New Fold Up Garage Sim

[brg1875]

Hey all,

I've been planning and slowly working on my build as time and the budget has permitted.

My biggest drawback from not doing the build earlier was the garage door opener being in the middle of the garage which did not allow for any clearance. I shelled out ~$700 to get an "I Drive" (liftmaster 8500) garage door opener installed.



Once the opener was installed the fun was able to start! I went with 1" EMT to make my 12'x9' enclosure. My ceiling height at the end of the garage is about 9'6" and my garage door itself is 16' wide but there is a bulkhead to the left of the picture that didn't allow the fold up nature of this to go wider.

I used this tube cutter pictured here which was pretty easy to use and didn't take that long to cut each piece.



I will be changing out the eye bolts on the frame to a regular 1/2" hex bolt to allow for tube insulation to be installed nice and tight.








Once the frame was put together I attached 4 eye lag bolts in the ceiling so the frame could pivot up and down. I used 4 Husky velcro straps (rated at 100 lbs each) to allow for this. I used 75 lb rated bike hooks on the end that swings up and had to bend them a bit since my floor joists weren't quite close enough for them to sit on.






When the frame is up I have about 3" of clearance for the garage door but I wanted a bit more clearance so I got some 5" lag bolts and countersunk them into 2x4's so after they are on the bike hooks I can get up on the step ladder and just lift the frame up and pivot the 2x4 around to support the frame. I now have closer to 6" of clearance.







As part of this build I also did a 6'x6' DIY truestrike mat with gel underneath. I had to cut two separate pieces of 4'x8' plywood into 3'x6' and screwed them together with pocket holes using a Kreg Jig. I used a jigsaw to cut the holes out and used saran wrap to wrap the gel since it was very hard to handle the gel since it was sticky. I used gorilla tape on both the back and front of the plywood so the gel wouldn't fall out. I used 3/4" screws to attach the hitting mat to the plywood. The hitting mat is a 6'x'6 premium residential from allturfmats.











I did the same countersunk 2x4 with a 5" lag bolt to snug the hitting platform to the wall and then used eye bolts to attach the 12'x9' turf floor to the wall with some spare Husky velcro straps to get the turf off the floor.



The last pieces to the puzzle will be adding a 6'x32' roll of carpet to the frame as a blackout shade and to prevent any mishits. Once I complete that I will pull the trigger on a screen, hopefully from the mill if I make the cut or I'll go Carl's Premium.

After that all I need to do is buy my projector, BenQ 2150st and I'll be making a custom upright manual zoom ceiling mount so I can adjust from 16x9 to 4x3.

Last but not least, I'll be buying a SkyTrak unit and be playing Pebble Beach in no time!





Images:

https://imgur.com/a/0YQwC

[Boerdoc]

For the sag, just get a long bungie that goes from side to side and connects to the EMT. Put it on when you raise it, off to play. 5 seconds.

[brg1875]

That's exactly what I was thinking is the easiest. I'll probably use a clip, rope and ball bungie.

[brg1875]

So I took part of your recommendation with what I had and didn't work so I'll be getting bungees tomorrow. I have a 12' frame so I'll probably have to use two 6' bungees.

https://imgur.com/a/G5xrq

[PunchoutPro]

Looks good brg1875!! Nice work and nice big hitting screen!

I've never had an issue with work burners on the bottom conduit after 1,000's of hits. While trying to make some swing changes, I did get a case of the shanks with my wedges and had some wicked bounces off of the side pipe. I'm looking to add some padding there and maybe the top pipe for when I take a full wedge shot. Other than it has worked great (other than adding to the addiction and draining my bank account after adding Skytrak, new computer, and TGC. Haha)

[brg1875]

I'm not worried about my shanks as much as others that come to play.

[Rizzo777]

Is that frame blocking some lights in the ceiling when it's folded up? I just thought of that as I'm going to to be dry walling my ceiling and adding recessed lights

[brg1875]

The lights in that picture are outside of the frame, but right next to it. At some point I'll be replacing those screw in bulb fixtures with some LEDs. The lights aren't in the swing path but it's close so I'd rather feel comfortable and put in recessed lights.

[brg1875]

I haven't had a chance to update this thread in a few weeks but I'm almost done! (Are we ever done though?)

So for the screen sag I tried bungees to pull the screen up while folded up in the ceiling with no luck so I wound up tightening the entire screen which allowed the clearance. As expected in doing so I'm getting a good amount of bounce back so I'll be putting some moving blankets behind but I'm worried about the sag of those so we'll see.

Secondly I did get the foam in to protect the EMT and I think it's going to work great.




I've thrown some balls directly at the foam pretty hard and they simply plop off the foam and into the screen. I'm going to use some foam adhesive and attach the foam to a piece of canvas to have one or two long strips to make it easier to store.

The last thing I did was install a winch to make the putting and pulling down of the frame easier. I was really having a tough time putting the frame back up since the joist I put the bike into is at an awkward distance and I had to really try to pull the frame over the hooks on top of a step ladder. I bought an overhead pulley from Harbor Freight for about $80 and attached it to the wall via a 2x6. The pulley is rated to hold 220lbs and my frame is maybe 50lbs since the other side is anchored with the velcro straps.



I put two pulley two pulleys in the ceiling, each of them rated at 440lbs to guide the wire and keep it as flush to the ceiling as possible since I'll be putting a projector up shortly. I used a 3' tow strap that I wrapped around the bottom of the EMT so it pulls straight up.



It goes up and down much easier now!



Tomorrow I'm going to be wrapping the canvas on the inside of the frame as the enclosure to prevent any shanks which should be relatively easy to do. Once that is done I'll try to play with the bounce back with the moving blankets. I have two of them so I may double layer them and then bungee them with 8 tarp clips (2 on each side).

[eezetee]

Very cool!

Curious though why you have put the screen on the back part of the cage thus exposing the metal. Why not on the front (facing the winch) part ?

[brg1875]

I did that so when I wrap the black canvas on the inside of the frame as the enclosure everything folds up together as one piece. I plan on hanging the canvas via zip ties and create a few inch buffer between the emt and canvas so if a ball does go towards the EMT there will be some give. Hopefully it will make sense when I try to attach the canvas today.

[brg1875]

So I was able to attach the canvas to the frame today. It came in a 5' roll and I got 14 yards. I only needed about 32' for the frame but I got extra so I can make baffles if needed and/or attach my triangle foam to it.


The intention was to let the canvas hang a little bit lower on the inside so the frame wasn't exposed but it created a gap that could let a ball go out so I attached the canvas on the inside of the frame like below with zip ties:



Hit some golf balls and it's working out well! I'm hitting from about 9' and even with hitting a full swing flop shot I'm barely getting it above 2/3'rds up on the screen so I'm not too worried about hitting the top.



The only thing I noticed is either the ball I was using was dirty or my club and I've already have some dirt marks on the screen. Whats the best way to clean it? It's a Carl's Premium.