First post!

[Shep]

Good morning gentlemen. Just wanted to introduce myself and say hi. My friends call me Shep, I work as a heavy equipment mechanic, and I enjoy many forms of workouts, one of which is boxing.
I generally ignored the speedbags in my boxing gym because well... I couldn't hit the damn things, but recently I broke my foot while out on a trail run (snapped the 5th metatarsal) and I've been changing up my workouts to accommodate being in a cast.
Long story short not only have I taken a liking to the speedbags in my gym, I've also started building my own home setup. As of now, I'm almost finished with the drum.

This is what it looks like right now


I build it out of cheap redwood 2x4s from Lowe's

Anyway I'm glad to be a member in this forum, I've been reading a while now and finally decided to join and post

[stefoz]

welcome!! enjoy the speed bag journey

[Zaza]

Oh... that's looking like a beautiful platform! Welcome to the forum, we all look forward to some video when you finish that platform. Cheers!
-Zaza

[Speedbag Seaweed Man]

Nice one Shep! I like your drum you made too. My nonagon shape one is redwood. Welcome onto the forum.

[Shep]

Thanks guys! I have Ringsides heritage bag coming in for it. That black Friday code they put out made it easier to pull the trigger

[Shep]

Seaweed Man how has the redwood held up? It's one of those things I'm slightly concerned about. I read that you're not supposed to paint redwood so I assumed a clear coat was also out. I've started finishing it like I would my rifles, tung oil and finally a wax. What has been your experience with yours?

[Speedbag Seaweed Man]

Seaweed Man how has the redwood held up? It's one of those things I'm slightly concerned about. I read that you're not supposed to paint redwood so I assumed a clear coat was also out. I've started finishing it like I would my rifles, tung oil and finally a wax. What has been your experience with yours?

Hi Shep. My bit of redwood came as a slab sawn from a log I bought from a sawmill here in New Zealand and came to me something like an 800-900mm square and I used a protractor and ruler to mark a nonagon shape and a compass and template to concave the sides. Then cut it out with a jigsaw fitted with a long coarse blade. I had ambitions/dreams to coat it in the best quality shite and imagined if I painstakingly sanded it to a stone like finish, i'd have a shiny and hopefully long lasting item. But due to my addiction to speed bagging I ended up cutting it out, bolting it straight up and pouring concrete in the timber frame above. I couldn't wait nor spend the time being fancy. Already too fancy. The slab has handled the outdoor weather -from snow this winter to 30 celcius dry days and looks the same as the day it turned up. But that's no surprise, redwood is good in the weather and is used for weatherboards and exterior construction timber. My concern was is this going to be a dense enough timber to give me a nice rebound? I could have used a slab of black maire at around a ton m3 but I liked this nice clear piece. I can't complain about the rebound and the unfinished timber is taking a nice mark in the shape of a ring from me hitting around the bag. Maybe the glass finish would miss out on this character. What glue did you use? Your joins in the lamination look tight

[Shep]

I used plain old titebond ultimate, nothing fancy. I ran the pieces through a planer though so thats how I got them to join nicely. The cream stripe is actually binding material for guitars, like you'd see on the edge of a Les Paul. I glued that on by cutting a groove around the edge, "melting" chips of the same binding material in acetone, and applying the resulting goop in this groove and quickly taping the binding in place. It was slightly proud at the top so I shaved it flush with a steel card scraper.

I was also concerned about the density of this wood and the rebound, but seeing as how yours is working great gives me hope that mine will also work, plan B would have been a maple cap

[Walker808]

Welcome

Welcome to this great forum and well managed , with many speedbag masters.

[rehamco1]

Good morning gentlemen. Just wanted to introduce myself and say hi. My friends call me Shep, I work as a heavy equipment mechanic, and I enjoy many forms of workouts, one of which is boxing.
I generally ignored the speedbags in my boxing gym because well... I couldn't hit the damn things, but recently I broke my foot while out on a trail run (snapped the 5th metatarsal) and I've been changing up my workouts to accommodate being in a cast.
Long story short not only have I taken a liking to the speedbags in my gym, I've also started building my own home setup. As of now, I'm almost finished with the drum.

This is what it looks like right now


I build it out of cheap redwood 2x4s from Lowe's

Anyway I'm glad to be a member in this forum, I've been reading a while now and finally decided to join and post

Welcome to The Forum this is the best place to start your speed bag journey. and that is a beautiful drum

[Eric]

Drum

Welcome Shep ! Nice drum. I thought that looked like guitar binding. Similar to my ES-335. Post photos of the frame too.