Alright, so today on Repairs101, IÕm going to show you how to make a cargo net style hammock
complete with a navy clew and a standard hammock clew. TodayÕs episode of Repairs101
was brought to you by Princess Auto. Check out their online catalogue at princessauto.com I
bought 500 feet of this quarter inch braided rope so I could work with 10 50 lines. I got
these Brazilian hardwood shovel handles to use as stringers and a couple of 2-inch stainless
steel rings. YouÕll need a saw of some kind to cut the spreaders and some sandpaper or better
yet a belt sander. IÕve got this sweet drill press set up, complete with a drill press vise
but you could do the whole job with nothing but a handheld drill.
I used these bent plates of aluminum in my vise to prevent damaging the wood and it sounds like itÕs
time to replace my old cordless drill driver. So, what else? YouÕll need a knife of some kind and
some pokey thing like an ice pick. One of the most important things would be a rack like this one to
work from but you could just pound some nails into a board and hang it from the wall. Knowing
how to tie a simple slipknot will come in handy for supporting the spreaders at various times.
This project was made using 364 square knots thatÕs tied left over right, right over left. The
larkÕs head or cow hitch is handy to hold lines in place while you mark the centers with tape.
Next, bundle each side of the 50-foot lines into 20-foot bundles that can be
passed through the steel ring. Once theyÕre all through the ring, just remove the tape.
Now, I donÕt know if sailboats will still be a thing when you see this,
but they used to be wind powered mode of transportation where big triangular sheets
called sails where controlled by ropes that were called sheets and they were attached to the sail
at the free corner, which was called the clew. Okay, I switched to white cord to demonstrate
this part because it shows up so much better on camera than the black braided cord I used.
Okay, the key here is to handle each rope, one at a time, push the backward part forward
and the forward part backwards. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.
Once you have that sorted out, just pass the outside lines through the sections
and hang them on the rack.
Next layer itÕs the same deal again and again until
there are only two lines or four stands left.
Tie the outside two in a square knot around the inside two
and youÕre ready to thread it all into your spreader.
Once again organization is the key here Ð donÕt let your lines get all
tangled up Ð stretch them out as far as you can.
Full disclosure: I had to recreate the starting of the hammock clew using scrap ends of rope
because of a camera malfunction. So I gathered the ends up and singled out the two center pieces
to tie in a series of half hitches around the outside to bind the bundle tight.
After that itÕs a half hitch on one side , half hitch on the other side, half hitch on one side,
half hitch on the other side until you run out of rope and then you tie another square knot in the
center of the bundle Ð and leave it kind of loose Ð weÕll come back to that in a few seconds.
So, shorten the long ends, melt the tips so you can work with them and pass the entire
bundle through the steel ring. Next pass all the tail ends through the square knot that you tied
loosely. Half of them going in one direction. Half of them going in the other direction.
Pull them down a ways, straighten them out and then start binding them with half hitches.
When you get to the end make another interior square knot in the bundle
and then push all the tails inside using your ice pick.
So these lines all travel to the tail, they travel toward the steel ring, they turn back towards the
interior square knot and then they turn back again towards the ring. Alright thanks for watching and
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