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Heavy Bag Mount

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Here is how you install a mount for a heavy bag in your ceiling. This example is for my home gym, but will give a good overview to any situation where a mount is needed for a heavy back in wood trusses. Basically, you want to overbuild like heck and assume that there will be heavy stresses on the bag which amount to the real measure of force the mount must support. Lots of ideas will get it done; here is how I did it.

Get a 4×4 beam and cut it and stick it between your trusses. OK so for this one I had access to the attic. But this is what you will need to do whether you are getting at the trusses from below or above. Dont depend on the trusses of the structure alone to support the heavy bag. Double up and distribute the load. Ordinarily the trusses are strong enough for a full grown adult carpenter to crawl around on them, but we have do do everything we can to make it as strong as possible at this level so we can patch the result and never go in there again. So doing this step is very important. Cost of a 4x4x6 treated post: $10.

Drive in 2 long wood screws in opposite corners at each end. At the other end of the 4×4 block, drive in the screws in the corners opposite to the other end of the block. Put in those screws with a good drill. Consider the block to be tacked in place now.

Next you drill two holes in opposing corners to put in two long larger galvanized machine head wood screws. Note the holes are made in the un-drilled corners opposite the wood screws, and the pattern is opposite on the other side.We are drilling here in order to avoid the wood splitting when the big screws are driven in.

Drive in the big galvanized machine head wood screws into your drilled holes. Use an impact driver for easy peasy. Sometimes a little grease or oil on the screw will make that thing go in smoothly.

Here is how it looks when done, and as I said, there will be an opposing pattern on the other end of the beam.

So now you have your mounting bracket. This bracket is a ‘Northern Lights Wall Mount Bracket’ from Fitness Depot, for $9.88. In the gym where I have trained I have installed mounts for bags and used different kinds of brackets. Speed bag mounts spin off and break, but they are cheap. I have gone to sailing stores and picked up pretty stainless steel brackets for $40. The stainless steel sailing brackets are still up but at what cost. For $9.88, this bracket looks awesome. You should overbuild, yes, you should spend money on that stuff. But there comes a tipping point where you are spending money but not accomplishing more. This whole project may indeed be reenforced a bit more afterwards, even though I am confident it is well overbuilt and will support a heavy kicking, a person in a swing, a side of beef, or whatever. If I were planning on using it to lift an engine block, I would probably do something to bring in more trusses on the load, with a beam over my block fastened into it and the trusses on either side.

Note how I havent drilled the holes yet. You could drill them prior to installation, but then you are stuck with where your bracket is going to be. This is not always a problem. But for my case, it was, so I waited to drill it afterwards. So put your bracket down on your beam where you want to drill through and drill your hole.

Drill your first hole, drill your second hole. Go all the way through the drywall. I used a wood bit. I re drilled it later with a 1/2 inch bit for the shank size of my down bolts.

Here is the finished look. The photo isnt that great, but there are washers. Yes, use washers. I added a little grease to the bolts and banged them down with a mallet.

Here is how your bolts will look from the other side, once you have pounded them down.

Here I have installed a block as an  additional shock absorber. I will be putting in a larger, wider block later. The mounting bracket is fixed in place with two 1/2″ machine head bolts with washers and lock washers behind the nuts.

I have added a stainless carabiner for now. I will probably add a swivel or pulley to handle twisting forces.

Now If I could only clear out the garage, I could have a spot for a home gym!

So as I was saying, there can be more to add here, but it is important to do an experiment to get it to this place and see what else you would add.

Materials:

plate 9.88
4x4x6 8
bolts, nuts, washers 8.33
4 galvanized wood screws 2
4 wood screws 0.5
Caribeaner 4
block of wood 0
Total 32.71

Tools used:

  • drill
  • impact driver
  • combination and wood drill bits
  • tape measure
  • socket driver
  • hammer, mallet
  • grease

I would be really interested in hearing some comments from my martial arts friends about this little project.

I seem to be getting a lot of spam mesages on this post. Dont worry, I delete them all.


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