I'm now ending my Home Game with a 1 Hour No Limit Hold'em Sit-n-Go, but I'm having a hard time figuring out the correct blinds and Level times.

My constraints: Lowest chip value 0.05 with $5.00 stacks. I did this so that we could just utilize the same chips we play with during the cash game. I don't want to break out another set of chips....but I could if necessary.

Below is what I started with, but with only 4 people the game only lasted 35minutes before two fish busted and I started getting forced to shove all-in.

10minute levels. Look at all the levels in cents so 5-10 is 0.05-0.10

5-10
10-20
25-50
50-100
100-200
250-500
500-1000

I think I need something like the following:

5-5
5-10
10-20
15-30
25-50
50-100
100-200
200-400
400-800

Maybe I need to make the blinds more aggressive if more players are in the game and I still only want the tournament to last one hour?

How many hands do you play in the average ten minute level?

General rule, the game tends to end when the BB is 1/20 (5%) of the total chips in play. Adjust you blinds accordingly.

Not sure exactly and I'm sure it varies, but we are no slouches. Everyone knows the clock is ticking so we try to keep the pace up.

Nice general rule. I'll be able to make structures for all scenarios now.

Even if you don't use it as a tournament timer, Blind Valet is a handy tool for playing around with structures. You can export the data, too.

With the general rule I gave you, if it is heads-up and the big blind is 5% of the total chips in play, then the average stack is 10 BB's which makes it basically a shove feast. So if you want a one hour tournament, I would make the "final" blind level start at the one hour mark. There is always the possibility it will end before the final level but just in case it isn't is when you bring out the big gun to make sure it ends soon. Of course there is no guarantee that it will but more often then not, it will.

I'll have to look at it.

Does that general rule also work for a fixed limit tourney?

If I were going to only play an hour for a single-table, then I would make it very simple. Start with $1 in chips (or $100 but not reccommended). Blinds at 5/10, 10/20, 15/30, 20/40, 30/60 (15-minute levels). Tourney will be over in just over an hour most likely and you only have to worry about one chip denomination. I would definitely go with $.05 chips in this exercise because you don't want to put $1,000 worth of cash chips on the table.

I just don't see the advantage of speeding through 2-3 blind levels for half the tournament and then taking turns shoving for the next 15-20 minutes. Start at very close to shoving level and then just stay in that mode for the entire tournament.