Install a Hanging Bar/Trapeze at Your Office

Intro: Install a Hanging Bar/Trapeze at Your Office

Any office can be dramatically improved with a trapeze. It's a fact. Instructables used to have a small trapeze bar to hang from in a previous space. It was a great way to stretch and move around a bit before going back to whatever had to be done. Sadly, there has been no such bar in the office for almost two years. This needed to be fixed so I went about installing one.

DISCLAIMER: This is not the safest and most professional setup by far. The goal was to have a bar for stretching/hanging and pull-ups. This is not meant for swinging and trapeze despite the photos below of Josh on the bar.

STEP 1: Get the Gear

You'll need:
- 4 eyebolts. Two for the ceiling and two to attach to the bar
- rope
- 30" 1.5" diameter maple bar

Make sure that the eyebolts and rope are rated for much more than the weight that you're going to be applying to it.

STEP 2: Drill Some Holes

Break out your drill and drill holes in the joists and the bar. Make sure you drill straight and through the center.

STEP 3: Screw in the Eyebolts

You may need to use a tool to get some leverage, but simply screw those bolts in!

STEP 4: Time to Get Knotty

We used a few different knots to attach the rope to the ceiling and to the bar. We'll start with the ceiling knot, the bowline.

Simply tie a bowline to create a sturdy loop. Feed the other end of the rope through the eyebolt and back through the loop. That's it!

STEP 5: Getting Knottier

The next knot we're using here is a figure-8 knot. Tie a figure-8 knot and leave a couple feet on the end.

Feed the rope through the eyebolt and then run it back through the knot to double it up. Before you really yank on it to tighten it, check the height of the bar and the evenness of the two sides.

STEP 6: Finishing It Off

With the extra rope that's coming out, tie a double overhand knot. This will keep the extra rope in place and provide a knot that would stick in the figure-8 knot in the unlikely event that the figure-8 would start to come undone.

STEP 7: Hang Out and Enjoy the View

Hang from the bar, do some pull-ups or chin-ups, and enjoy yourself. I don't recommend swinging like it's a regular trapeze since that requires a much safer setup. If that's your intention, do more research before attempting an installation.

Comments

[jared.savage]

WARNING.

This is dangerous, and this post should be removed as the first hit on Google. A wooden dowel isn't suited for this and will break, and someone will get seriously injured.

If you're reading this and thinking of replicating it at home, DON'T. If you're going to DIY a trapeze, use a steel pipe. Not a wooden dowel.

[ajc123]

i looks so cool

[ajc123]

it looks so cool

[jewdlecake]

I think you should really remove this. Its dangerous, and somebody might actually try this and get hurt =/

[daltonjcw]

I'll put my weight on that rope set-up, but get some steel for that bar. This wooden dowel is vastly inadequate. Try again. With steel. Or get a picture when the thing snaps with Josh on it. CRRRRACK thud splat.

[mmmorley]

Well intentioned, but woefully ignorant.

DO NOT DO THIS!

Technical Officer @ Circomedia, Bristol, UK
I make trapezes. I rig trapezes.

[jamesvs400a]

yes i agree. nylon nuts don't come undone on there own so they would be a lot saver. if you cannot get any you could at least double nut the end of the bolt, tightening each bolt into eachother

:P :)

[doneitagain]

I hate to be this dude but, please do not do this. A real static trapeze is made of 1" steel pipe and is bound in hemp (or the like) rope that is properly attached around structure (not into super-structure as pictured) with span-sets, not eye hooks. As a rigger I beg please please do not do this. It will work like a dream until the day it snaps and breaks a neck, I'm sorry to say I've seen it happen and permanently change lives.

[boocat]

I totally agree! If you look at the bars used at your local gym, you'll see these are parrot-perch inadequate, man!

All the pull-up bars and lifting gear are all made out of huge steel pipe-type pieces.

Use chains to hang it, and this would be fun for a couple of parrots.

[trapezegirl]

I've been a professional trapeze artist for over 10 yrs and this is so unsafe, people have said it before but not only could the eye hooks come out without warning the wood could break. When you are rigging a piece of equipment you have to eliminate all the possible fault points (where the equipment could fail resulting in injury). There are too many to eliminate in this design. If you are going to do this regardless please put a mat underneath you if you are ever going to go upside down. I love the people at Instructables and I don't want you to hurt yourselves...

[DeliciousMystic]

I love Instructables! where else do actual trapeze professionals stand up for our well being.. let alone , who woulda thought there was such an active population on here.. love it love love it

[_soapy_]

Agreed. Pretty much a lethal trap if you don't set that up safely. Get a steel clamp and put it around the ends and drill through so that the wood cannot split. At the very least, bind the ends with cord, over the nut, which should also be over a drill recessed washer. Wood tends to split under high loads, and then the person on it will break something when they hit the ground. Only having that little nut there will result in the wooden bar only having perhaps 20% of the strength that a capped or bound end will have. In fact, thinking about it more... put those eyes in and pass the rope through the eye, loop the rope around the bar twice and back through the (other side of the) eye and then tie it off. This will make it so the eyebolt ensures the rope cannot slide off the end of the bar, and if it somehow does, it will still be attached via the eye. This will support the wood so that it is under a bending load through the entire bar, rather than a shear load that would tend to split the wood.

[blueberry_fox]

I would also like to stress all of the points doneitagain mentioned. This is really not safe. None of this equipment is designed to safly hold your weight. That is kind a ok if you are just hanging from your hands or doing chin ups but if it breaks when you are upside down. You won't have time to even think about fliping yourself over.

[criggie]

No - its awful. Darwin is waiting with an award for someone to say "hold my beer and watch this."

How about raise it up so its purely decorative - that would make it a bit safer.

[ploomus]

That's just totally awesome! I have one like this at home, but mine is metal and with chains, i really love it. It's totally awesome idea to add one like this in the office.

[Xerillum]

This seems like a way to ninja ambush co-workers...

[Wasagi]

"Hey want to go get us some coffee?"
"Sure"

"NINJA TAKEDOWN

[nimitz]

I'm in agreement with a lot of people here in that the wood could break under stress.

Best spend at least $20 for the bar itself here...

Then get some decent chain from the local big-box hardware store for about the same amount of money. $40 - $50 is worth it to help keep yourself and others safe in my book.

[jongscx]

where the hell do you work that they let you do this? my office is too stiff-455 to even consider such a stunt...

[Xerillum]

Instructables, of course.