I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

[wirerat123]

After about 2 hours huddled over the sewing machine, and the final result of my most recent hammock project are here.  It turned out amazing.  I had to take pics in the kitchen, I can't wait to get some daytime pics of it in the woods.  It cost about $45 to build.  Now I need some camo Silnylon to make a tarp with.

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

[squidbilly]

That's nice!

Here is a thread about a guy making a camo tarp and doing his own silicone impregnation.

[DavidR]

Super cool! I'm a big fan of DIY for anything (well, except maybe dentistry...lol). It just saves so much money if you use a little know how. Great job. Let us know how it rolls when you field test it in some elements.

[wirerat123]

Some new pics from the inside, and outdoors, it's super windy so I threw the dogs mats in there to simulate someone inside.  Not shown is the 3 pocket ride organizer.

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

[wirerat123]

Hey squid, I found a supplier of 1.6oz coated digital camo to make a tarp with for $4.20 a yard.  Only .3oz more per yard than silnylon, and the coated stuff is more durable!

E Fabric Supplier

Dunno if any of you are familiar with these guys, but I'm liking the pricing, and they have some of the following.

66" wide 1.1oz calendared ripstop at $4.79 a yard
1.9oz coated ripstop at $4.79 and $5.40 a yard
72" wide 1.1oz calendared ripstop at $5.40 a yard
72" wide 1.9oz at $4.79 a yard
1.6oz coated digi camo for $4.20 a yard.

I'm liking the thought of 72" wide materials, and 1.6oz coated digi camo materials for a tarp for my most recent creation.  The 72" wide fabric is absolutely perfect for hammocks!

[wirerat123]

I field tested the camo hammock a couple weekends ago on an over night Sipsey Float.  Performed as good as my Hennessy hammock, only easier to hang with the whoopie slings and toggles.  it rocks, but I'm seriously considering selling or trading it, and making an even lighter one that packs down smaller.  I love the camo, I am really proud of how it turned out, but I know I've got a lot of 1.1 ripstops lying around here just begging to be made into Ultralight hammocks.  The camo one was built primarily for kayak camping in cooler weather as it is a vapor barrier.  I use a pad slid into a fleece sleeping bag under me in cool weather, and the vapor barrier is no issue, but if I used it bare skinned with nothing under me in the summer time I would sweat and wake up wet.  It was a hammock built with a specific purpose that I really don't see me using it that much.  I have chilled in it several times in hot weather before I put the netting on it, and it wasn't a problem unless there was absolutely no breeze.  I guess the 1.1 inner layer makes just enough difference in condensation.

I just made a hammock for my 2 year old, I love the way it turned out!

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

[squidbilly]

Sweet!  How many kids have their own custom hammock, especially one that cool? 

You know you have to make her a tarp too.

[wirerat123]

Sweet!  How many kids have their own custom hammock, especially one that cool? 

You know you have to make her a tarp too.

It will use the little Outdoor Products 5x7 tarp from Wal Mart, the blue matches perfectly too, and it fits under it like a charm.  Everything is all too perfect on it.  I hung it outside today and squeezed in and bounced around a bit.  I'm really trusting my craftsmanship now!  My old Necchi Bu Mira makes a mean stitch.

[Uncle Wayne]

Congrats, very good job.  Nothing wrong with saving a little money on camping gear as long as the quality is the same. 

[Eliteoomph]

Impressive man...  I would be very interested in doing the same thing...  Would you have any design tips or me?

[wirerat123]

Best advice I can give on building camping Hammocks and all accessories needed to get out there and actually safely sleep good in the woods for a change is to go to Hammock Forums, create an account, and get moving.  While you are at it look up Shugemery on Youtube and check out his beginner to hammock camping videos, he's a circus type performer (He calls himself a clown, and I can buy that hehe.) and quite funny.

Hammock Forums has to be by far the best community on the internet.  One regular contributor had his car stolen a couple of days ago and within 12 hours everyone on the forum got together and sent him needed spare gear until he had everything he needed to get him and his son back in the woods and some extra to get the wife out if she ever takes the plunge. 

When everyone sleeps as good as us hammock users, everyone is much more happy and polite.  You'll never see people flaming each other on Hammock Forums.  It's a welcome escape from the regular forum of people who just try to be internet bullies.

I did my hammock by trial and error, but here is a link to a thread with a good set of plans and instructions for building a Warbonnett Blackbird clone.
DIY Warbird

Here is one for a DIY Blackcat Catenary cut Hex tarp.
DIY Black Cat

Here for Whoopie Sling hammock suspension.
WHOOPIE SLINGS!

Tarp Ridge Line setup.
Tarp Ridge line setup

Tree Straps:
Tree Strap How to

Make all of that, and you have a hanging setup, then consider nice additions like a Bishop Bag, Ridgeline organizer, Top Quilt and underquilts, snake skins, etc.

Some tips:
Occasionally Wal Mart Fabric Dept has ripstop Nylon on the $1.50 sale rack.  Make sure it's the 60" wide fabric (There is two partial bolts at the Wal Mart in Guntersville right now one is calendared ripstop and is perfect for hammocks, but either will work great.).

Efabricsupplier. com has great prices on their ripstops and if weight isn't a concern they also have PU coated nylons for tarp building.  If you find her post on hammock forums and send her a PM she will cut you a deal and send you a paypal invoice.  Here is the big deal, she carries 72" wide ripstop in both 1.1 and 1.9oz ranges.  72" wide fabrics make for one super comfy hammock with no need to add strips to the sides to increase width.

Noah Lamport Fabrics (you have to call them to find out what colors they have) has 1.1 SilNylon for $3 per yard minimum 10 yards.  To build a big cat cut, lightweight tarp under $50 it's worth it.

For Bug Netting, don't use the Tulle fabrics a lot of people use, it's fragile, I typically look for really light polyester or nylon sheer materials with a tight netting weave.  Easy enough to find plenty in the Wal Mart $1.50 rack.  Or you can buy noseeum fabric from somewhere.

Just use whoopie sling hammock suspension and a single line with prussic tarp suspension.  You'll most likely end up there eventually anyway, so just do it right the first time lol.  Consider a Bishop bag as well, it makes setup and take down a breeze.

Also be careful, making your own gear becomes mind consuming after you successfully build a couple of piece of gear and see that it's not as hard as you expected.  One day you will wake up with a closet full of ripstop, silnylon, saved aluminum cans for making stoves, random ropes, webbings, twines, finished hammocks for all your family, a couple for loaners, etc etc.  We lost an entire closet to gear making supplies, but on a side note, I can make it in short order if I need it.

[squidbilly]

 Yeah, everything wirerat said!

Especially this:     " Also be careful, making your own gear becomes mind consuming after you successfully build a couple of piece of gear and see that it's not as hard as you expected.  One day you will wake up with a closet full of ripstop, silnylon, saved aluminum cans for making stoves, random ropes, webbings, twines, finished hammocks for all your family, a couple for loaners, etc etc.  We lost an entire closet to gear making supplies, but on a side note, I can make it in short order if I need it. "
 
 

[Roscoe]

What source do you guys use for the high strength cord? TIA

[wirerat123]

Redden Marine (online store) has amsteel Blue 7/64 for a good price.  That is used to make the whoopie slings for the hammock suspension.

For the tarp suspension there are tons of options ranging from Masons twine to zing it.  Also available at Redden marine.  I haven't dialed in my tarp suspension just yet, as I want a low stretch option that will fail before my tarp does, and that's a hard egg to crack.  Right now I'm using some camo twine I found at Wal Mart recently, and I think I'm going to stick with it.

You will notice, most items will need to be purchased through a web retailer as finding it around here could be difficult.  If you do, let us know!

I also suggest for making tree huggers, find someone with a totaled car and see if they'll let you cut out the seat belts, it's light, strong, and offers great tree protection being a 2" wide strap.

[squidbilly]

Strapworks has seatbelt webbing, and all other types of webbing.

Outdoorequipment supplier carries some good 1/16" spectra core cord that works well for guylines, doesn't tangle either.  Oh yeah, they make killer tarps and other accessories too.

I started using Kelty Triptease on our spinnUl tarps, just to keep from tripping over the lines in the dark. It really lights up under the headlamp beam.
 Funny you mentioned that camo cord from Walmart, Wirerat. Thats some good stuff too. It's cheap, fairly strong, light and made of polypropylene. Great all around utility cord.
When I finished my DIY Blackcat I planned on using it for guylines. However, since silnylon needs tensioners, I just cut four pieces of cheap shockcord I had. ( from an Academy Sports tent pole shockcord repair kit)  I tied them in a loop to my tieouts. They work great.

If you order from Redden Marine type in HammockForum in the discount code box for a 5% discount. They have been extending that offer every month this year.

[Eliteoomph]

Thanks for the advice guys!  I really appreciate it!  Will a normal sewing machine work for all this?   I may have to get some help from the wife on this one! ;o)

[bramblypines]

If you are looking for seatbelts try body shops. A lot of newer cars, especially high end
ones have sensors and locks on the retractors and if the air bag sensors go off the seatbelts
have to be replaced and generally they throw away the old ones.

[wirerat123]

Yep, I mean you may wear out a cheaper sewing machine, but if it's a decent quality home sewing machine, most likely it will handle every bit of the work you will need to build some setups.  I have an old school sewing machine, and it's a beast, but it is a home sewing machine, I've sewn everything from 2 layers of climbing grade nylon webbing, to a 4 layers including Nylon, Fleece, grosgrain and noseeum without issue.

I will say this, grab you a sewing machine so you don't mess hers up.  Something older but in great shape, and beefy enough to handle all that you may require of it.  I got this beauty off Craigslist for $25.

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

I now make kilts, tarps, hammocks, straps, cooking kits, etc.  My next project is a 2 sheet kayak.  My church is having an outdoors trip where they are going on a weekend canoe/kayak camping trip, and my goal is to do the entire week end only with home made equipment.  And that includes sewing up my own dry bags.

Thanks for the heads up Brambly, I'll have to check into that to see if I can get them to save the webbing for me!  I like the seat belt webbing much better than 1" straps, with the exception that it's pretty much impossible to use a marlin spike hitch with them.  Instead I just use Amsteel Nacrabiners to connect the hammock to the tree huggers.

[squidbilly]

Wow that Necchi is awesome! And what a deal, considering it will probably outlast anything you could buy today. (at God  knows what price?!)

Check this out: My wife picked it up for me yesterday. She was doing tornado relief work at a warehouse in B'ham when she spotted this old machine gathering dust. They let her have it for a donation to the relief effort.

Now I don't have to worry about using (breaking)her quilting/embroidery machine. That's it in the background of the case picture. Singer Quantum 5000

[wirerat123]

That's a beauty, love it, Bet it'll plow through some layers of fabric hehe. 

I am going to pick up a Necchi Bu Nova this afternoon for $20, I need a power cord for it is all.

I little elbow grease, and I'm so proud

I just hope my Bu Mira doesn't get jealous and start acting up.