New Folding Hammock Stand Idea

**GrumpyTom** · 02-17-2012, 23:41

Hey all! Man, I have been seriously BITTEN by the hammock bug!

I wanted to make a stand for my daughter's so they could sleep inside if they chose, or take them outside on the deck during the summer...

I looked at all the folding stand ideas, and all the rest of the stand ideas on here, and came up with this. Please let me know what you think, how it could be improved, etc.

It's made from 3 x 8-foot 2x4s... 1 is left whole as the base, the other two are cut into 3.5-foot lengths for use as the arms and the legs. A total of 10 eyelets were used, and 2 x 3/8" carriage bolts (3.5" long). Took about 20mins to put together. I sat in it (180lbs) no problem. Right now the legs are screwed on, but I think I can use the carriage bolts on them also so they spin into the same oreientation as the body.

Fully setup (notice the purple fabric/ropes - this daughter loves purple, other loves orange, so that's next

)

Arms folded down:

Closeup of small block to keep arm in place until everything is strung up:

**DivaB** · 02-17-2012, 23:51

I love it!!

**fish_n1** · 02-18-2012, 00:47

Nice. Looks great. I need to make one of those.

**Merganser** · 02-18-2012, 11:30

I like the idea of using the cord to stabilize the "uprights" vs a bracing board inside, which is what I did.

**deerfu** · 02-18-2012, 19:16

Looks great! Do you think it could support a 225lb adult?

**GrumpyTom** · 02-18-2012, 19:35

Um, I think with correctly rated line (550 cord) it would support a full size adult. I'm 180 and it wasn't the structure that i was worried about, but the cordage (it's cheap poly cord - only purple I could find - it's only rated to 75lbs).

obviously the dimensions would have to be expanded to accommodate a full-size hammock (this one is only 8 ft total length).

**titanium_hiker** · 02-18-2012, 22:01

a lot of stands work this way- we own two of them- but some wonder if it might be nicer to have two centre beams so that if you fell, you'd land on the floor, not the beam. Looks nice!

**GrumpyTom** · 02-18-2012, 22:04

totally agree on not wanting to fall on the beam

but adding a second beam would increase the weight, kind of defeating the portable aspect i was going for.

**AaronAlso** · 02-19-2012, 08:27

A hefty layer, or two, of CCF on that center beam would certainly reduce the ouchie if someone did fall on it.

**Merganser** · 02-27-2012, 13:16

I have been sleeping in my hammock regularly for almost a year now, haven't fallen out once so I don't think that is much of a problem. I would think that one would be more likely to fall to one side or the other than dead center anyway.

If I did fall out I'd land on the board no matter where it was