Harness
Hey,
I know that this has been posted here before but i was just wondering if it would be possible to make a baby bouncer out of 2 springs and a normal adult harness? Harness' are cheap to buy, i seen one for £20, so im going to get that one and buy 2 springs and make one.
I thought of this idea as im home alone for a week and i was thinking of things on what to do appart from the obvious ones like wear diapers 24/7 etc.
Any ideas or reviews would be good.
Thanks,
Ginger
Where are you attaching the springs to (other than the harness)?
It sounds like it would be complicated if you don't have experience building things. Mostly getting the right kind of springs, and finding some kind of frame that will be able to hold 2x (or more, idk how hard you plan on bouncing) your weight. Then you would need some kind of hooks or something to connect the springs to.
The best place i could think of is either a frame for like swings if you have anything like that. If not you might use a door frame and drill hooks on the top but that will be hard to explain the holes in your wall from when you remove it.
I'm sure someone will come up with or copy paste a brilliant idea at one point, but until then make sure whatever you do is able to hold your weight if you're bouncing around on it. The last thing you want is to break something.
I've heard of someone trying this before--they used garage door springs, which are not easy to come by anymore.
Hmm...I'm really bad at constructing things, but this sounds like a fun and interesting idea. Let me know how it turns out
You might be better off with some kind of elastic cord (i.e. bungee cord).
You'd also probably want to be very wary of circulation issues. Most harnesses are not meant for long term suspension. If you do build this thing, you'll probably want to test it out for short periods of time, and stop if you feel any kind of numbness.
I would use bungee cords. Or at least some sort of elastic.
I think securing it to a door frame would work well. They're sturdy. You could use clips and eye hooks to secure it.
Originally Posted by BoundCoder
Also a point of concern on the bungee cords are the hooks themselves. I know of someone who received a disfiguring injury due to strain on the cord being too much for the hook and it came loose and tore his face. This should be something fun, so be careful!
Holy heck why do I bother?
I'm the guy reinforcing jumpers, and here I go again.
First the video...
Now. How-to.
You've got several options. Garage door springs are awesome. I don't know about "hard to come by" - I'd recommend the hardware store. You'll need several "in parallel" (beside each other, so they're sharing the load), figure on 50 lbs per spring, so if you weigh 150, put three springs next to each other. You can install another set "in series" (end-to-end) for a longer bounce. Your hardware store has these metal oval-shaped hook thingies with a "nut" that closes the loop. They're meant to attach chains together. I use them to join the springs together.
Failing the garage door springs - maybe you can't find any or your point of attachment isn't high enough for their length - trampoline springs do work. They give a totally different bounce but are still fun. The figure is about the same - 50 lbs per spring.
NEXT, attachment point. This is very important. Visualize what's going to happen if whatever you use lets go. You're all the way down, so several times your body weight is stored as potential energy in the springs. If the "hook" at the top suddenly detaches, you've got a "slingshot" - the springs are shooting the hook at the top of your head. This hurts. I speak from experience. Four trampoline springs left a gash in the top of my head that bled for a good hour and hurt a lot longer than that (weeks). A simple "eye bolt" or hook threaded "into" the bottom side of a wooden beam isn't good enough. You want the kind of eyebolt that goes all the way THROUGH the beam, with a nut and washer on the top side. Another solution is to use a piece of chain looped over the beam, hanging down on both sides, attaching your springs to BOTH ends of the chain.
In my video, I have a 1"-thick steel bar extended off the side of my third-floor balcony, with another support bar attached at an angle, like bracing a shelf. Swingset chain loops over that with a garage door spring attached to each end. The kid in the video weighs 130 and I only used two springs, loading them to 65 each. I don't recommend it. It worked, and mine never broke, but they did stretch further than I feel was really safe.
Another important safety note regarding garage door springs. When used properly (ie, to help you open a garage door), these things are a total disaster when they break. You DO NOT want one coming at your head, so DON'T exceed my 50lb recommendation, and DO install a safety cable - some steel cable (a "dog run" will work) through the center of each spring, a little bit longer than the maximum distance you have available to bounce. This cable isn't intended to catch YOU in the event of a break. (The remaining springs will still slow you down enough that the impact won't hurt). The cable is to prevent the sharp broken end of the spring from flying around and smashing you in the top of the head. I've never had this happen with the big springs, but based on my experience with the trampoline ones, I can only imagine getting snapped in the head with a fully-loaded garage door spring would probably result in DEATH, SO USE A SAFETY CABLE.
When you're done, post your video. :P
---------- Post added at 02:03 AM ---------- Previous post was at 01:59 AM ----------
Oh, and in response to the actual original question... yes, I reckon a "construction harness" should work fairly well - I've been meaning to try one to fit larger people. So far I've used an actual johnny jump-up, various frame carriers, and a carseat, but nobody over roughly 130 fits into either of the first two, and the carseat is just totally different.
---------- Post added at 02:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 02:03 AM ----------
Bungee cords? Haven't done too much experimentation with them, but it took 8 to safely support my 115 lbs (I'm not the person in the video), and the bounce is pretty short with just a single set, so you're looking at 24 to get a good bounce if you're a twelve-year-old... If you can't tell, I'm not in favor of this plan. It'll work though, but I can't provide much advice or definite math.
I do know (from other experiments with them) that the most common failure is for the cord to pull through the base of the hook, so watch that closely.
Thanks for all the advice guys.
I think im just going to leave it. I keep getting this strange image in my head of one of the springs snapping and logging its way into my head. That wouldnt be very good, would it? lol
Thanks anyway
Ginger
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