Advise on a project

[ninjaninku]

I have been wanting to build one of these types of hanging beds for a while now
http://homedesigns99.com/bedroom-design ... john-huff/
I decided to finally do it but I wanted to see if any burners had any advise on how to go about this safely so I can set it out and let people hang out.
I was debating between using a trampoline with foam on top for the base or building a ring out of steel poles and having a welder help me and then using climbing webbing to form the base to hold the foam. I was also wondering What type of supports to hang it with like climbing webbing again, or rope, or wire, or chain might be safer. The last question is on building a tripod to hold the thing up. Would there be any reason a four legged pyramid structure would be better than a tripod? Also I was thinking of using steel tubing and then getting a welder to help make a connecting piece for the top. Is there any better Ideas than this? Maybe wood would be a good material? Hopefully someone who did some of the giant swing building or something can give me some tips. Thank you all in advance for any help.

[MFOB]

I was debating between using a trampoline with foam on top for the base or building a ring out of steel poles and having a welder help me and then using climbing webbing to form the base to hold the foam. I was also wondering What type of supports to hang it with like climbing webbing again, or rope, or wire, or chain might be safer. The last question is on building a tripod to hold the thing up. Would there be any reason a four legged pyramid structure would be better than a tripod? Also I was thinking of using steel tubing and then getting a welder to help make a connecting piece for the top. Is there any better Ideas than this? Maybe wood would be a good material? Hopefully someone who did some of the giant swing building or something can give me some tips. Thank you all in advance for any help.

A Trampoline I would think would be too large of a diameter, plus those are made of 4-6 sections. As one unit without legs, It might be to wobbly and break apart when you're trying to hang it. And the size of a stand to hold a 15-16' Ring would be quite huge. I would use some schedule 40 pipe and have it bent and welded. Possibly 8-10 feet max diameter. You could use webbing to make the platform to put foam on but youll have to find a way to make it stay in place after you wrap it around a tube.

You could hang it with rope depending on the size. But you could use 550 Paracord if you had say 50 strands hanging it, that would be like 27,500# of support or 13.75 Tons, that's quite a bit of weight. Or climbing rope which is significantly stronger than Paracord so less "hangs" would be needed. Plus you want something soft and pliable, Chain or wire rope would be uncomfortable to lean against, climb through etc.

Depending on the side forces a Tripod is a bit less stable than a 4 legged pyramid. Each side of a tripod is 120 deg whereas a 4 legged is 90 deg. Do the math and you can see that the lesser the angle the more it can support. If you were standing something up a tripod design would be fine. But hanging something a 4 legged would be better.

You could use anything strong for the legs, All of the force will be transferred straight through them rather than have a bending force associated. You could use 4x4 wood posts, chain link fence top rail, schedule 40 steel tube, It all depends on the size of your ring and how many people you want on it. The most important thing is to make sure the bottoms of each leg are connected, by a rope, wire rope, ratchet strap, anything, but they have to be connected or the thing will splay out and fall over. The attachment point at the top could vary depending on what material you use. If it is 4x4 posts, you could compound miter cut the tops to fit together and hang a 10" x 1/2" Eye bolt through the middle to hang the bed off of. Secondly if you're using pipe, it would be advantageous of you to have a welder make a 4 way corner bracket to slide posts into (presumably 2 90 deg angle fittings welded together to make a 4-way fitting.)

I never built one, but I build a lot of other shit like it. And I think it would work.

[AZ-Dave]

Nice idea. I am of the "Keep It Simple" philosophy. Why not make the hanging bed.... a bed. King or queen size. Mattress (Padding), sheets, etc. will be easy to find. Four corner idea would be much more stable than three. My thought is to fully weld it up and then cut it apart and add bolt flanges. If you build it out of round DOM Steel tubing, you can easily get weld on flanges. Cut it up in sections that are easier to haul, tack the flanges in place, re assemble and then weld them off. This way everything lines up when it is time to bolt it together on the Playa.

Great idea!

Dave

[LionsNzebras]

This is a great idea, they are not cheap by any means.
http://www.floatingbed.com/catalog/

you will have to either build one and experiment or buy one.

If you build one, you can use scaffolding materiel to build the frame and attachments, it will take some trial and error for sure, Then figure out the cords\wire to hold it up. One if your issues is going to be the weight.
You need to take the weight of the bed+bedding+occupants and focus that on a single eye nut for example and make sure that it will be ok from a structural stand point. Then figure out what your going to hang it on.

If you going to use this inside a dome it needs to be engineered very well so you dont collapse the dome. Wind shear is an issue as the stresses of the dome will change when there is wind and 1000 pounds of hanging wait on said dome, the same rules would apply for a 4 post structure. ITs all find and dandy, till its swinging and the load shifts.

Would love to see some work on this project. Might be one for us next year

[ninjaninku]

Thank you for all the advice I feel like I have a lot more information to work from. As I move on with the building I will post pictures and a little how to for anyone else interested in trying this project.

[ninjaninku]

One last piece of advice is what kind of hardware would be recommended to hang the bed from that could handle the few tons of weight it should be able to hold and how would you go about mounting that to the top bracket? Thanks

[LionsNzebras]

One last piece of advice is what kind of hardware would be recommended to hang the bed from that could handle the few tons of weight it should be able to hold and how would you go about mounting that to the top bracket? Thanks

You may have to test, but 2 inch structural post should be fine, or something similar to that which they build scaffolding out of, sorry I dont know the exact name of it. The bed itself will weigh like 500 pounds, depending on what you build it out of, if its a solo\queen\king of course, and how many persons you decide to have a sleep over hehe, it will be a popular piece of course.

The pols are the easy part, it would be the welding and building the top piece to hang said bed off of. The eye bolt etc etc. You might want to check out some climbing type gear and ask them at a climbers store that you need to hang 1500 pounds.

I would try and look at the website I posted earlier and see if they sell the trapeze thing separately, or find pictures so you can reverse engineer it and build one similar that will support your idea.

All depends on how big your going to go too. If you design it for 1 person, you can bet you will have 2 hehe.

[trilobyte]

I'm giving this a nudge over to the Q&A board, since that's a better fit for general preparation questions.