The Twister Bar is a unique Ninja Warrior Gym obstacle engineered and fabricated for Louis & Kellie Amaro of Midwest Warrior Academy.
As the project began Louis provided links to reference videos and pictures of a rotating bar with handles on it. He and Kellie had seen this product in person, but were unimpressed by a number of things:
- It had not seemed well made
- It rattled a lot
- It had quite a few sharp edges
- It was long—a single 12-foot piece
- The rotating action was squeaky
This feedback was valuable as it directed the engineering for this obstacle.
Engineering
A number of constraints were taken into consideration during the drafting/engineering stage of this project.
- The trapeze load should be equal to or greater than 1K lbs
- The overall length of the obstacle should be 141-inches
- The obstacle should be able to be disassembled
- The rotating action should be smooth
- The handles should be smooth, including the corners
- The handles should twist around the bar originating and terminating at the same 0° mark
- There should be 10 handles total, 5 handles on each section
- A center hub should pin the two sections together and provide an additional hanging point
- It should be bright red to match the aesthetic of their gym
- There should be at least 3/4-inch of space between each handle
After a few rounds of revision Solvers finalized the design below with Louis Amaro.
Fabrication
With the design finalized materials were sourced from a number of suppliers. It was crucial that all the materials match or exceed the engineering requirements. Below are a number of photos that walk through the fabrication process.
Handles were made from DOM tubing and bent to provide no sharp internal edges that may result in an injury.
2" Schedule 80 steel pipe was sourced from the oil and gas industry in Texas, which has very high quality standards. It was surface finished to remove wax and corrosion, resulting in smooth shiny metal.
The shafts for both the Spin Hoppers and the Twister Bar were cut and machined from 1" round, cold rolled, steel bar stock.
Below is a picture of the 1" bar stock before and after machining on the lathe.
The hubs were turned from the same 2" Schedule 80 Steel Pipe as the main assembly. Two, 2" x .5" bearings were used in each hub, for a total of 6 ball bearings carrying the rotational load of the Twister Bar. Bronze washers were employed as a thrust bearing for any lateral loads.
All three hubs with their bearings and shafts held in place with locking collars.
The handles received two passes of weld to secure them to the main assembly pipe. Sleeves were machined from 2" solid bar stock. They were fitted to the inside diameter of the 2" Schedule 80 pipe. A 1" hole was bored out of the middle to receive the shafts. After the shafts were inserted into the sleeves, two 1/2" holes were drilled through the main assembly pipe, sleeves, and shafts to receive roll pins. These roll pins tie the two sections of the Twister Bar together and make it easy to assemble/disassemble.
After all the fabrication work was completed Top Dog Powder Coating degassed, sand blasted, primed, colored, and cleared the two Twister Bar sections. Absolutely beautiful work!
Solvers fully assembled and pinned together the Twister Bar on location at the Midwest Warrior Academy. Louis and Kellie Amaro assisted with the installation.
The Twister Bar turned out beautifully. Louis and Kellie Amaro were delighted with the results!