Homemade Martial Arts Training Equipment

[Tim]

Michael Janich's book "Homemade Martial Arts Training Equipment":

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/158...Fencoding=UTF8

Claims to tell you how to make a homemade speedbag.

Has anyone read this? Is it truly a homemade speed bag, or speed bag platform?

How good could a homemade speed bag be ? Especially considering you can get one for $20 at ringside?

[Fuzzy_donkey]

I've made my own platform. It's made of 1 1/2" fur. (Has a very pretty grain pattern to it, and weighs a ton.)
The reason I made it up like that is for the weight, and so there is no vibration to it at all. To buy one that heavy duty costs a fortune.
The wood I got was for free so the price was right too.

Works good....

I'll add a picture soon too.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy_donkey

I'll add a picture soon too.

I would like to see that. I've toyed with the idea of making my own as well

[Fuzzy_donkey]

Originally Posted by Tim

I would like to see that. I've toyed with the idea of making my own as well

Here are some pics...
Excuse the clutter; it's my garage/shop/gym....


Click on the picture to enlarge

[Speedbag]

Fuzzy_donkey's board is beautiful. Very nice looking setup. I also notice the old style two piece Everlast ballhook, #4440. This is the older style, for the "S" hook was changed in it's last version to make the bottom of the S much flatter. Your's looks to be from before that. I don't like the flat S-Hook and much prefer the swivel like YOU have.

Of course, the two piece S-Hook is long gone now, replaced by the single piece plastic version.

Nice speed bag setup, FD.

[Fuzzy_donkey]

Thanks for the compliment on my board.
As for my s-hook.... You're good; you hit the nail right on the head. I actually got it on e-bay a while back, band new in the packaging for just over $2.00 or $3.00. It was my one great find on e-bay.

[Tim]

Originally Posted by Fuzzy_donkey

Here are some pics...

Looks good. Very nicely done.

Where did you get the wood from the rebound board ? I looked for something like that at Home Depot once but they didn't seem to have any. I'm all thumbs when it comes to woodworking. Did you have to shape it and round off the edges yourself?

[Fuzzy_donkey]

Originally Posted by Tim

Looks good. Very nicely done.

Where did you get the wood from the rebound board ? I looked for something like that at Home Depot once but they didn't seem to have any. I'm all thumbs when it comes to woodworking. Did you have to shape it and round off the edges yourself?

The wood I used for the board, and the braces are all same wood. (I just didn’t do any finishing to the top part of the board.)
As for were I got it; you see I am a linesman by profession for the electric company here where I live, and the wood I used was a x-arm. (The cross braces that you see up on hydro poles.)
All I did was rip one down the middle, and then cut them in smaller peaces. After that I just glued the pieces together.

Making the circle was probably the easiest part of the whole thing. What I did for that was, I got a piece of plywood roughly 6”x24” long and attached my router to it at one end. Measured from the bit back to the desired size I wanted. So if I wanted say a 24” board, I would measure back 12” and attach it at that point in the middle of the board with a screw. Then just go around and around taking small cuts (depth wise) at a time.

After the circle was cut out, I just rounded the edges with a round over bit in my router, sanded and added a coat or two of varnish, and that was it. It was relatively an easy build, and took me about a day to do.

The thing I like the best about it is the fact that it’s so thick and solid wood. Makes it very heavy and REALLY helps to cut down on vibration.

[Tim]

Thanks for providing those details, I was kind of lost as to how to go about creating such a piece.

Originally Posted by Fuzzy_donkey

After that I just glued the pieces together.

Is that just regular wood glue such as Gorilla glue ?

[Fuzzy_donkey]

Originally Posted by Tim

Is that just regular wood glue such as Gorilla glue ?

Yeah, just normal wood or carpenters glue does the trick, but you would also have to attach clamps to apply some pressure to make sure you get a good bond.