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Free-Standing Monkey Bars


Brent Johnson
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Brent Johnson

The wood is German dimensional lumber but roughly equivalent to 4X4s for the vertical and horizontal beams, and 2X4s for the cross beams and braces.  Assembled with circle saw, hand saw and mitre box, drill, and socket wrenches, with 5 coats of a German water-based sealant.  The vertical and horizontal beams are connected with half-lap joints made with a circle saw.  The monkey bar portion is made with 1.5" dowels held in place by double-thickness 3/4 " boards glued and screwed onto the horizontal beams.  These dowels can then be popped out when I take the whole thing apart to move.  I designed the other portion to hold removable 1 meter metal bars for a low-bar/high-bar arrangement (good for muscle-up and front lever progressions).  The low bar is held in place with wood clamps and is absolutely rock solid.  The high bar fits over the horizontal beams and I can hang rings off it, or a rope, or use the two cross beams over the top.  The way I have it shown, I can remove the metal bars and rings/straps and put them out of the weather when I'm not using them.  The end opposite from the removable low-bar has a horizontal beam that I placed at the specific height that my hands reach when I lay on the ground, for the front lever progression that has you grabbing something with your hands directly over your shoulders.

I modeled this off a set from a nearby obstacle course, and that one was put together with large screws.  Since I had never made anything with those, I used them for mine.  Hex bolts would be even more solid, but these are really quite good, and the whole thing feels solid.  Entire thing is about 8 feet high, 8.5 feet long, and 7 feet wide.12.thumb.jpg.b384f0ef6b7d627cc3732765b0423250.jpg5.thumb.jpg.06ae3d41d523978a59ed2e32adff3bf8.jpg9.thumb.jpg.72f5548521f51ab4838e91b377d5216f.jpg1.thumb.jpg.c7658209000340db5243756ab2c43f40.jpg7.thumb.jpg.c444a877e4a560a2e91d5a5abd92d8b5.jpg10.thumb.jpg.075b54d825eaf56e230dca9ca76dc941.jpg4.thumb.jpg.6b17077b2ec77b0a9a021212a8a8e798.jpg3.thumb.jpg.e7073459403b9eeffae28c919ae4f804.jpg

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Benjamin Renaud

Nice build, I have an outdoor playset for my kids to witch I plan on adding monkey bars. Might end up looking somewhat like yours.

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  • 2 weeks later...
Joshua Papageorge

They look great! The view of the neighborhood reminds me of when I was stationed in Germany a few years ago. 

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