DIY Stand Suggestions

**Promotions** · 11-01-2020, 18:22

Hello,

With the completion of my monster indoor hammock stand, I'm looking to make something portable to take with me in car camping/"want to hang out at the park and they won't let me use trees" circumstances.

From the looks of things it seems like a dual tripod stand or a tensahedron stand would be the quickest/cheapest ways to accomplish this.

I am 6 foot 1 inch at a whopping 150 lbs, so I feel like I could get away with some lighter material if that changes anything.

I would like to be able to potentially use a tarp, and I plan on acquiring an 11 footer.

From folks who have tried both or either, what do you think is ultimately more fitting for my needs?

Thank you.

**Spartacus19** · 11-01-2020, 22:47

I built both of those and a couple others. We take two DIY tensa stands with us to Lake Powell every time we go. They fit perfectly in the ski locker of the boat. I have absolutely fallen in love with that design. I built both of them for free with stuff laying around, but new it would cost around $20-30.

As a side note, the tensa is the best way to find your perfect hang angle. Just get in the hammock, and have someone tilt the stand for you until you find your own personal sweet spot.

**jeff-oh** · 11-01-2020, 22:57

Improved Tensahedron: Fits in a camp chair bag.

Tensahedron: The initial thread.

Here is my 3/4" EMT Tensa stand and the break down version. It'll hold 350lbs. I would not down grade to 1/2 EMT as that stuff is super flimsy in compression.

**Pop_Eye** · 11-02-2020, 08:43

Originally Posted by jeff-oh

Improved Tensahedron: Fits in a camp chair bag.

Tensahedron: The initial thread.

Here is my 3/4" EMT Tensa stand and the break down version. It'll hold 350lbs. I would not down grade to 1/2 EMT as that stuff is super flimsy in compression.

That was a lot of back and forth in 6 pages of posts but I’m still confused even though it was a great write up.

Do I understand correctly that if you have the 3/4” emt cut in sections and do riveted slip joints with 1” emt, it is possible to bolt both apex sections together?

Given of course the male section of 3/4” emt can rotate in freely in the 1” riveted slip joint to account for the geometry changes during set up.

**jeff-oh** · 11-02-2020, 10:27

Originally Posted by Pop_Eye

That was a lot of back and forth in 6 pages of posts but I’m still confused even though it was a great write up.

Do I understand correctly that if you have the 3/4” emt cut in sections and do riveted slip joints with 1” emt, it is possible to bolt both apex sections together?

Given of course the male section of 3/4” emt can rotate in freely in the 1” riveted slip joint to account for the geometry changes during set up.

Yes. You've got it. For the stand to fold length wise and then widen the base, there has to be rotation relief. This only needs 1 point. Thus, if you wish to attach your connection sleeves to one side that is fine. The pole that then slides must not be pinned, or bolted. Simple slip fit is fine. Some designs will replace the center section with the larger diameter pole. Then they will put a bolt through the larger pole to ack as a stop when the end poles are inserted. i.e. the end pole rests on the bolt.

See diagram for two different methods.
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If you make it like the top diagram then theoretically you could make one with 3- 3/4" EMT and one 1" EMT. cutting the 3/4" into 9- 40" segments and the 1" into 4- 30" Assuming a 6" overlap the resulting assembled poles would be 98". I am not sure how loose 1" emt and 3/4 emt fit, and what effect on strength and stability it would cause.

**Promotions** · 11-02-2020, 18:09

Sounds like everyone prefers the tensahedron stands to the tri-pods. Thank you for the link to your project Jeff, I'll see if I can source the materials this weekend.

I will probably also make a tri-pod stand and I'll likely steal your collapsible pole design for the ridge-pole.

**Promotions** · 11-06-2020, 07:44

After a bit a work, I have almost completed my tensa stand! I decided to go with the cut in half flipped top rail and grommets method. I have the holes for one end drilled out and grommets are in place. However, I had to stop because I don't know how the top and bottom holes should be aligned with each other.

Should they be drilled rotated 90 degrees from each other or on the same line?

Also how big a hole is too big with the 1 3/8 top rail? I couldn't find smaller grommets so I ended up with 5/8ish holes.

**jeff-oh** · 11-06-2020, 13:17

Originally Posted by Promotions

After a bit a work, I have almost completed my tensa stand! I decided to go with the cut in half flipped top rail and grommets method. I have the holes for one end drilled out and grommets are in place. However, I had to stop because I don't know how the top and bottom holes should be aligned with each other.

Should they be drilled rotated 90 degrees from each other or on the same line?

Also how big a hole is too big with the 1 3/8 top rail? I couldn't find smaller grommets so I ended up with 5/8ish holes.

If you will tie the poles together, like the commercial Tensa4 then the hole drilling does not matter as the poles will rotate at the center connection and end up wherever is natural anyway.

**Promotions** · 11-06-2020, 15:37

I used hitch pins to connect the poles in the center ala fred so I don't think they will rotate unless I'm misunderstanding you

I suppose I could lash the bottom and see where they tilt to and then mark...

**Promotions** · 11-10-2020, 10:13

Some sort of affliction really kicking my butt so I tried to be productive at home and finally got the thing put together. I've ordered the amsteel but it'll be a bit before it arrives. I had been keeping the poles organized with a "continuous loop and toggle"-style bungee cord and thought to myself why not just use that? Well, I'm sure its not the best thing to use, it's stretchy and probably has a fairly low breaking limit but I did it anyway. I had some cheap truck rope that I used to lash the feet and I anchored the stand to my dining room table with a tie-down strap I use for my kayaks. I just used my hammock's ridgeline as the stand ridgeline.

I ended up going with 9 foot poles (once inserted) and it feels a little... huge. Outside it will allow me to use suspension and I could spread the legs further apart, but inside it meant I was about 3-4 feet up in the air which took a bit of faith to get in.

This is definitely not a good way to do this, but it worked for testing purposes. I'm going to do a full write up and guide and perhaps even a video because while the information is out there to build these things, I really had to compile a bunch of ideas from different sources to get the full picture.