Formula for making continuous loops

**SmokeBait** · 11-03-2011, 19:45

Opie did an excellent pictorial on how to make a continuous loop here:

http://www.hammockforums.net/forum/s...ad.php?t=13779

I've had a lot of folks ask me if there was a simple formula for what length of line to use when making other than a 12" loop. Yes there is and let me just say this applies to 7/64" Amsteel Blue using the same 6" bury. So here we go...

(2 x L) + 12 +3 = inches of line needed. Where (L) is the length of the desired finished loop.

(12) is to account for the two 6" buries and (3) is to account for the compression of the outer line due to the buries.

You can simplify it to loop size times 2 plus 15 inches.

So if one wanted a 24" loop, you start with 63" of line. Again, this is for 7/64" Amsteel Blue.

Hope this helps those making loops.

**flatline** · 11-03-2011, 19:56

thanks SmokeBait, that's good stuff!

**dragon360** · 11-03-2011, 20:10

Fantastically helpful (not sure its even a word but works here!). Really good to have. Thanks.

**timabababaluka** · 11-03-2011, 20:42

Originally Posted by dragon360

Fantastically helpful (not sure its even a word but works here!). Really good to have. Thanks.

'Fantastically' is a perfectly cromulent word

.

And the formula is much appreciated. I'm one of those people who has to have a strictly adhered-to plan for anything unfamiliar (I follow baking instructions so rigidly that I measure liquids precisely at the meniscus (you can actually hear the Missus rolling her eyes from the other room on the rare occasions that I bake)).

This and the whoopie length calculator are my new splicer's best friend

**GrizzlyAdams** · 11-03-2011, 21:37

Originally Posted by timabababaluka

'Fantastically' is a perfectly cromulent word

.

And the formula is much appreciated. I'm one of those people who has to have a strictly adhered-to plan for anything unfamiliar (I follow baking instructions so rigidly that I measure liquids precisely at the meniscus (you can actually hear the Missus rolling her eyes from the other room on the rare occasions that I bake)).

This and the whoopie length calculator are my new splicer's best friend

Score! I learned two new words from this single post (one was new to me as I have never owned a TV). Dang I feel smart now and positively poindextrose

**herbalist** · 11-03-2011, 22:51

Doesn't everybody measure at the meniscus?

**Knotty** · 11-03-2011, 23:18

Thanks SmokeBait. It's the 3" loss that's not obvious when figuring these things out.

So each 6" bury shortens the outer braid by 1.5" or 25%. Handy to know when making structural ridgelines with spliced eyes at each end.

**timabababaluka** · 11-04-2011, 00:25

Originally Posted by GrizzlyAdams

Score! I learned two new words from this single post (one was new to me as I have never owned a TV). Dang I feel smart now and positively poindextrose

I believe my favorite Halloween candy, Smartees, is flavored with poindextrose

.

Originally Posted by herbalist

Doesn't everybody measure at the meniscus?

They should

. I probalbly should have said I duck my head level to the counter, add drop by drop, pour a bit out and repeat the process until the meniscus is perfectly level with the measure mark. I'm not usually that type of person, but I have had so many failed baking attempts that I leave nothing to chance.

**Catavarie** · 11-04-2011, 00:49

Originally Posted by timabababaluka

...I have had so many failed baking attempts that I leave nothing to chance.

That's why I leave any non-bread baking to my wife. I can cook near anything on the stove, in an oven, over an open flame, but you ask me to bake any thing even related to dessert every bit of culinary sense I have turns to mush and hides.

I baked a birthday cake for my wife once...took 7 times to get it right.