Edgeless Fire Hose Hammock

As proud as I am about my new hammock design, it does have a weakness in that there are two ends that are just rows of open hose asking to be chewed on and messed with by the animals. Here's a way to fully frame the outside of the hammock with more hose to make it "edgeless" with an almost continuous seam around the perimeter. You could make a brand new hammock or even utilize your current one as the center piece.

Looking at the layout above you can see the central portion is pretty much the same all the other hammocks posted about in the blog so I'll focus on making the frame.

I'm using the 8 inch flat stuff again, so I have 8 inches of overhang on either side of the central hammock piece. Then ALMOST cut through the hose, leaving about an inch uncut. This is very important and the rest of the corner cuts made on the "frame" will be the done in the same manner.

Now on the long side of the frame, slit the inside edge of the hose the same distance as the width of the hose you're using for the frame. Again, here it will be 8 inches.

These pictures are revered because I took them later in the process but the idea is the same. The short side of the frame will fit between the flaps of the long side of the frame. This is why it was important to leave that last inch uncut when making the corner so it acts as our hinge and helps to make this hammock edgeless. If the slit you made on the long side wasn't long enough this is the tame to make the adjustment so the corner is 90 degrees.

This is the next tricky measurement to make. We want the ends of central portion of the hammock to become tabs that will fit into the frame. To be safe I decided on two inches of overhang. Easy enough to adjust for on the lower portion of the hammock, but what about up top? How do we know where to make the next corner cut?

Instead of giving the 8 inches of overhang like before, I want to have two inches of overlap from the central portion onto the frame. So I measure for six inches of overhang and where the knife is where the cut is, again on the inside edge of the frame.

Make the same slit as before on the longer side of the frame and fold over. Here you can see the two inches of overlap from the central portion onto the frame.

The last cut will be to match the first edge of the frame flush and tuck into another slit.

Now you can lay out all your tabs, make all your marks, cut all your cuts. Don't forget to make tabs on the ends of the central portion and slots on the frame!

Assembly is same as always, fold those tabs and insert into slots. I started with the central portion then attached to the frame. Once all those tabs are tucked the frame is tightly held to the center portion and the two former loose ends are nonexistent. But there's still the matter of those flaps.

We're going to drill through them and make those holes our attachment points for quick links, carabiners, rope splices and knots, whatever you prefer. That way the flaps will always be held down or sewed up by their attachments.

I like to use a sharp paddle bit for cutting wider holes like this. Spiral bits are great for smaller hoses, but when trying to cut large ones they cut just a little hole through and then tangle up with hose which can really wring your wrist if you're not prepared for it. 

Look at the center picture and you can see the little tips on the edges of the paddle are actually cutting a little washer of hose out. To get that effect I'm oscillating my drill in a small circle like I'm mixing brownies and trying to get batter from every edge of the bowl. As each little layer of hose gets cut take out the scrap so the paddle can cut effectively.

Ready for a quick link and then ready to hang!