Portable Ballet Bars

admin

Hi there,My sister in law knowing that I like to build stuff, asked me if I could maker a set of portable ballet bars for her (she is a ballet teacher). She teaches a few hours per week at a dancing academy where ballet is not the main discipline, so they didn’t have specific material for the classes. I searched for examples online to have an idea of what they should look like and she gave me a few measurements (regarding bar height).At the last minute she asked me if I could make a twin bar (two bars at different heights to fit shorter and taller dancers). This meant a much bigger alignment problem but I agreed.For the supports I used 30mm OD 2mm thick tubing.For the horizontal pieces I decided to use 55mm OD 1,5mm thick tubing, which gave me a 52mm ID… barely enough for the wooden material I was going to use (accounting for heat distortion when welding and such).The bars are just 50mm pine round stock (2 x 3m long pieces).Bases are leftovers from a previous proyect (30mm thick DM)I also used some scrap 5mm thick 100mm wide strap, plastic knobs (4), weldable nuts (4), 8 allen socket M8 bolts and 8 of those nuts that you can drive from behind in plywood panels and suchAnyway, I put the bars together and she liked them a lot. I gave them to her as a Christmas present.A few weeks ago my sister in law told me that her boss liked them so much that she wanted another set. And that she was willing to pay for them. I made a rough guesstimation of materials and labor and gave a quote. And she agreed! Given that I didn’t take any pictures during the build of the first set, I decided to take some while building this second set so I could post here.I used the same materials than in the previous build. Here you can see the 55mm OD diameter tubing. I decided not to cut it… yet.First of all I drilled four holes for the knobs and welded 8 nuts. These nuts are specially made to be welded. The have some sort of self-centering ring that prevent them from shifting around and ending up not aligned with the hole. They also have some kind of small feet  (like half mm tall) to allow some room for the weld to go (?) They are also bigger than regular nuts for a given bolt size.I must say I did all the welding in this project totally against the best practices book. I had never welded anything with TIG (just run half a docen beads on plate) before, I was using less than ideal filler (6013 2mm rods with the flux knocked off, sanded and cleaned) and to top it off I was trying to weld thin small diameter tubing with lift arc TIG. But… I had just ran out of MIG gas and I was in a hurry! (first set of bars got migged)Should hold…Not having a notcher and attempting to have the best fit up ever (to compensate for my lack of ability TIG welding) I set up my belt grinder as pictured. The rollers are solid nylon (not rubber contact wheels) so to soften them a bit I put a few layers of duct tape. This also makes the diameter bigger (40mm rollers, 55mm desired notch).I have seen worse…Ready to weld… and welded. Don’t ask for close ups of the welds… pretty please…I cut the 55mm tubes after welding. Using the whole length of the stock (like 2,5m long) allowed me to align the tubes to the best of my knowledge. The four horizontal 55mm tubes need to be totally aligned or I wouldn’t be able to thread the wooden round stock when they are spread almost 3m apart. If one of the tubes comes out crocked (excesive heat imput, bad fit, or whatever), it won’t work. Also, I use around 150mm long tubes. The shorter they are, the more wiggle room I have.Base plates made of some strap leftovers I had around. 5mm thick, 100mm wide. Same hole pattern in both so I don’t have to match base plates with wooden bases in a 1 to 1 basis.Base plates welded! I was lazy and used some 2,5mm 7018 for this.Mock up of the setup using some round stock leftovers. Between the welding and this picture where was a fair amount of filing (rat tail file) and sanding (sanding flap thingies in a hand drill) to get rid of the tube seam, excessive penetration spots and such.More to come...
Reply:Painted! Degreasing, two coats of tire rim spray paint and two coats of clear coat.I don’t have any pictures of the cutting and shapping of the wooden bases but they are just semi-square pieces of 30mm thick DM with rounded edges, recessed wood-nuts placements, one coat of primer and two coats of white furniture water based paint (foam roller).Here you have a picture of the supports ready for delivery!In my first set I made the mistake of buying the tightening knobs in a local hardware store. I paid almost 8€ per piece (if not more). Given the (lack off) structural strength needed for this application, I ordered five pieces online (star shaped, M8, 25mm long) from China for 12€. However, given the usual extra long delivery times… I made some temporary knobs out of four M8 bolts and some round stock.The wooden 50mm round stock was given a light sanding and two coats of clear varnish (with some more sanding between coats). Not pictured.And the final result looks like this:And in this picture you can also see the first set I put together. It is still holding in one piece and I expect them to last for a while.BTW… my sister in low just texted me to tell me that she had just given my phone number to another girl who probably wants another set. I am seriously considering building a notcher and some kind of jig… LOL.
Reply:Looks good
Reply:I won't lie to you, I didn't read anything just looked at the pics.  But the during and end products turned out great.Looks like a good design and something that will be well used.(did read the last bit)Hopefully it's something you can make a little off of for the moment, then move on to the next project.
Reply:Originally Posted by kcb37I won't lie to you, I didn't read anything just looked at the pics.