Do you have access to the sides of the beam? If so, I would drill a 3/4" hole through from the side, then flatten out the bottom with a chisel. Then drill a smaller hole up through the bottom into it. Like this:
* *
* ----*
* ----*
* || *
* || *
********
Instead of using an eye-screw, use an eye-bolt. Run a nut on all the way (so that you can “clamp” it on the beam), put a washer on it, put it into the bottom hole. Use the side hole to put on another washer and nut, then tighten them until it is “clamping” the beam.
I thought it was pretty low to just make up a fake family so he could come on here and ask for advice installing a sex swing. And honestly, it’s not like he needed our help, El Guapo pretty much has it figured out. Oh, and Guap, btw calling a woman a 100lb bag is disrespectful.
Rightbug, I like the caster idea, but what did you use in each caster mounting hole? Big-assed screws? Were you going into the bottom of a stud in the ceiling, or into a joist?
beecubed, that’s an interesting idea as well, but filling the hole in the side seems rather ass-pain-in-ish.
I will post some pictures of what we are dealing with here, including the trapeze in question, because this IS for a TRAPEZE, DAMMIT. Other potential uses are NOYDB.
Okay, clearly I don’t hang out in the right circles. What the hell is a sex swing. I can’t even picture how one would use a trapeze in that context. Maybe I lack imagination.
You obviously don’t subscribe to Popular Science. I live in fear each month that my 11-year-old will actually read the ads in the back and ask me how a swing can spice up your love life.
In your best Cave Johnson voice, just say ERGONOMICS MY BOY and slap him on the back, a little too hard so that he staggers a bit. Then smile and chomp on a comically large cigar.
The ones I know use the four corners and it’s more of a small hammock (although generally leather) mounting to one or two points in the ceiling, instead of between to ‘trees’.
You can google it, I’m not on a mac right now so I’m not about to.
Sorry for ditching this thread so lamely, but to make amends, here are some pictures of my VICTORY.
Ultimately I took inspiration from a friend who has a trapeze hanging from some climbing rope put through holes in a support beam. I picked up some 2,700-lb load-bearing climbing rope from REI, 3/8" wide. Got some clear plastic tubing from ACE Hardware, 3/8" interior diameter, 5/8" exterior. Drilled some 5/8" holes in our support beam four inches up from the bottom, put the tubing through, put the rope through the tubing, tied some incompetent yet secure knots, added some carabiners, and Bob’s your uncle!
The ropes are so darn short because the bottom of the beam is only a bit less than seven feet off the floor, so if my seven-year-old hangs from one of the blue handholds, her feet practically touch the floor. She’s getting big :-) So the goal was high elevation off the floor, not large travel of the bar itself.
The kids enjoy it a lot, and it seems stable as hell, so it’s all good :-) Additional bonus: the holes are small enough that filling and spackling them will be no problem, when we eventually sell this house in a couple of decades.
Thanks for all the suggestions, folks, they were helpful even if I didn’t wind up going those routes.
Haven’t had any plaster fall down from the thing yet since I drilled it – the plastic tubing has high enough friction that it just doesn’t move at all even when the kids are swinging as much as they can.
Yeah, anyone has a good link for a better climbing knot tutorial, I’m all ears. Yes I KNOW I could just find one (hell, I think we have a knot-tying book at home), but if someone knows the Exact Right Knot, it’d save me the trouble of thinking about anything at all :-)
