My equipment is built!

This isn't really so much a request or tutorial as it is a "boo-yah". After a few months of consideration and building, I finally have (at my disposal) a pull-up bar free of any walls and high enough for me to do a dead hang, a stall rack (sadly in the garage, so I can put the soles of my feet on the roof when I do a leg lift), a set of rings provided by the good people at Gymnastic Bodies dot com, and a set of PVC parallettes built by yours truly.

Booyah, I say.

Booyah.

pics will punctuate the booya

The booya has just been punctuated. Now if only the darned mosquitos would leave me alone for long enough to actually do anything...

very nice! I'm sure you will have good use of it

Good work! If you take pieces of 2x10, maybe 3 feet each, and screw them onto the bottom of each side of the stall rack, you'll have perfect free-standing stall bars! Then you could take them outside when you want to use them and not hit your feet on the ceiling! That's how I did mine, but I have a 10 foot ceiling so I don't need to go outside.

Wow, praise from Ceasar.

That's a pretty good idea, but the problem is that nine months of the year it's winter here. Definitely something to consider though, thanks for the suggestion.

That's rough. Time to build a cheap-o corrugated aluminum or fiberglass shed around that stuff! If you paint it matte black outside you should end up with a solar-heated workout shed. Not a bad thing up there, I don't think!

Ah, in the end you're better off in the Garage. Too bad you can't scoop out some of the ceiling to make room for the feet!

very nice my man. now time to construct some parallel bars.

I had a thought about the rings (I raised the question about a year ago, but I didn't really get an answer). One of the reasons I can't work muscle ups (aside from just plain weakness) is my false grip sucks. My hands keep on slipping off of the rings. I can do a "no handed" pull up on them, but I feel there isn't enough grip, or my hands are sweaty or something.

Should I get some chalk, or wrap the bottom third in athletic tape? I want to make sure before I start modifying my apparatus in any way.

Lifting chalk for the win, Erik!

Outside of practicing false grip pull ups, you could do false grip hangs. They will be tough at first, but as you do them attempt to touch your fingertips to the heel of your palm. That should engage more of the right muscles and help with the development of the false grip!

Erik said:

The booya has just been punctuated. Now if only the darned mosquitos would leave me alone for long enough to actually do anything...

Does the bar spin? I would like to copy your design (if you do not mind). At some point though I want to be able to do giants, and am unsure how to keep the bar from spinning

151 said:

Erik said:

The booya has just been punctuated. Now if only the darned mosquitos would leave me alone for long enough to actually do anything...

Does the bar spin? I would like to copy your design (if you do not mind). At some point though I want to be able to do giants, and am unsure how to keep the bar from spinning

It spins a tiny bit, barely at all. I filled the gaps with silicon to keep the inside from rotting, but unfortunately I'm gonna have to dismantle it soon. Gotta find a new place for the bar and rack.

151 said:

Does the bar spin? I would like to copy your design (if you do not mind). At some point though I want to be able to do giants, and am unsure how to keep the bar from spinning

If you drill a hole through the bar you can drill a hole in the wood too and pass a bolt through both of them to stop it spinning -best to do it both sides. This will weaken the bar a little though, you could also drill a hole on the outer ends of the bar, just as they come out of the wood on the outer sides, then you can again pass a bolt through it, now put in 4 wood screws or bolts on each side, these go right up against the bolt to stop it moving. This would not weaken the bar much as it is intact where it is resting on the wood.

You might also be able to distort the bar at the ends making oval shapes and cut your wood holes to match them, sort of like this shape but on both sides.

You could stuff up any holes/gaps with a mixture of wood shavings and wood glue.

Erik said:

151 said:

Erik said:

The booya has just been punctuated. Now if only the darned mosquitos would leave me alone for long enough to actually do anything...

Does the bar spin? I would like to copy your design (if you do not mind). At some point though I want to be able to do giants, and am unsure how to keep the bar from spinning

It spins a tiny bit, barely at all. I filled the gaps with silicon to keep the inside from rotting, but unfortunately I'm gonna have to dismantle it soon. Gotta find a new place for the bar and rack.

How did you go about making sure your bar was level? Did you set the post first, then drill? Or did you drill and insert the bar then set the post? Or what? I have my post (2 12 foot 6x6's) and have the holes dug, right now the post are just sitting loose in the wholes untill I can figure out how to get everything plumb and level.

Thanks.

151 said:

How did you go about making sure your bar was level? Did you set the post first, then drill? Or did you drill and insert the bar then set the post? Or what? I have my post (2 12 foot 6x6's) and have the holes dug, right now the post are just sitting loose in the wholes untill I can figure out how to get everything plumb and level.

Thanks.

I set the posts in the holes and then aligned/braced them before I poured the concrete. After that, I measured from the bottom to where I wanted the bar and drilled. The hardest part was making sure I was going through straight. Best to get some help from someone with a bit of experience if your carpentry skills are a little lackluster like mine.

Thanks, I'm anxious to get this thing finished. My carpentry skills leave quite a bit to be desired though.