Wednesday, January 28, 2009

Making Rings






I have 6 sets of rings but it's a pain to to move them around from muscle up to ring dip to ring pushup position so I wanted more for that. I also want to suspend them from the ceiling so you can swing from on to another all the way around the gym. So it was clear I needed more rings. But since I wanted at least another 10 pairs the cost was going to be prohibitive.

Thank you John Deere. I suppose I could have gone to Home Depot but there is a JD store right across the street from my gym and they have the curved plastic conduit. I picked up 10 pieces got some tow rope from another hardware store and began fussing with a design. I decided right away that I didn't like the angle the rope would have to endure coming out of the ends of the conduit. It would have rubbed on the inside edge and probably would have abraded and cut the rope. I added a 45 degree angle piece to each end and that allowed the rope to come straight up from the handle. I messed with quite a few variations but this is your best bet:

The first 10 handles are wrapped with half an old bicycle inner tube. I ran out after the first 10 so for the second 10 I used bicycle handle bar tape. Each package comes with 2 roles and each roll will do two handles. I secured the inner tube to the conduit with white athletic tape and then covered that and the 45's with black athletic tape. With the handle bar tape I didn't bother with the white tape. The handle bar tape is a better solution.

Cut the tow rope into 5 foot sections. Use wire cutters to cut the rope and after you cut it use electrical tape to secure the end then burn the end with a lighter. Put the 45s on the end of the handles and then wrap the handles with the handle bar tape and then tape over it with the black athletic tape up to but not on to the 45s. Feed the rope through one end of the pipe until it comes out the other end then pull off the 45 and feed it through the second time. Put the 45s back on. Tie an overhand knot in each end of the rope and pull/push the ends down into the 45 as you pull the rope taut. The knots will pull into the 45s and be mostly out of sight. I like the tow rope for this part because it is just a bit stiff and doesn't flop over when not attached to something.

Now wrap the ends with the tape just to make the whole package neat. You can now string the handle up at whatever height you want using a climbing quick draw or by just tying a knot with climbing rope or some soft, white polypro rope. For less than $100 I made 10 pairs of rings with just a few hours of work. Easy work.

1 comment:

Phillip said...

so when you start marketing these things do I get a finders fee? Be back in on Saturday fatter and slower than ever! Cant wait