PVC or Metal Framing?

[John6577]

Bought a net kit and built the frame with 3/4" conduit metal piping. Dimension is 10x10x9 (had to lower the height due to the ceiling clearance). Bought the foam black pipe insulation that has a hole in the middle and wrapped it around all of the metal piping to protect the ball and myself when a ball hits the frame. The foam works great and also makes the frame look cleaner looking. I just fold the frame and hang it on some large hooks on the wall in my garage so we can park our cars. Projector is high enough where it does not interfere with our cars, etc. The computer in the photo is one I built (major pain). Using the ST and TGC. Screen gets wrinkled after hitting some balls so I just have to tinker with the frame to get it straight again (no big deal). I live in SC so it gets really hot and there is no way I want to be in that garage hitting balls during the next several months. Its not the most ideal setup, but if I ever buy or build another house I am definitely going to design a dedicated sim room in the process. Current home does not have a room that would work for it so the garage was my only choice.

[wbond]

John6577 what couplings are you using in the corners that allow you to fold the cage? Can you share a pic of that? Was considering this for a side wall on mine

[John6577]

See my response below. Could not post a photo on this reply.

[Papaduke]

John6577, what did you use as the blackout panels? Currently trying to finish my build and looking for options.

Thanks

[John6577]

I bought them with the kit I purchased from Custom Golf Design. I believe John will sell them separate to you. Just call and give him the dimensions. Its very thin Vinyl material. Very overpriced IMO (was around $300; got 2 5x10 panels for the back, 4 for the sides, and 2 for the ceiling) , but it does the job. One thing to keep in mind (I did not take into account) is that it adds weight to the ceiling part which is why I did not add it to the netting on the ceiling. When I added it, the weight of the blackouts caused the netting to sag down effecting the projection screen (netting shadow was in the projection screen). Point being, probably not good to add to the top part unless you have higher ceilings (10ft or higher). Other thing is that I decided to order a ceiling net that came all the way to the hitting area. If I could do it again, probably would have ordered it to be 5 feet instead of 10. I thought about using some large black sheets, but I needed to keep the weight down on the cage so I could hang it on the wall. Did not feel like having to take the sheets off everytime I took down the cage. Using the thicker fabric could have resulting in the cage falling off the wall over time and onto my wife's car which would not have been good. The Vinyl material is really light.

[John6577]

John6577 what couplings are you using in the corners that allow you to fold the cage? Can you share a pic of that? Was considering this for a side wall on mine

I bought them from Custom Golf Design (you can google the name). It was part of the kit that included the netting and all. I think you may be able to buy them from other places like Amazon but not sure. The way they work is you put them beside one another and technically use plastic ties to keep them connected, but because of the dimensions of the cage, in order for me to fold both sides together so I can hang it all on the wall I used the black ties you can loosen up (you can see them in the photo) which allows me to separate the connectors apart and fold the cage together (if that makes any sense). It does not effect the stability of the cage at all.

[Boo Radley]

[QUOTE=gene438;n66335]I echo the above, I went with 1" emt and a corner kit from Amazon...my total cost was about 120 for frame and another 100 for the heavy duty tarp.

Nice setup Gene!, looks similar to mine except my wife said she is not walking out to the man cave to get herself a beer, so the kegerator stays in the kitchen for now.
Can also oeder blackout curtain from these folks, custom sewing available too@ http://www.onlineeei.com/

[Wundej]

1" EMT pipe from Lowes ,with fittings from www.tarps.com makes a good solid frame that goes up and down easily.

Guys who bought from Tarps.com, can you link to the 3 way corners that you used?
This was really the only thing that I saw in 1"
Flat Roof Corner $5
Thanks!

[titaniumfrost302]

Guys who bought from Tarps.com, can you link to the 3 way corners that you used?
This was really the only thing that I saw in 1"
Flat Roof Corner $5
Thanks!

1" flat roof corner is what I use and pretty sure that's what you're after.

[wbond]

Yep, flat corner roof.