My friend was able to get us a old parachute from a pawnshop with a mfg date of 1967, i think. It is ripstop nylon, but we have no idea what size, 1.1, 1.9, etc. Has anyone ever used an old parachute to make a hammock? It seems pretty thin so I think we may double up on the material. We should be able to make several hammocks with this parachute. Its olive green, dome shaped, and I think 25ft diameter.
Last edited by qldavis; 03-06-2012 at 18:43.
We used to play with parachutes in school. You could put someone in the middle and toss them up in the air. I don't see why it wouldn't work. You could always gather a section together and give it a test run before you started cutting and sewing.
Gee, I would wash it first, you might have something living in it!
yeah, we pulled on the fabric some to test the strength, but couldn't make up our minds. i just didn't know if anyone else had used one. i will probably double layer mine so that it will last longer. i know it will be twice as heavy, but should still be alot lighter than a tent.
i'm just getting started in hammock camping as well as diy gear. my buddy and i made some hammocks last year, but made them a little to short for comfort. what length above your height should you make?
I just made my first hammock. I'm 5"11 (on a good day) and purchased 3.5 yards of material. It seems to be just right.
Check out Just Jeff's hammock camping pages http://www.tothewoods.net/HomemadeHammock.html
He has a lot of good information there. And there is the DIY gathered hammock post (sticky) right here on HF.
Its not size your talking about its weight. ripstop 1.1 weights just that. It weighs 1.1oz per square yard. You could always weigh a square yard and find out.
Yosemite Sam: Are you trying to make me look a fool?
Bugs: You don't need me to make you look like a fool.
Yosemite Sam: Yer deerrrnnn right I don't!
Funny, I was in this exact situation a couple of years ago. My friends and I picked up an old parachute from a nearby second-hand store. It was orange, white and olive green. We initially played around with it, got into some deep trouble with it, and finally began considering making some gear out of it.
I'm not sure about your 'chute but mine was super thin ripstop. I would almost say it was less than 1.1 oz ripstop nylon. I compared it to some known 1.1 oz and it was thinner and lighter. Anyways, I found that the fabric would be strong enough to make a hammock out of, but the sewn in seams and reinforcements on the parachute made finding a piece of fabric big enough to make a hammock out of impossible. Also the material stretched quite substantially.
Eventually I decided to make some stuff sacks out of it but they turned out less than ideal for several reasons. Because the fabric was so wrinkled it was hard to cut out an appropriate sized piece of material and sew it.
Long story short, I would say no.
P.S. One cool idea I had but never acted on was to take the parachute and tie it up amongst a bunch of tress like a spider web. Each of the lines coming out of the 'chute could be tied to a tree and the strings in the middle of the 'chute (ours had them anyways) could be suspended to a branch above. This would create an awesome hang out hammock type thing for a couple people.
Last edited by ra1n1ng; 03-10-2012 at 23:10.
i say try this and tell us how it goes. sounds pretty darn cool to me. itd be kike one of thos tensile hammocks flyin around on here.Originally Posted by ra1n1ng
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