Pull up bar

[Sebculb]

Hey everbuddy,

I just got a funny little gig welding a series of four pull up bars. For outdoor use in a park or playground type setting. The bar will be 1.5" galvanized pipe, and the upright posts 3" square galvanized tubing. The round pipe will be thick walled, the square tubing is relatively thin walled at 1.8mm thick. These are the common materials where I live and what will be used.

The doohickeys will just be a section of bar welded between the two posts and the posts will be buried a meter, nothing complicated.

The question: should I just cut the round bar off square and butt it up against the side of the post and weld a good bead around it? Or should I go to the trouble of poking a hole in the post, inserting the pipe and welding it in that way? I'm inclined to think the first way will be more than strong enough, and i don't have a good way to poke the hole beyond a hot welding stick and cleaning it up wit a Dremel. Sounds tedious that way. Perhaps drilling a ring of small holes with a bit would make it fall out more orderly like with the stick? Would prefer to take the easy way out, no fuss no miss and cheaper for the customer. But I want it to be good too. Opinions/advice?

Thanks!

 

[Big Barn]

Around here for outdoor use, square wood posts would be used. The pipe would go through a hole in the post or threaded pipe flanges would be used.

If using square steel tube use an annular cutter or 1.5” hole saw for the pull up bar to go through. It will make for a much neater installation and the welding won’t be as critical.

Is this for a kids playground use or outdoor CrossFit use? If the latter, a larger diameter pipe would be desired for grip development.

Here are some of the pull-up bars I’ve built all for indoor use.







Good luck!

 

[Sebculb]

Wow that looks like some pretty nice work! I could tell them to use wood posts too except then I'd be talking my way out of a job ha ha. But here in the tropics even pressure treated wood rots quickly.

So you think I should make holes and insert the pipe. If I do that it'll probably be drilling a series of small holes and poking it out with a welding stick, since I don't wanna buy any new tools for this teeny little gig. If I do it that way I get to charge a little more I suppose, it's got that going for it too. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Big Barn]

An inch and a half hole saw shouldn’t cost too much. You can use it with a corded or cordless drill. Just a suggestion.

 

[dragoneggs]

Don't listen to Big Barn... as you can see, he doesn't know what he is talking about :laughing:

I would take a hole saw and fit the pipes into the uprights and weld around the seam. Now you have a failsafe joint. Know that welding galvanized material creates hazardous fumes so take precautions there.

 

[Big Barn]

How did you make out? Get the gig?

 

[Sebculb]

Hola!

Sorry for the slow reply. Yeah, all said and done. No good metal cutting hole saws at the local HW store so I just traced the circle with 1/8 holes and poked it out with a hot stick. Took a while but worked okay. No fancy chroming here, just a can of silver spray paint. But they look okay. Thanks for the advice, attached are some pics of the process.

 

[Big Barn]

Nice work, Sebculb! Too bad a hole saw wasn’t available. It would have been faster but the end result is the same.

On to the NEXT project!

 

[Sebculb]

Thanks! Onwards!