Starting my garage buildout

[Agolfman]

Just a great forum with a ton of useful information! First post here.

I'm beginning my enclosure buildout this week: 8' x 10', 1" EMT, and PR20 impact screen. Wanted to get a sense as to how to estimate the tension required for my impact screen. I've ordered it at exactly 8' x 10' and am planning to use 6" bungees wrapped around the EMT. Nothing too unusual with that, I suppose. But, before I trim down the EMT to 8' height, I was thinking I might need to add 2-4" to provide just a little bit of vertical tension to the screen. Can't really accomplish that on the width, as the EMT is already at 10', so I may be adding waviness by modifying the height differently from the width (in relation to the PR20 sizing).

I figure the three-way corner brackets on the top and bottom add 1" each to the height, so there's a little bit of tension already being added....anyone else experiment with this, or am I just overthinking it?

[Agolfman]

Some thoughts on the removability of "3". I think it can be done, leaving aside stability for a second. I have my PR20 bunged to the entire length of 3. You could probably get away with not doing this, however....just not sure (no experience) with the balls sneaking under there...might be ok, but I have 10 or so bungees on that bottom edge of the screen.

3 is also eye screw'd into the corner brackets of 9 and 10. It's somewhat of a tight fit as the EMT is set maybe 4" inside of the bracket. So that would have to be planned for in terms of how tight or loose the assembly (considering the net and screen are installed at that point) is to have the play needed to dissemble/assemble repeatedly.

You have a good idea about the cage being used inside and out, I'd like that but don't want the hassle,I suppose.

For the location, it seems you are going with the opening of the garage, which I did not have that option (I have a slight downhill ramp at that end of the garage). So will you have a way to raise/lower the screen somehow, or did I miss that?

The ability to drive the car and park it almost under my cage has been a really good thing. I don't love rolling up the carpet after a session, but it only takes a minute or two to break the whole thing down and convert it back to a garage....so, I deal with it (SWMBO and all...)

[mobilegun]

agreed. i've yet to get the material so it's hard to be certain of how it will actually work. The other thing I just realized is 1) i have no way to get 10' EMT poles home haha 2) the length of my 1/2/3 ideally would be about 11' or possibly 10'6, longer than the standard 10' EMT pole which introduces a few thoughts... a) either couple them together, possibly weakening the entire structure, depending on the coupling; b) find a longer piece 12' for example and cut down; c) have them fixed to the side pieces and swing out with the coupler in the middle being the 'temporary' piece screwed on while in use, etc. d) alternatively, do it at 10' or so.

i like your rolling carpet idea. i thought about building a raised platform for it so a hole could be cut and give it some drop, plus it'd line up to the height of the hitting mat. i have some other random ideas id like to incorporate but... baby steps...

for the screen rolling up out of the way, i was thinking about either spooling it AROUND 1 and winding it up with impact side inward to keep dust/dirt out, then velcro securing it while rolled up and out of the way. what i just thought about was also winding around 3, up to 1 and securing there, somewhat killing 2 birds with 1 stone. again, all this works well in space, but with gravity...

In a way id actually prefer to not have to make it portable, but i can see a few factors coming up. nice day outside, too lazy to move my car, etc. effectively i'd like the inside setup to be solid and the outside one to work, but likely somewhat diminished (ambient light, projector moves, etc). i have some other reasons for the outdoor setup if it could work: could use an office desktop to power the thing and fire the projector out the office window which happens to face where i'd setup outside instead of having another computer dedicated whenever sim becomes available, etc.

[goodmatt78]

How deep is your cage and how far back are you hitting from? I am considering putting something similar in my office, but I would like to put a "T" in the front cross member on bring a pole back to support my projector. This way I don't have to put holes in my ceiling. Would 1in EMT still be sufficient or will my projector shake...maybe go with 1.75in.

Thanks.