hammock stand

[stef]

I'd like to make one of those.


i recently bought a lot of oak stock, which i could use for this.
at first, i thought i'd make it in one big piece, made of of several smaller pieces, glued up and bolted together. i could use 3 or 4 planks glued side by side, and just cut around to get the flowing shape.

but looking at them, they seem to be all made of 4 parts+2 for the feet. they also seem to be laminated with the bend held in place from the lamination. not side by side, as i intended, but rather on top of each other.

I may have to go that way too.

how would you do it ?
http://www.hammocks.com/hammock-stands/wood-stands/hammakaarchammockstand.cfm

 

[SketchUp Guru]

I would laminate strips around a form using epoxy for the glue. I'd guess you could make all of the pieces on the same form. Just cut the legs a bit shorter. Make the curve on the form slightly tighter than the desired amount of the bend to allow for springback.

 

[stef]

cheers.
I think i'll do that.
I was reading about lamintating last night, and the recommended thickness of the planks was 3mm max.
that would be a little unpractical to me.
what would you say i could go to with oak, on this type of bends ?

 

[Setch]

I'd be very careful about cutting curved sections rather than laminating. The large curved member on that design is holding a lot of weight, and if you include any shortgrain sections it could easily split. The consequences of sombody in the hammock fallig down onto a jagged section of broken timber could be spectacularly nasty.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

3mm seems like a reasonable thickness for laminating. The thicker you make them, the more spring back you'll get and the more likely you'll get a split where the grain runs out.

What do you mean by "impractical"?

 

[stef]

3mm seems like a reasonable thickness for laminating. The thicker you make them, the more spring back you'll get and the more likely you'll get a split where the grain runs out.

What do you mean by "impractical"?

not too easy to laminate 100mm from 3mm sections.
i'd need just over 33 plancks !
and cutting the oak stock i've got to 3mm is also a challenge in itself.

damn.. i thought this project would be easy !

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Well, you could try thicker laminations but if it fails, then what?

Do you have a bandsaw? That would make fairly quick work of sawing the laminations with relatively little waste.

Perhaps you could buy laminating stock. It would already be cut for you. No matter how you do it, this isn't a weekend project I'm afraid.

 

[stef]

yep, looks like i underestimated this.
no band saw just yet.
and i dont fancy doing this using a handsaw.
mind..one plank a day, using 6mm planks.. the job would take just over 2 months. i reckon i could cut a plank in 20mins...
oh forget it !
i've got to buy and band saw.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Now you've got it. A justification for a new tool.

Wait a minute! You say your planks are 6mm thick?

 

[stef]

Now you've got it. A justification for a new tool.

Wait a minute! You say your planks are 6mm thick?

or i could just buy a stand for 500, and save me the work !

no, they are not 6mm thick. i was aiming to get them to 6mm (double the recommended 3mm)
at the moment, i have around 22 slabs ranging from 14 to 80mm.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Ah, I see.

OK, so on the one hand you have a hammock stand for 500 or a bandsaw. For the price of the bandsaw you could make a dozen hammock stands, sell eleven and be ahead. If you just buy the hammock stand, you won't have a bandsaw and you won't have eleven hammock stands to sell. Hmmmm

:lol:

If you do go about making this stand, I would do a test of the 6mm laminations. That's pretty thick and I would expect a lot of springback. To counter that, you'd need to make the curve of the form tighter and then you are more likely to get splitting.

Go find a boat builder near you and talk to them about laminating stock.

 

[stef]

the worse thing is, you are right.
in fact, i bought all this cheap oak thinking i'll save money.
At the end of the day this swinging nap is going to cost me more time and cash. but i'll have a band saw.
what's wrong with taking a nap on the floor anyway.

The ship yard is a good idea though.
But i think i'll just get a band saw, and get on with it.
not just yet though, after spending 400squids at axminster my wallet needs a little rest. i was aiming to get one soon anyway. plenty of other project on hold which do require one.

how easy is it to slice 3mm thick planks of oak (100mm wide) on th eband saw?
i would have thought fairly difficult to keep the thickness in spec.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

If you have a decent bandsaw that can actually put some tension on the blade, a decent resaw blade--3 or 4 teeth per inch and you adjust the fence for the drift, it's no difficult at all. There's no danger of kickback with a bandsaw so you can safely set the fence for the 3-4 mm you need and start feeding the stock. find a good feed speed that produces a good cut and use a featherboard to keep the stock tight to the fence and you should be good.

Depending on the quality of the blade, you may find you need to smooth the cut faces. Make a few test cuts to see. If you do need to smooth the faces, allow a little extra thickness. If you use epoxy for the glue up you won't need perfectly smooth surfaces because the epoxy will fill the tiny gaps.

 

[stef]

If you have a decent bandsaw that can actually put some tension on the blade, a decent resaw blade--3 or 4 teeth per inch and you adjust the fence for the drift, it's no difficult at all. There's no danger of kickback with a bandsaw so you can safely set the fence for the 3-4 mm you need and start feeding the stock. find a good feed speed that produces a good cut and use a featherboard to keep the stock tight to the fence and you should be good.

Depending on the quality of the blade, you may find you need to smooth the cut faces. Make a few test cuts to see. If you do need to smooth the faces, allow a little extra thickness. If you use epoxy for the glue up you won't need perfectly smooth surfaces because the epoxy will fill the tiny gaps.

thanks for the info.

is there a spec on the blade tension when you look at bandsaws ? are they all more or less equal ? a band saw that says max cut depth=120mm..is it really good up to 120mm ?
i would like to buy one, but i dont really know what to look for.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

Which saw are you looking at?

Keep in mind that small bandsaws usually don't have stiff enough frames to allow you to set blade tension high enough to get good resaw results. A loose blade will tend to make its own course through the wood trying to follow the path of least resistances.

You also need a good blade. It doesn't need to be especially wide but it wants to have only a few teeth per inch. It might seem a bit counterintuituve but you don't want a lot of teeth in the wood at any one time. Cutting is slower with a lot of teeth and you risk overheating the blade which will allow it to stretch.

 

[stef]

not looking at any model just yet.
budget would probably be around 300pounds top.
choice is fairly limited in France, in that price range.
i think i could get a second hand kity 612, but nothing fancier than that.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

I'm not familiar with all of the brands available to you but a quick look at the Axminster site shows a model AWEFSBB that looks to me to be about the minimum sort of bandsaw you'd want for resawing. Their next less expensive model doesn't look as though it would be suitable for that work.

You might want to ask on the General forum and see if you can get some folks on the right side of the pond to help you out. Being on the left side, I'm afraid I'm not much use as far as recommending equipment you could actually buy there.

If you have to, say up your shekels so you can afford a tool that will do the job. A second hand machine can be a good value if it has been taken care of well. Don't buy inexpensive tools if they aren't suited for the job you need them to do. You won't be getting good value for your money if you do.

 

[stef]

i checked it out..
it's a biggy !
nice though.
I might save a little longer and go for a bigger model then.
I think i could get this for a little mode cash:

http://www.leroymerlin.fr/mpng2-front/p ... erall=on#3

The axminster one looks better though.

 

[SketchUp Guru]

I think saving a little bit longer is a good idea.

I know nothing about the bandsaw I linked to other than what I read on the website. Do some research and compare. Ask around the General Woodworking forum for suggestions, too.

Of the ones that appeared in your link, the Metabo 317 looks like a good one, maybe.

 

[pike]

I've been tempted to buy one of these arc hammock stands too.

The price on the site you linked looks very expensive. I've seen them for £120 on ebay and elsewhere.

Fun project though!

If you have one tree, you could also look at making a single hammock post.