Forgive my hubris for having my second post be a new thread in the share your badassity section, but I've been excited about completing small projects lately, and I'm also excited about sharing it with new folks.
My new (to me) primary residence has a 10'x20' basement with good clearance, and so I decided it would become the home gym (and eventual laundry room, once I acquire the pump to pump washer drain to drain line above). Really, all I'm doing to keep in shape the past few years is crossfit style HIIT workouts, a lot of which I can do at home with minimal equipment. I need (1) space to jump around for burpees/push-ups/plyos, (2) pull-up bar, (3) at least one kettlebell of a decent size, and (4) a box for box jumps.
Since pull-ups w ere what I missed the most, I decided to start there.
Here's the entirety of my materials:
Wood glue and scrap 2x4 I already had on hand, of course, as well as fasteners. I used 3" wood screws, but wish I'd used decking screws. I had to buy the bar itself (1" galvanized plumbing pipe, cut down to 48"), and the drill bit for the 2x4s.
The area where it was installed:
Yes, I was able to avoid relocating any plumbing or electric (although when I redo my master bath above a lot of it'll get moved anyhow).
Final product:
How I did it: really simply.
I had the pipe cut down to 48" by the hardware store, which is just enough to span 3 joist bays (16" oc). Really, it's wider than I need, but spanning 3 bays means when my head raises up above the bar I don't have to worry about slamming it into a floor joist. Plus, if I get strong enough to want to do wide grip, I can.
I cut the scrap 2x4 down to 12" each, and then drilled a 1.25" hole about 2-4" from the ends (I can't remember off the top of my head). Issue #1: the outer diameter of 1" pipe is NOT 1.25", as the hardware store guy told me. So I had to spend 20 minutes (and two drill batteries) reaming out the holes so the pipe would fit. This ended up working out great, though! Because it's such a tight fit that the pipe doesn't rotate when you're on it, which was a concern.
I predrilled 5 screw holes in each hanger on the opposite end of where the bar was, to make it easier to attach them to the joists. I knew I wouldn't be able to seat the pipe once the hangers were mounted, so I did that on the ground. Then put a healthy dose of wood glue on them where they'd be screwed to the joists. Then I got on a ladder, got a roomie to hold the whole contraption up, and screwed it into place.
It's been a few weeks, and it works great. It holds my 200lb+ body with no issues. If it ever loosens or starts making weird noises I'll take it down and reattach with lag bolts, but for now the screws are doing just fine.
Total cost, including a drill bit I'll get plenty of use out of: under 15 bucks. And I'm dumb for not purchasing the whole stick of pipe (10') and taking the excess home with me, because I definitely could have used it for other projects.
