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  1. #1
    New Member the Fudd's Avatar
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    DIY Bridge Hammock questions

    I’m going to attempt to build my first bridge hammock and had a few questions. I’m a big guy, 75.6in tall and approximately 237lbs. Maybe add a little more to the weight if I have winter gear on. I also have wide shoulders, about 25in wide.

    I was planning on following Grizz’s design, but have total length 80 inches instead of 74 inches but keep the width the same at 54 inches. I have some 1.1 ripstop I can double up for the body and some amsteal rope for the triangle. I'll have to order some tubular webbing and zipper for bug net. What would be a good zipper length?

    How much does the geometry and force engineering change when you go larger? Not everything is straight increase, sometimes it’s exponential.

    Would a 32in wide spreader bar at the head be comfortable or is this something I have to play around with because “comfort” is subjective? I was thinking of completing the body and then using some cheap 1/1.5in dowels from the local hardware store to test different lengths for the spreader bar at the head.

    Any help/input would be appreciated!

  2. #2
    Senior Member
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    Oct 2012
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    Can't touch the geometry and force engineering questions!

    As to zipper length, I had the same question because I wasn't sure what the length of the cat cut would be. Many thanks to whoever the math geek was who figured it out for me!

    Short answer - a 72 inch length bed with a 7" cat cut resulted in a sewn length of 74 or 75" - not a great increase at all.

    The length of zipper will depend on what you want to have in the way of zippered opening. I chose to have the bugnet fully attached at the foot end because I didn't figure I'd never NOT want to be taking it with me. For me the zipper length was both sides and across the head end and added a foot to the measurement for safety. I also wanted to be able to open the zipper from either side depending on which way I wanted in and out of it so I put double zipper pulls on it - one one way, the other the opposite.

    I also used grosgrain instead of bias tape on both the bugnet and the hammock body - probably way over engineered but I'm comfortable with it.

  3. #3
    New Member the Fudd's Avatar
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    Aug 2012
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    As to zipper length, I had the same question because I wasn't sure what the length of the cat cut would be. Many thanks to whoever the math geek was who figured it out for me!

    Short answer - a 72 inch length bed with a 7" cat cut resulted in a sewn length of 74 or 75" - not a great increase at all.

    The length of zipper will depend on what you want to have in the way of zippered opening. I chose to have the bugnet fully attached at the foot end because I didn't figure I'd never NOT want to be taking it with me. For me the zipper length was both sides and across the head end and added a foot to the measurement for safety. I also wanted to be able to open the zipper from either side depending on which way I wanted in and out of it so I put double zipper pulls on it - one one way, the other the opposite.

    I also used grosgrain instead of bias tape on both the bugnet and the hammock body - probably way over engineered but I'm comfortable with it.
    Great information, thank you for the reply! I was also considering using grosgrain instead of bias tape. I have a lot of experience with grosgrain and none with the bias tape.

    I bought a nice little binder foot for my wife's sewing machine that works great with 1/2 grosgrain. I used it all on the outside of my winter tarp instead of rolling. Very easy to do once you practice a little. Start the bind and then toss the roll on the floor and sew away. It feeds in and folds around the outside at the same time. I've also successfully used it with 5/8 reflective grosgrain.

    My diy winter tarp with bound edges:



  4. #4
    Senior Member
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    Great sewing job there on the tarp!

    I used the 1" wide grosgrain from DIY Supply - used flat it allowed me to turn a single fold hem on the noseuum then attached the zipper to the grosgrain.

    I did the same on the hammock body so there's a nice distance between ripstop and zipper and between zipper and noseuum.

    Waiting on spring to happen up here before I can get outside and shoot some pics of the whole rig!!

  5. #5
    New Member the Fudd's Avatar
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    Can't wait to see the pics. Good idea with the width grosgrain. Seems like it would be a much smaller chance of getting fabric caught in the zipper like that.

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