Finally Finished! Portable Hammock Stand.

[Slugger]

I also ended up installing large eye bolts that I use to attach the hammock to the stand.

Most of the eye bolts you get at the big box home improvement stores are not rated to hold a substantial amount of weight. Usually their safe load limit is about 60-80 lbs. Yes you can install them and yes it might hold your weight, but when exceeding rated load limits you are basically rolling the dice and "assuming" the dice will always role a 7 or 11. These stores also sell FORGED eye bolts which are much better and usually rated at about 500 lbs. Better to use forged than one of the low-cost eye bolts which might finally give out at 3am, depositing your back squarely on the 4x4's underneath you! Ouch!

[MacEntyre]

Better to use forged...

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[Pavel]

Most of the eye bolts you get at the big box home improvement stores are not rated to hold a substantial amount of weight. Usually their safe load limit is about 60-80 lbs. Yes you can install them and yes it might hold your weight, but when exceeding rated load limits you are basically rolling the dice and "assuming" the dice will always role a 7 or 11. These stores also sell FORGED eye bolts which are much better and usually rated at about 500 lbs. Better to use forged than one of the low-cost eye bolts which might finally give out at 3am, depositing your back squarely on the 4x4's underneath you! Ouch!

I know that this is an old thread, but as someone who worked in tool and die, the shear strength of a grade 2 bolt in a quarter inch size (the cheapest stuff out there) is well over a thousand pounds. No need to get silly with a grade eight or nine bolt. You aren't building a bridge. The greater problem in theory would be deformation of the wood. That could be solved with a bushing.