Stall bars: dowel's dimension & wood type?

[Guest PLO8]

Trying to figure out the total cost for homemade stall bars:  

 

Q1: What's the ideal diameter for the dowel?  So far I've seen 1-3/8" come up in several threads, is this an ideal size for an ave. male?

 

Q2: What type of wood should I be looking for?  

 

Q3: How many dowels will I need for a standard 'stall bars' setup?

 

Thanks in advance!

 

 

 

 

[FREDERIC DUPONT]

(1) 1"3/8 to 1"5/8 is good for the dowels.

 

(2) I prefer Ash for its stability, solidity, flexibility and lack of brittleness, but quarter cut pine will do if you take care to sort them out so the grain runs parallel to the axis; make sure there are no knots, compressions, cracks or grain deformation in the whole length (you don't want a dowel to break when you are hanging upside down!) & verify that your dowels are straight - Poplar will do if you are in the US (great quality there); be careful if in Europe, the quality of the poplar is not the same - In Europe you can use Beech, very solid, just more brittle than Ash.

Other options are Maple, or Birch.

 

(3) depending how tall you are! Your dowels should be 5 to 8" apart

[Guest PLO8]

(1) 1"3/8 to 1"5/8 is good for the dowels.

 

(2) I prefer Ash for its stability, solidity, flexibility and lack of brittleness, but quarter cut pine will do if you take care to sort them out so the grain runs parallel to the axis; make sure there are no knots, compressions, cracks or grain deformation in the whole length (you don't want a dowel to break when you are hanging upside down!) & verify that your dowels are straight - Poplar will do if you are in the US (great quality there); be careful if in Europe, the quality of the poplar is not the same - In Europe you can use Beech, very solid, just more brittle than Ash.

Other options are Maple, or Birch.

 

(3) depending how tall you are! Your dowels should be 5 to 8" apart

Fred, thanks a lot the detailed response!  This helps a lot!

 

I am 5'-8.25" tall, so what would be the ideal distance b/w the dowels?

[Graham Baran-Mickle]

Your height doesn't matter too much (that's why they usually go up to 8'), so it's really preference. It also depends on whether you make the stall bars the standard 8' or not. Standard spacing is 5.5" apart  I think, which would put 15-16 rungs on. 6" would easier to measure out, but you can go up to 8" if you want to use less wood. 

 

p.s. Choose a dowel size that matches a drill bit size... Seems obvious, but I just finished making a set myself and didn't realize until too late that my dowels were 1-5/16" (though I would suggest making them slightly larger at least), and my drill bit 1-14". Had to do some sanding there.

[Chris Haldeman]

Had a couple questions about stall bars too, but figured I'd post in here instead of making another thread.

 

1) How much weight are a normal set (8x3) of stall bars rated for?  From what I see online it seems the recommended max is 240lbs.  Is this an absolute max?  My doorway pullup bar is rated for 220lbs max, but I'm 260lbs, and it works fine for me.  I never had an issue of it slipping or being unstable.

 

2) If I made a set of stall bars, could I reduce the width to 2ft to provide more strength or maybe use a metal material for the dowels?  Combination of both?  Or would the standard size be fine?

 

Thanks

[Graham Baran-Mickle]

1) You just answered your own question, and I do think most say about 250lb, but that's clearly not a breaking point but a "safety not completely guaranteed beyond this point" weight. You'd probably do fine on most sets, seeing as all stall bar exercises I'm familiar with are either slow, static, or distributed over two bars when using your full weight.

 

2) Yes you could, and that would help quite a bit. I wouldn't use metal, it's probably more trouble than it's worth. If you want to be super safe, 2ft width is good and also get dowels made of oak or a similar *hard* hardwood instead of the poplar or hemlock that your generic "hardwood dowels" are going to be made of. Also the larger the diameter the stronger, at least 1-3/8", but you should test your grip on anything larger beforehand because it might not be comfortable. 

 

 

And you only really have to worry about the dowels, normal plywood will be more than sufficient strength for the supports. Anyone that uses hardwood for them is basically doing it for looks (or to insure their bars against train crashes etc.)  

[Stewart Whaley]

Inexpensive metal pipe.

Not as pretty as wood but the weight limit is a non-issue.

I was nervous about the strength of the wooden dowels I saw locally.

Pipe solved that.

I was about 240 when i built mine.