Tensioned steel cable enclosure

[cooke23]

Wondering if anyone has thought to make an enclosure using tensioned steel cable. Thinking maybe the 1/8in thick would be plenty. My garage sim will be in a corner where the left wall will just be padded but the right side is "open" so I was thinking of mounting 2 vertical tensioned steel cables to clip the netting to. I'd have one about 6in away from wall and 6in behind the screen to clip the baffle net to. The other I'd put about 5-6ft up the right side for the side netting to catch any shanks. The benefit I see is if a ball hits the cable.....it'll "give" a lot more than a pole will as long as you don't go crazy with the tension, which would/could under crazy unlucky circumstances, create a giant slingshot. I'd hafta mess with it a bit but I think you could fish the cable right through the holes on the netting. Almost sewing with the cable. The other option would just be to ball bungee to the cable.

What are your guys' thoughts? I'm definitely not an expert in this stuff so what am I missing? Gonna be starting my build here in the next week or so.

[wbond]

Yes, i've used this in the past to hang stuff from and others have used it in the vertical position as well. Don't think though that it will stay straight, no matter how tight you pull it, it will still bow out.

[717golfer]

You are definitely thinking outside the box. Sounds like a reasonable thing to me. Just curious, are you going to use this just for the sides or will you be hanging the screen this way as well? It seems to me hanging from cable might be a possibility, for the same reason you describe. If hanging you may need a support in the middle depending on the size of your screen.

[cooke23]

I was just thinking for the sides of the netting but I may actually do another one for the sides of the screen to bungee too as well.. I'm going with the SuperTex Hanging Model screen so I have the top and bottom parts covered. Planning to do a padded PVC conduit through the top slots of the screen.

WBond - Thanks for the reply. "Don't think though that it will stay straight, no matter how tight you pull it, it will still bow out."

What do you mean by this? I can't picture how the cables would bow out when they are vertical. They would be holding the netting tight so if anything I would see them bowing in...aka, towards middle of screen. Maybe I'm not thinking of something right?

[jake]

I used clear coated steel cable to mount parts of the tarp skin of my outdoor enclosure so that the panel can be pulled back like a shower curtain (horizontally). This just allows use of the "opened up" hitting bay without simulation in nice weather (too much light for a clear projector image, but nice for hitting balls into the net or short game practice on the putting green inside the enclosure). Using turnbuckles enabled me to get the cables tight enough so that they didn't sag.

[wbond]

What i meant was, it will bow towards the area where it's being pulled. If you have one mounted horizontal to hold a screen, it will bow down in the middle, no matter how tight you get it. If they are mounted vertically, same thing, it will bow to which ever side you are pulling on it.

[cooke23]

Yeah, that makes sense. It should definitely work for the baffle net but will probably need to mess with the cable that holds the net. The bungees closer to the middle will be cinched a bit more to account for the bowing. Geez, so many little intricacies to think about for this stupid hobby of ours.

[DE819]

that is what I used to hold my screen up works like a charm.

[cspin]

I have quite a bit of experience with an enclosure that included using tensioned 1/8" coated wire cable. Ended up re-building the enclosure to eliminate most all cable for the reasons pointed out by wbond. I had my side and ceiling netting panels all tied in together (and to the screen) and it pulled from all directions and was very difficult to get set up right. I spent countless hours and tried pretty much everything possible. All of the netting and screen materials were custom ordered. I could go into detail on this but the bottom-line is that if I knew a year plus ago what I know now, I would not have gone the cable direction. It has its place though, depending on the application.

Btw, mine is in my garage as well. My hard wall is on the right. The screen was framed using 2 x 6 lumbar with angle iron bolted to it. On the left side, I used a 2 x 6 and anchored it to the floor, and then bolted slotted angle iron to it. That part of the setup remains, and everything else (which used to be cable) has been changed.

[cooke23]

Good info here cspin. Not gonna do cable option if its an issue. Do you tie down the sides of the screen then? I know some let it hang and only tie down the bottom corners.

[cspin]

cooke, I have a screen with velcro on the two vertical sides and across the top. Also, on the sides I have tabs (made from nylon webbing) that were sewn in every 12". The tabs are connected to the angles iron via zip ties or bungees. So, yes the sides of the screen should be tide into the angle iron on the left and right. Some people just use tarp clips. My setup is different because my side protection netting ties into the side of my screen via velcro. You need the tie in on the sides to create proper tension on the screen. One tie in at the floor is not going to cut it. My setup has no physical connection at the screen to the floor. The screen has a I" wide sleeve sewn into it, and a long piece of bungee rope is fed through the sleeve and pulled tight from left to right. It works great if you have the bottom of the screen just barely touching the floor. Balls do not go under screen because bungee rope is pulled tight. Screen still has plenty of give to it, and there is nothing running along the bottom of the screen that a ball can hit and ricochet around the room.

Here's a couple pics from early on in my build (ver 1).

[aja]

"Tensioned" structures aren't as simple as they seem. To minimize sag there has to be a lot of tension and thus there is a lot of stress on the anchor points. There is a reason why this approach isn't used very often. There are better alternatives.

[cspin]

Yep, you can tension things to a certain extent, but not tie everything together (screen, side and top panels) with velcro and cables. I about lost my mind trying to counter the forces and keep things lined up. Thing is, I thought it would be the better way to go to avoid metal poles and keep things low profile. It was all custom top of the line netting and screen material. Looks good on paper but not in execution.

[p3eps]

cspin - Your screen setup looks very similar to mine with the velcro edges. Is it from Par2Pro?

[cspin]

Well, its from West Coast Netting and they call it pr100. It's the same as the HQ material, and was prep'd with double sided velcro along the sides and top, with straps on the sides. There are also grommets along the top. Bought archery netting for the sides, top and behind the screen. I've learned a lot over the last year plus trying to get this dialed in. I am almost done and it is finally coming together nicely. Have synthetic turf being delivered this week. Will post some pics when all done.

[p3eps]

Looks good 👍
Sounds the same, apart from mine is grommets down the sides rather than the loops.

[zoneless]

Well, its from West Coast Netting and they call it pr100. It's the same as the HQ material, and was prep'd with double sided velcro along the sides and top, with straps on the sides. There are also grommets along the top. Bought archery netting for the sides, top and behind the screen. I've learned a lot over the last year plus trying to get this dialed in. I am almost done and it is finally coming together nicely. Have synthetic turf being delivered this week. Will post some pics when all done.

cspin, thanks for the details! I am trying to make one exactly like yours. Could you share which bungee you are using and the distance between the slotted angle irons and the screen? I am trying to work out the dimensions. Thanks!

[cspin]

I use black bungee cord that I ordered on amazon, and cut it to length for each location where I anchor the screen to the angle iron. Works a lot better than mini bungee cords because you can dial in the exact tension real easy and just tie a knot in it. The knots stay tight because it is good bungee cable, and if you need to readjust they the knots also come out easy. I don't recall the dimension, but my bet is that it was 1/8" or slightly narrower.

The dimensions on my frame ended up being around 11'2" inside diameter. This allowed for a gap of 2" between the holes in the angle iron and the outside edge on the tabs on my screen.

Shoot me a PM if you want more details or lessons learned. Putting up a screen like this is not bad, but it can get tricky depending on how you intend to implement side or ceiling protection. Same goes for backup netting to the screen and how it is anchored and interacts with the screen. It is very much dependent on how you set things up and the screen you go with.