Originally Posted by
Blargendarg
Thank you both for your responses and for listing those designs... I admittedly have been sheltered when it comes to other designs and only have tried or read about a small handful. It's true that there *might* be too much variation between individuals for a general design to be widely successful, and even now I'm looking at it from the perspective of creating a few different models once I can hone in on one that works well for me and the few interested friends and fam, but I'm not giving up yet.
I am VERY good at ripping out seams now, and have a few dozen variations under my belt, though they hardly count as that many completed designs.
I've found that it's not hard to get a dead flat and level lay using a shaped end that works at least for the small height and weight range I have easily available for testing. The issue has been that comfort 'varies independently' - my first flat and level hammock was nearly a torture device - and I've found that allowing higher % of body weight to be carried (and also transitions in amount of support) in certain places works much better than others, esp hips and shoulders.
At first I thought that it needed to be a very shallow contour to work and indeed variations of as little as a quarter inch can make big differences, but when weight is carried in the right areas it allows for a much more dramatic contour. As you might expect, with a design like this, there is a dramatic difference between being in the sweet spot and being just a little bit out of it. So making the sweet spot larger has to be a priority too - nobody wants to have to take a class to figure out how to lay in their hammock.
I also have a couple of design ideas that allow for adjustability to the individual, which eliminates the generalizations, though I haven't gotten around to prototyping them yet. I had thought to use them as a kind of Brannock device that could be used to turn out something tailor made... might be ok as a solution but as for now the construction is complex and not totally settled so who knows. It'd be a lot to go through when most folks are ok with 'pretty flat'. This has all been driven in some respects by my brother's quest. He was in an accident when he was younger and while he fully recovered, as a result he has more particular requirements to sleep through the night in a hammock. I'd like to give him that if I can. And I guess I wouldn't mind it either.
Thanks again. I'll take a look into those designs
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