Build questions etc

[dunginhawk]

So I am about to start officially putting together my build.
I have my skytrak in. I have my 5x5 realfeel golf mat. Im still waiting on the Homecourse Screens to be back in stock, then ill get one of those.
I do have questions around my hitting mat/platform.
I am going to be building this in my garage. I am planning the platform to be 10ft deep x 8 feet wide. Should be plenty big. Ill put normal green turf over the entire thing, and the mat on top of that. That said, I am going to be hoisting it (either above head or with a winch against the wall) My question is. Is a 2x2 frame enough? I figure as long as I put in braces every 1.5ft i should be able to use 1/2" plywood on the surface right? I really dont want to use 3/4" as it adds a TON of weight to the overall platform. Adding a couple extra 2x2 braces instead of heavier plywood should save me considerable weight. Thoughts?

Also, how are you guys with skytraks raising them up to the level of your platform without putting them on the platform itself? Obviously the screws (for leveling and height) on the skytrak are not tall enough to accomodate a 3" roughly height of the platform + mat. Just curious if you are finding options for longer screws, or mounting it to another platform of its own.

Also, is there a minimum distance I need to make sure i leave from ball to screen? and screen to wall? I want to cut down the distance from stance/ball to screen a bit. If i can do that I can perhaps leave some shelving units in place behind the screen.I know skytrak says 10' from the back of your stance, but that seems like overkill to me. thoughts?
EDIT : After talking with Joe at homecourse, there really isnt a minimum I must leave, however just for room and to not feel cramped im thinking 6-7 feet.

Im sure ill have more questions and ill post them as they arise. My goal in this project is to turn my single bay stall in to a nice high quality golf sim, while still using it as a full time garage stall for my beautiful EV lol.

thanks

[Pat S.]

Sounds like a really cool build to me! My thoughts based on a good bit of building experience...

I think a 2x2 frame would be fine with either 1/2 inch or 3/4 inch plywood. From a cost perspective, good straight 2x2s might actually cost more than 2x4s. It depends on what grade of 2x2s you are looking for. If I were doing this and I was concerned about price and weight, I'd probably build the frame out of 2x3s, which you should be able to find at Lowes or Home Depot. They are a little cheaper than 2x4s and I would lay them flat rather than on edge. That would give you the same height as a 2x2. 1/2 ply will probably work fine, but I might test it out first and make sure you are ok with the amount it flexes. 18 inch braces are probably fine, but if they are closer together, the flex of the plywood will decrease.

You could probably even get away with a frame made out of 1x3s laid flat with 3/4 plywood over that. It would not be as tall that way.

That said, I think a 2x3 frame is probably what I'd do. Test it out before you build the whole thing. You might end up liking 3/4 inch ply more. It will be sturdier.

As for distance from screen...I think most here say the magic number is 10 feet. I hit from 8-8.5 feet away and it's fine. 6 feet would seem too close for me.

Hope that helps a little. Post some pics when you're done. Ask more questions as you need to.

-Pat

[banjopete]

Hey man, it's a bit barren here at times but I'd love to see what you're proposing if you've done any drawings. I'm hoping to build in my garage as well and something that can come and go would really make the most of the space. I don't think 2x2 will be sufficient over the length, it's too much load for the weight, even a 2x4 would likely bow a little in the middle of a 10ft length. I'd certainly look at a 2x4 wall type structure with the lumber being oriented on the ends as you'd imagine to keep the structure. If you make the frame stiff enough you could potentially raise and lower it from the edges. In my own scenario I'm leaning this way, and I'll probably drill a hole through the middle of the platform so I can poke a post through the middle and thread a massive washer and nut on the backside to support most of the weight in the middle if that makes sense.

Anyways take some pictures as you get going.

[dunginhawk]

I will absolutely document the process.. I actually found my turf material (not hitting mat but turf around it) last night.. A neighbor who is in commercial real estate has a big chunk of crossfit padded green turf will be perfect.
I appreciate the feedback from both of you guys... I actually want to diminish the weight of the platform as much as possible to give it room to slide around a little bit. I plan on putting a recessed D hook in to the side of the hitting platform with a carabiner (not actually but visually for reference) hook that i can remove it when its down. that goes straight up to the winch on the wall. once its pulled flush with the wall, ill have a swinging wooden arm that can come across to add some stability and hold it flush with the wall.
All conceptual, but should work

[Pat S.]

I think my suggestions above were aimed at what might be sturdy enough and lightweight enough to slide around a little bit. I think my suggestions would work fine if this were a permanent platform on the floor, but it will be stressed a bit moving it up and down so that might suggest using 2x4s, or 3/4 inch plywood, etc. A platform this size that is 8x10 with plywood and 2x4s will be very heavy.

banjopete is right in that you are basically making a wall type structure on the floor. And he's right that 2x4s might bow a little too. You could cut that down a bit by making two smaller platforms and screwing them together in the middle. That would give it a bit more strength (and weight).

Maybe this is off topic, but what's the advantage to building a platform anyway? What's stopping you from just rolling out your regular turf when you want to set up this simulator, then putting your Real Feel mat on top of it and then putting the Skytrak up against the edge of the Real feel mat? That's simpler, but maybe not as cool.

For what it's worth, I have a Real Feel hitting strip and I have the Skytrak metal case and I can easily get the Skytrak up to the correct height of the hitting strip using the legs on the metal case. My hitting strip is about 1 3/4 inches tall. Just a thought...

[dunginhawk]

Pat S.... I would prefer not to have to do the platform, or a winch or whatever. I just dont want the hassle of rolling up carpet each time and finding a spot to throw the mat as well. I had hoped just clicking a button on the winch would be quick and easy and wisked out of the way. I wish there was a way to roll up carpet with a machine, maybe then it would be ok.

[Pat S.]

I thought about building a platform that folds down when I built my garage simulator, but I just decided to roll out turf and put my stance/hitting mat on top of the turf when I'm ready to play. I use a roll down Sportscreen for my impact screen. My turf rolls up and stores on a shelf in my garage. It's no big deal to roll out or roll up and it's pretty easy to store. I actually roll out 2 pieces, both of which are 6x16, which gives me a turf area of 12x16 on my garage floor. A 10x8 piece of turf would be pretty easy to roll out and roll up.

What I did do was made some sharpie marks on the concrete garage floor so that the turf goes in the same place every time. I basically put the turf in the exact place I wanted it and then marked the corners on the garage floor. Then I just put my mat on top of the turf and line it up. It takes a little more time than just a clicking a button on a winch but it's better for me because there's no big platform to store. The turf on the garage floor keeps balls from bouncing all over the place. It works for me.

[dunginhawk]

Pat, thank you again for the response... I may look at that... I need to go grab the turf from the neighbor, and once i have it, i can better gauge how easy it would work. What id likely end up doing if rolling was the option was putting up some hooks up on the wall and putting it in there. You are absolutely right that a platform is unnecessary but i loved the idea of how the platform would raise and lower yes, im the guy with laser cutters, and 3d printers, cnc machines etc in his house... i sometimes architect complex solutions for easy problems.

[dunginhawk]

Ok, i just got my chunk of turf from my buddy down the block, its 12x7.5, so thats likley the size ill keep (or close) or platform size (perhaps smaller in the 12' direction. what I will say is this carpet is NICE, green turf with padding (from a crossfit gym) and its HEAVY.
So now im back to wondering what ill do.
What im thinking about as I type this, is just making a 5x5 platform and using my current racor lift. Im sure it can handle 6" extra on all sides and remain pretty stable. so the idea would be to create the platform and where the turf rolls off the front ) for putts etc, I can just roll up on the platform when not in use. Im still up in the air on the whole deal.

[wbond]

Can you post a pic of your turf? I also got a piece of turf that was used at an exercise facility and agree, it's very heavy

[dunginhawk]

[wbond]

looks exactly like the same stuff i have. The person i bought it from did not have any info on it, do you happen to know make and model by any chance?

[dunginhawk]

I dont, sorry... I like how its a two color blend, and is padded. Its definitely much more well built than the cheap green crap you buy at the hardware store. Im guessing its not cheap either

[wbond]

Agreed. It's only cheap buying second hand, as with many products.

[dunginhawk]

still really up in the air on this build haha.. tonight im going to take my snowblower off the big racor lift , so i can start planning a little bit more. Its possible to lay the carpet at the front of the garage, and the hitting may behind it, and my car wont roll up on it.

[Par2ProShane]

Good morning, I noticed some of your questions remained unanswered, maybe I can help, generally a minimum space between the screen and wall should be about 1 foot, and the Tee location should be at a minimum of 8 feet from the screen. Please remember these are the recommended minimums and that hitting closer to the screen will increase the wear and tear on it. If your screen is to close to the wall and a ball impacts deep enough through and contacts the wall behind there will be dents to fix and possibly damage to your screen as well. The SkyTrak needs to sit level with your hitting mat/platform no matter what, so building a separate platform just big enough to mount it on may be the best option since you don't want it on the same the hitting platform. I'm looking forward to seeing pictures of your progress. If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask, I will do my best to help you.

[dunginhawk]

I plan on removing some shelving units and giving myself around 8+ ft from ball to screen. Assuming the screen is 1 foot or a little more away from the wall. Just need my homecourse screen (june sometime) and projector.. ill order that today perhaps.

However I am still VERY torn on what to do with the hitting surface.
Some details and options.

I have a 15x7.5ft piece of great green turf, padded as the main material (under screen, etc). Or to put on a platform. Then i have my 5x5 realfeel mat for stance and hitting.

1. Just put the carpet under the screen (where it will come down from ceiling automatically) and bring it back to where the 5ft mat starts. This means I should just have to pull in my car (shortish model 3) so i can just stop the car without driving on the carpet. PIck up the hitting mat (maybe cut some holes) and hang it up.Thats by far the easiest and cheapest. but lacks the wow factor i want haha.

2. Racor lift. Its already installed right above the hitting spot (fortuitous) which I could make a 4x4 ish hitting platform and raise and lower it via the lift. Ive thought of multiple iterations and ways to modify it to hold all the carpet, and thats still an option. I could for instance just cut the carpet slits so the carpet could fold up on at the hitting platform, and stow it all away. Also cheap. more complicated, not super easy to bring up and down, medium cool factor.

3. Winch. I could build a sizeable platform, mount the winch high on my wall and raise and lower the platform via the winch. This would have the highest cool factor. I could integrate all of the carpet plus hitting platform in one stowable object. Most expensive (money is neglible for this anyway all told, who cares), biggest cool factor. Easiest method of deployment.

Just really torn as to what I want to do here.

[Pat S.]

I think hitting from 8 feet will work out fine for you. Why not start with your option #1 and see if you like it? I've learned that building a garage simulator, particularly one that doesn't stay up all of the time, is a bit of a moving target. You will change things here and there, trying to improve it and be more efficient in setting it up. I'm on version 8.7 and still tinkering.

As previously noted, you will easily be able to raise the Skytrak to the level of the hitting/stance mat. Just put it next to the edge of the mat and you will be fine. The Skytrak case can sit on the garage floor next to the hitting/stance mat or it will be fine sitting on the turf, but you don't want it sitting on the same mat you are hitting from, just next to it. You can eyeball getting it level to the surface of the hitting/stance mat and then the Skytrak software has a feature that will help you get it perfectly level.

My 5x5 mat is heavy but I just lean it up against the garage wall when not in use. It's heavy, but movable. Easily out of the way of parking cars, etc.

For me the wow factor is playing golf on the big screen in my garage, not how the platform gets put into place or how the setup happens. But I certainly understand how fun a DIY project is (like winch and platform) and I know the sense of accomplishment that brings when it's done.

I'm curious to hear your thoughts once you get the Homecourse screen up and running. I looked at that option but went with a Sportscreen instead.

Good luck with your build!