Stupid easy cheap steel hanging solution

[rideHPD]

You guys are gonna love this one. The other night a buddy and I were packing the truck before heading out to the desert the next day to shoot when I realized I hadn't cut up the tires I got to hang our steel from the stands I made. In our efforts to be extremely lazy we had the idea to see if carpet strips could support the static load of steel plates and the fatigue from taking many many hits without breaking apart. Long story short, they work.



I'll post more pictures of the set-up and the DIY instructions tomorrow, but basically the carpet is connected to the stand by a #0 conduit hanger that is screwed threw the carpet strand (1/4-20 machine screw) very tightly so that the conduit hanger works like a washer to distribute the weight and reduce tearing. The plate is connected to the steel by 1/2" bolts with washers and nuts. The back of the carpet is reinforced by 2 plies of duct tape. I might experiment with wrapping the whole strip of carpet with tape horizontally and vertically.

The system worked all day long with 12"x12" and 8" round plates, and even took direct hits itself without coming undone. I still need to test it with smaller plates to see what the fatigue life and wear are like, but overall I'm extremely impressed with the performance of the carpet.

 

[meathunter1]

Nice! A guy I work with is a firefighter and gave me a roll of old fire hose. I am going to try it this season

 

[jmorris]

Hose works quite well.

 

[milo 2.0]

Never thought of carpet, good job. Use belting here, but tie down straps, especially the wider ones a guy finds on road work real well also.

 

[Unknown]

I think the carpet should work really well. If you cut the carpet strips into pieces about 34 inches long and double them over, you get two pieces, and a nice loop to hang over the steel. That is what I do with either fire hose, or conveyer belt. Carpet should be very tough too, and work quite well...good idea.

 

[downrange67]

Good job!