode it home:



Lashed it up sloppy fast with a 9.5' ridgeline for my nominally 11.5' La Siesta Carolina (with Colibri insulated hammock as UQ), my nightly bed most of last 4.5 years:



There's a UCR for easy tether adjustment. Note also the D-rings in wall: my normal hang points, not far from the apexes of this stand that fits fine in this pretty tight sleeping loft:



And got in! And it held just fine, not even a creak, but my feet touch the poles and the head, well. This hang is too steep and the splay/stance too narrow:



Then I measured to find that the hammock is actually 12', and even my minimal suspension adds a bit of length, so I lengthened the ridgeline quite a bit to lift hammock, then narrowed the base:



Better, but 8' poles that lose some effective length by being lashed together aren't quite long enough to accommodate a 12' hammock optimally. Here's it with the 10' BoneFire Whisper, integral ridgeline, some porch springs as suspension (try it!). It's a bit high but that's easy to fix by broadening the base. I'll sleep in this tonight:

[MAD777]

Love this forum and how elegantly you build a new design using elements of Turtlelady's design!

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[may214]

hecho en China,

Yeah, yeah yeah, contributing to the community with a fascinating, minimalist, easily replicable with inexpensive materials, along with commercial implications that fills a market need portable hammock stand and all that.

But "hecho in China"? Something about that absolutely molested my funny bone.



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[CaptainGravity]

... bought 4 8' "ornamental" bamboo poles, hecho en China, for $27...

Cool, lots more elegant than the clunky 2" tree stakes in my current prototype! And the diameter on that bamboo looks to be... 1"? Maybe a bit bigger? Thanks

[Latherdome]

Cool, lots more elegant than the clunky 2" tree stakes in my current prototype! And the diameter on that bamboo looks to be... 1"? Maybe a bit bigger? Thanks

They vary, tapering from almost 2" down to about 7/8". I think "ornamental" is code for "don't complain about splits and breakage." There are plenty of bamboo poles out there selected and processed for more structural purposes. I'd look for those for anything beyond quick experiments/improvisation.

https://www.amazon.com/Bond-91018-10...dp/B00ANML5HC/ $2.31 a pole with "free" shipping via Prime. That's enough for 25 scouts, 4 lbs per stand. They can lash with BPSA tactical bolo tie cordage or maybe woodchuck gut and link end-to-end from a single ground tether. The game is to avoid domino-effect teeter-totter.