"ImmoralMinority" (araimondo)
06/30/2016 at 09:25 • Filed to: None
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"ImmoralMinority" (araimondo)
06/30/2016 at 09:25 • Filed to: None | 1
| 6 |
I have no training, but I love backyard engineering. I’ve posted before about the pond I built.
But my pride and joy is the zipline I built over my pool. Some have a slide or diving board, but I think I have the only pool zipline.
The posts are steel vineyard anchors bolted back to back.
One end is sunk in concrete in the dirt with rebar for stability, and a guy wire attached to a Japanese maple.
The other end is buried in the concrete of the pool deck and it is bowing because there is nowhere to anchor any counter tension. But it ain’t going anywhere.
Tension on the cable is from a boat cable winch rated at 1600 lbs. The bolts that hold it are rated at 1000 lbs, and the cable is stainless steel aircraft cable. I don’t think it’s going to break.
The carriage was purchased on line from a backyard zipline company. Disclaimer: this is not the intended use of their product. The manual showed it run on a slack cable between two trees or something. I threw that horseshit right in the garbage and got to work on my pool.
It has a stop in the line so it stops over the deepest part of the pool. It is cobbled together from parts I had around with a Nerf basketball to cushion the stop.
It is a popular attraction for kids and grown ups. What do you think of my design? I am open to comments and criticism, especially from those who actually know something about this sort of thing.
As a bonus to Zoidberg, this is similar to my first car when I was 16. There are some pictures of the real deal (and frighteningly 16-18 year old me) in storage that I will share eventually. Have to find them. This will do for now.
Funktheduck
> ImmoralMinority
06/30/2016 at 09:30 |
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Looks fun. Do you get a lot of speed on it or is it a nice coast?
Rico
> ImmoralMinority
06/30/2016 at 09:32 |
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Nice zipline but I’m good off ponds, just a place for mosquitoes to get their freak on.
Ash78, voting early and often
> Rico
06/30/2016 at 09:34 |
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Yeah, somewhat depends on where you live. But I'm instinctively terrified of any standing water. Thankfully, you can get floating Bifenthrin tablets to toss in there and that should take care if it.
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Ash78, voting early and often
> ImmoralMinority
06/30/2016 at 09:37 |
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Amazing! If I have to critique, I don’t love the idea of putting tension on the Japanese maple, but the angle looks okay...I might think about a longer-term solution, like anchoring it further back behind the tree, into something footed in a couple hundred pounds of concrete, but flush with the ground. Like a really long eye bolt that’s angled so it won’t pull out of the footing. Everything else in the system looks bombproof. I’m super jelly. I’ve been thinking about a 50' zipline off my treehouse, but the kids aren’t old enough to be responsible with it.
Life and Times of Magoo: The People's Champ
> ImmoralMinority
06/30/2016 at 09:38 |
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I think this is awesome man.
Pixel
> ImmoralMinority
06/30/2016 at 10:06 |
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That untethered post makes me really nervous. It is already bending, and when it bend too far it may fail catastrophically. Given that may mean someone falls out of the sky onto concrete, I’d be super nervous.
If you don’t want to replace it, maybe find a diameter of steel pipe that fits snugly over the current post, and sleeve the entire thing &fill it with concrete to lock it all in place?
Also, the roots of a japanese maple don’t go down far(~24"), so it is not providing as much support as you might want on that end.