Making Use Of Every Scrap

I noticed a pile of short pieces of jacketed hose just lying around and decided to give them a job. Instead of long runners they'll be stacked side-to-side like rungs on a ladder. These in turn will tab into a narrower rubber hose. Having everything tabbed into something else makes for simpler construction than the edge-less hammock with almost the same benefits of eliminating open ends.

First thing to do is to trim up the body pieces to even lengths. Line these up on the parallel rubber hose to mark where they overlap and where the first tab cuts will be.

With those tabs cut out take the marker and make a dot on the innermost parts of the tabs all along rubber hose. The space between these dots under the jacketed hose will be where we cut out the slots.

While we're at it lets cut out tabs to connect the jacketed pieces together and mark where to cut the slots to connect each jacketed piece together.

Cut out all the slots and try to keep each piece in their original orientation. You could be more accurate and actually measure things, but that takes too long and I'm lazy.

Start assembling the body pieces together. I just went from one end to the other like it was a floppy centipede.

Once the body is constructed it's time to insert the larger tabs into the sides. You can see how wide the slots are, but because I used the rubber hose I'm fairly confident in its integrity. This part did take a little more manhandling to fit these wide tabs in but that shows how sturdy the final product will be. I think.

And there we go. It's still flat and light, the jacketed hose in the center provide a soft spot for the critters, and the small open ends on the rubber hose will probably have rope or chain running through them to hang so that becomes a moot point. If I don't want this to basket around the animals when in use I could first insert PVC along the sides to help maintain a flatter shape when hung. Even inserting a pipe just through one edge will help keep animals more visible if the loose side is the one facing the public; the animals will be "scooped" toward that direction instead of in the middle of a comfy pit.

Imagine we didn't set the body pieces side-to-side but left gaps in between. That would be a neat floppy ladder shape which keeps animals in view even when overhead. There's also no reason the rubber edge hoses are this short, they could have been 10 feet long and used to hang the hammock. If I had more short scraps and wanted a wider hammock, I could repeat the pattern on either side of the rubber hoses. The potential is limitless. There's a lot you can do with just a knife.

From that original pile of "junk" this all that will end up in the dumpster. Save those scraps! You may be surprised at their usefulness.