I have a pull-up bar that mounts in a door frame – one of those deals that just hangs freely and you can put it on and remove it at will – but I was tired of my knees touching the ground when doing pull-ups and it’s just so cramped trying to do pull-ups within a doorway so I built a pull-up bar in my garage.
I used:
- 3/4″ metal pipe (3 straight pieces, 2 elbows, and 2 floor flanges)
- one 8′ 4×6 beam cut down into two 28″ lengths
- 1 & 1/2″ paddle bit
- 1 & 1/4″ paddle bit
- 8 metal 90 degree plate things
- screws
And here’s how I went about installing it:
- assemble metal pipe completely except for floor flanges – leave them off until later
- cut 4×6 and drill a hole in each one – the metal pipe will be going through the center of each beam. I started with the bigger paddle bit and drilled in a half inch or so and then used the smaller paddle bit to go the rest of the way (this is because the floor flanges have a lip)
- measure distance of bar and drill holes in ceiling drywall
- go into the attic with the 4×6’s and flanges
- have someone hold up the bar and push through the ceiling holes
- on the attic side direct the metal pipe through the 4×6 and screw on flanges once metal pipe comes through the 4×6. Note: the 4×6’s are running perpendicular to the ceiling joists.
- attach 4×6’s to ceiling joists with 90 degree metal plate things and screws. the 4×6’s won’t move now
- have someone push each side of the bar up while attic guy tightens the flanges. i built a custom device so i could get some leverage on the flanges and actually tighten them much tighter than “hand tightened”
- screw flanges into 4×6’s
- ???
- profit
A lot of links on the web to other peoples’ pull-up bars have the floor flanges screwed into the bottom of the supporting wood beam but I wanted mine to go through the beam completely so that there was more support. My bar feels super solid when doing pull-ups on it.
Here are some pictures:
- Bar from ‘front’
- Bar from ’side’
- Device used to tighten floor flanges – screws poking through match up with flange holes. Hand tightening flanges wasn’t cutting it so that’s why I created this device.
- Bar from the attic – 4×6’s perpendicular to ceiling joists and sitting on ceiling joists, bars running through 4×6’s with flanges on top of 4×6’s instead of below (this makes much more sense to me than just screwing the flanges into the bottom of the 4×6’s like so many others on the web do)
