The hammock is one of the most complicated Leaf Tree pieces we have so far. Our earlier prototypes used toggles from our local sewing supply shop, but recently they’ve been completely out of stock!

Wanting to make more hammocks, the inventor set out to make our own toggles. They were made using wooden dowels that were measured and marked for cut and hole locations; the holes were drilled using a drill press and a wooden jig with a v-channel cut into it clamped to the table, so when the dowel was placed in the v-channel it could easily be lined up with the drill bit and held securely during each cut. Then, the entire dowel length was put in a lathe chuck (with jaws removed) with the length of the first toggle sticking out. Then the toggle was turned to taper, sanded, cut off, and the dowel was advanced to the next toggle length to repeat the process.

The ready-made toggles were running ~$0.70 each, and with this method (excluding labor) they’re now ~$0.15 per toggle!