Print PDF
Favorite
Email
Step 3
With my little old driver so lively and quick
I drilled a hole in the floor and tapped it up quick.
Spreading an eyelet, I threaded this hook
behind the closet door where surely no one would look.
Materials Needed:
- Threaded Eyelet
- 1" to 1/2" reducer fitting
- 1/2" 45 degree fitting
- Short length of 1/2" pipe
A steel eyelet with wood screw threads is used to anchor the end of the pipe. The eyelet was "opened-up" to create a hook. A pilot hole was drilled through the carpet and into the subfloor.
The hook remains there all year and the 1/2" pipe fittings are slid under it.
Note: The closet door can still close with the pipe and hook in place.
I suppose with shorter sections of threaded pipe, and a few more fittings, the pipe could be made to follow the floor to be less of an obstacle in the hall than the diagonal path used here. (Ref. last photo on this page)
| « Previous Step | Download PDFView All Steps | Next Step » |
but oh well to each their own
To answer your question...A REAL Engineer would have: sketched a free body diagram showing the beam and the forces applied to it (the weight of the tree) and the constraint of the fulcrum (pivot point) and the equal and opposite force at the anchor point.
Bending moments (also known as torque) would have be calculated as force applied at a length from the bending point (force x distance).
Being a stationary object the sum of all the forces and moments would equal zero.
Then, the cross sectional bending moment of inertial would have been calculated for a hollow cylinder using the inner and outer diameter of the pipe and Young's modulus of elasticity for plain carbon malleable steel.
With this information the strain on the beam would have been calculated to ensure that the stress was well below the yeild strength of steel with a comfortable safety factor.
A well provisioned engineer might have also run an a compurtized F.E.A. (Finite Element Analysis) to analyze in detail the stress on the beam.
Only then would an engineer truly know the beam would not bend under the weight of the tree.
I, on the other hand, just took a chunk of pipe and hung a tree on it!
The Theoretical and the Applied Practical each has its place... you be the judge.