56" diameter, 16 shroud lines, and 6 hours of work. DONE.

[Neil]

I just made it in the last week or so. Anything I have made for the past 4 months has not been flown in a rocket yet. Just tests in the wind. But it seems to "deploy" picture perfectly every time I roll it up and throw it into the wind, and it hasnt tangled once. And the lines are long enough for it to tangle a little and still work, anyway.

 

[Stones]

The 40" ripstop chute I made has 16 shroud lines and has worked perfectly in several rockets I have used it in. It's never had a tangled line deployment to date (hopefully, it won't, now that I've said that...). The reason I went for the 16 lines was, as Ryan stated, a more efficient chute. It may be overkill to a point but, it does work.

 

[Neil]

I put 12 lines on 28" thru 45", 8 on a 25", and 6 on 15", 18" and 22". The smaller ones seem just perfect, the 28" could have gone with 10 or something, but its very good the way it is, on the other hand. I usually like to go overkill. If its a choice between more than enough shroud lines, and less than enough, I go with more, and if its shroud line lenth, I give it a few extra inches to be safe. But thats just me. You can expect any chute made by me to have a few inches of "tangle room". Meaning that even if the lines twist and knot at the bottom, it will still work just fine. it adds a negligable amount of weigh. And it makes it a little more efficient, too.