I’m new to hammocks and this is my first HammockForums post. My interest is hanging indoors, not outdoors. I am a habitual stomach sleeper and as the years go by I have been waking to back pain and spasms, not a good way to greet the day. A hammock should cure me because it’s virtually impossible to sleep on your stomach in one.
I didn’t want to sink large bolts into the walls of my rental house so started looking for a cheap stand. I discovered the TurtleLady/TurtleDog stand. There is extra room in my bedroom so something like it should work for me. But cost was a concern because I still didn’t know if a hammock would work for me. I redesigned the original stand, stripping it down to the most basic parts. I’ll explain my version in (probably too much) detail.
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The legs are made of ¾” EMT conduit, 3-10 ft. lengths cut in half. Initially I put them together with tripod lashing using 550 paracord. Didn’t work because the conduit slips through the lashings. Better solution is an assembly of ¼ x 3” bolts and 3” eye-bolts with lock nuts.
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Note that the stands in my photos do not have washers because the bolts I initially used are too short. I suggest using the longer ones with washers.
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The ridge pole is a 10-½ ft chain-link fence top rail. To reduce the overall length for transport I cut it in half and used the tapered end to refitted the two pieces back together. Holes for ½” bolts are drilled near each end. I hammered ½” bolts into the top of one of the legs of each stand. A bolt head alone will twist and loosen inside the conduit. Threading an additional nut onto the bolt before hammering it in will make for a tight fit.
I spread the legs apart about 3 ft. at the floor then, to maintain the spread, I tied them together with some cord that I had laying around. This gives you a very stable stand with a near perfect 53 inch hang height. You can gain another couple of inches by reducing the spread down to 2-½ ft but any less the stand becomes unstable.
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Initially I used perforated steel strap and S-hooks for the suspension. You can quickly make adjustments to the suspension length but tend to squeak and make noise.
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Once you’ve worked out the proper suspension length it’s simpler, and quieter, to remove the straps and just loop the suspension over the top of a leg.
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I prefer my hammock foot end to be higher than the head end. Here I’m using a couple of 8 inch Amsteel continuous loops larks headed together at the head end with nothing extra at the foot.
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As far as costs go, my initial Lowe’s purchase of fence rail, conduit and misc. hardware was about $30. I also had to buy a pipe cutting tool for about $20. The follow up ¼” hardware purchase was about $5.
I’m pretty happy with this stand, been using it constantly for the past 6 weeks. My hammock is just under 10 ft long and fits fine. I’m 6’4” tall and would like to try a longer hammock but longer would mean taller stands essentially doubling the cost. Sticking with this one for awhile.
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