Michael Miskelly Posted May 1, 2013 Share Posted May 1, 2013 Hi guys,I am going to build a set of stall bars for my gym. Just need some advice on the thickness (diameter) of the timber dowels. Would 1 inch be thick enough or is it recommended to go for thicker? Cheers, mic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FREDERIC DUPONT Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 32 to 38 mm (1" 1/4 to 1" 1/2) more or less a little bit here and there, without exaggeration... Most important is to check that the wood grain runs parallel to the axis of your dowel, all the way from one end to the other. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Miskelly Posted May 3, 2013 Author Share Posted May 3, 2013 Thanks Fred. I actually contacted the manufacturer today about the grain after looking up strength comparisons of hardwoods. Last thing I want is to end up on the floor after a pike stretch with two halves of dowel in hand! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David McManamon Posted May 3, 2013 Share Posted May 3, 2013 What wood are you going with? "Nothing like a good piece of hickory" - Preacher in Pale Rider. Several hardwoods would have sufficient strength but I haven't compared prices lately. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Baran-Mickle Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 I find that my 3' long 1-3/8" poplar dowels bend a bit too much. If going for harder wood, 1-1/4 should be fine (anything thinner is going to feel weird to grip), but if it's around the strength of poplar (which is fairly soft hardwood) I'd go with 1-1/2. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FREDERIC DUPONT Posted May 4, 2013 Share Posted May 4, 2013 Ash is perfect for that purpose.Birch, Beech and Maple are good too and probably easier to find. (watch the knots in Birch and sometimes wood compressions in Beech)That covers North America, Europe, Russia & Asia.No idea what is available to Southerners. (Eucalyptus in Australia maybe, but I don't know the mechanical specs) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Miskelly Posted May 4, 2013 Author Share Posted May 4, 2013 Poplar is cheapest here but since I am planning on having these for a long time I think I will spend the money on some oak dowels. It would be used a lot here for furniture and is hardwearing so it should do the trick. I will post up my end result hopefully in a week or two. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris Aldersley Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 I bought Tasmanian Oak dowels that were advertised as 30mm but were actually 28.5m. Im 98-100kg atm and they're fine. No flex and they feel solid. They're 80cm long. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitchell Rabushka Posted May 5, 2013 Share Posted May 5, 2013 Bailey Mfg uses 1 1/2" poplar dowels; however they are oval shaped so they are 1 1/2" in the vertical and 1 1/4" in the horizontal. The uprights are also made from poplar however the wall mounting boards are ash. http://www.baileymfg.com/products/exercisedevices/misc/ The stall bar is designed to handle 250 lbs and Bailey told me they sell them to gyms all over the country. Gibson also uses 1 1/2" poplar dowels although I'm not sure if they are oval or round. Although poplar is an acceptable wood for these mfg it does have some flex to it so it you want to minimize flexing you might want to use a different hardwood. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Matthew Putnam Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 Hey mic, I am in Ireland as well and am curious to what you come up with. I better start convincing the lady... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric Heiden Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 Poplar is cheapest here but since I am planning on having these for a long time I think I will spend the money on some oak dowels. It would be used a lot here for furniture and is hardwearing so it should do the trick.I will post up my end result hopefully in a week or two. I used 1.5 inch oak dowels and I weight ~180 pounds. They flex some but I'm not worried about them snapping. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubadub Posted May 9, 2013 Share Posted May 9, 2013 Another from Ireland here! I have a old wooden 1" broom handle, no idea what wood it is. It is spanning probably 4ft between to supports to form a pullup bar. I say pullup since if I did a chinup I would be certain it would snap, i.e. I do wide pullups on it so my hands are near the supports and it flexes very little, so the distance between supports is important. I'm about 95kg. Even if 1" was strong enough I would go for thicker, as 1" is too thin to grip for my liking. Stuff like this could be very expensive, I was trying to think of a place you might get them cheap, e.g. getting poles intended as heavy duty yard brush handles, or fencing or something. Or somewhere making curtain rails. I don't know if metal would be an option, it could be wrapped in tennis tape or something. If so a scrap yard might have some. I saw this on an Irish forum, he used scaffold pole. I was very impressed with it since its only supported on one side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rubadub Posted June 20, 2013 Share Posted June 20, 2013 I saw nice wooden spade/shovel handles in a hardware store (woodies) for about €12 each. They looked over an inch diameter and no bending. THey had pick axe and sledge hammer ones too, which were shaped, but these were perfectly round with a slight taper at one end. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael Miskelly Posted July 6, 2013 Author Share Posted July 6, 2013 Posting from my phone so hope this works! I managed to find 1 3/4 inch dowels at a local builders merchant so I took a gamble with those. They seem to flex in the middle a bit but it seems to do the job so far.I made the bottom slightly lower than the rest at a distance where I could use it to hook my heels under for GHR's, had to explain that because it just looks like I messed up that one haha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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