Homemade Pole?

Juliet started this discussion · 5/28/2009

In the case where I absolutely cannot afford a professional pole I shall turn to a homemade one. I searched everywhere on the net and found a couple of sites with really good directions. The one I'm going to put up will be mounted to the ceiling but I cannot drill into my wooden floor so I will have to use soemthing to prevent skidding. Has anyone tried this and do you think it will be sturdy enough to hold my weight? I weigh about 100 lbs but plan on doing all the advance moves once I learn. Another alternative is to not attach it to the ceiling but to make a platform and attach the pole to the platform using bricks to hold it down. The only concern I have with the platform is that I am just beginning and I am afraid of falling down and cracking my head on the sharp corners. Which pole sounds better? Any help is appreciated!

11 replies

Foxy_Rei · 5/28/2009
Poledancefan, Joel, is a male poler who built his own poles - had a smaller diameter one then changed to a 50mm one. He has some videos on YouTube of him doing it and even going to the store to buy the parts. He just went to Home Depot and loaded up the cart. If you search YouTube for his user name (Poledancefan) and find his channel you'll find a wealth of information. 🥂 He's on this site, too, if you want to look him up and send him a message to get some advice.
Gsylass · 5/28/2009
You took the words right out of my mouth Foxy! 🙂
untamedshrew · 5/28/2009
I have a commercially made pole mounted on a stage. It weighs 150 lbs and required over 100 lbs of sandbags to weigh it down. It occasionally tilts a bit when I get crazy and bows a little as well. I've found most my mishaps are from falling off the stage rather than the pole. It makes floorwork nearly impossible and takes up a ton of floorspace. The stage impedes me a lot. I think stages really aren't a good choice for beginners (which I still am I guess). I plan on getting a freestanding pole when I can afford it. I'm wondering how much you'll save building your own pole? Good luck! 👍
amcut · 5/28/2009
If you find the cost of making one that's worth it's salt to be a little pricy... markstaar has permanent pole kits for like 150- you can get nice polished brass, or stainless with a supportive core to prevent the bendy!
Rara · 5/28/2009
I have an homemade pole . We got it off of Ebay for 120 for static, and for spining it was like $20 more. You could even go with the static first and later buy the part for spining mode. Its one solid piece, which you would have to measure how high your ceiling is and send it to him(thats the bad part , you wont be able to use again if you move and the ceiling are a different heigth. They are about 5 different colors he made them with. Its a round piece of medal that attaches to your ceiling with two screw, the pole goes on with bolts in this round piece. I hope that made sence. It dont sound to sturdy ...but it is, and I about 130lb and this pole dont move. Even fincanc'e pulls with all his might , and still , it dont move. The guys feedback its great . He sold over 700 of them already and havnt had one complaint. Everyone in his feedback talks about how sturdy this homemade pole is.
Juliet · 5/29/2009
I have an homemade pole . We got it off of Ebay for 120 for static, and for spining it was like $20 more. You could even go with the static first and later buy the part for spining mode. Its one solid piece, which you would have to measure how high your ceiling is and send it to him(thats the bad part , you wont be able to use again if you move and the ceiling are a different heigth. They are about 5 different colors he made them with. Its a round piece of medal that attaches to your ceiling with two screw, the pole goes on with bolts in this round piece. I hope that made sence. It dont sound to sturdy ...but it is, and I about 130lb and this pole dont move. Even fincanc'e pulls with all his might , and still , it dont move. The guys feedback its great . He sold over 700 of them already and havnt had one complaint. Everyone in his feedback talks about how sturdy this homemade pole is. Great, I'll look into it. What is his name or pole called? By the way the one I'm planning to make will also be attach to the ceiling as well so if I know that your's is the same and it holds your weight I might just try that. It will only cost be about $50 to make me own. Eventually I will upgrade to a professional one but that is still a long way.
Charley · 5/29/2009
Definitely talk to Joel first and send him your plans. I think I know the plan you are talking about it and if it's the same one I am thinking it will cost you over $50 to make. It will be closer to $70-$100. For the floors you can always get a non skid pad - can be ordered through Lil Mynx or you can can use a yoga mat. If it's only attaching at the ceiling and you have hard wood floors I'd suggest using a rug or something underneath it because I had a pole that attached at the ceiling and even on carpet the bottom would move out (this was spring loaded but you don't want any scratches on hard wood floors.) I built a stage last year and it was over $100 just for the stage - it's just the stage and then I put the pole on top of it not through it. So building stages could get get pricey. Iwas hoping to spend 50 on it and ended up running into problems. The thing for me was that the ply wood needed to be fairly thick to support my weight walking across it and I'm a smaller person and I still had to go 3/4 inch thick but in all reality I think I should have gone thicker. I think Joel (poledancefan) has a much better route than anything I have seen elsewhere. PM him and see what he has to say because I think he made his first pole for $30.
Foxy_Rei · 5/29/2009
For the floor piece, I know what Joel did: he bought a piece of wood from a craft store, glued a piece of non-skid rubber stuff to the bottom (or was it sandpaper? I can't remember...), then screwed the bottom flange for the pole into the top of it. I don't believe it was screwed into the floor at all. He also has exposed beams in the basement where he put up his pole. The top of the pole is attached to the side of one of the beams with brackets. He had to reinforce the beams a bit, just in case. The only drawback of his way of doing it is part of the fixture for the bottom part of the pole has exposed screw heads; they stick out a good quarter to half an inch. He had to wrap it up good with electrical tape and some foam. Here's some links to his videos: Doing the base: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POM-hW2Silc "Part 1" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=abSwZ0DC_i4&feature=related Installation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PpCQT_iyfOw&feature=channel_page This is when he went to buy the parts when he changed to a larger diameter pole, dunno how much of this is repeated information or not: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JS3_1Eusd34&feature=channel_page
Rara · 5/29/2009
I just look for his listings on Ebay , and cant find him. He may not be making them anymore, or just have none listed right now . I will keep a look out on there , if they come up I will let you know. If he decides to list them again you can find him by typing custom dance pole in the search there.
Poledancefan · 5/30/2009
Hi Everybody! Just ran into this dicussion about homemade poles. Yes, mine is a simple piece of 2 inch electrical conduit that I cut with an aluminum conduit cutter. I did use a piece of plywood from a craft store to make the base. Now I would recommend a slightly sturdier piece of plywood as a base. I did end up reinforcing the wooden base with some steel strips because it had started to crack. The wooden base isn't officially attached to the floor other than by the friction from sandpaper staple gunned to the bottom of the wooden base. I don't worry about the pole wiggling or "traveling" much because it is bracketed to the basement ceiling with 4 or 5 steel brackets. I reinforced the ceiling joists with a few strips of carpenter's steel (they are about a dollar a piece) and an Oak board on either side of the plank where the pole is attached. I didn't have to worry about appearances..after all it's a basement..so I had a lot of freedom to just keep hammering away until the contraption was strong enough to be safe. I weigh nearly 200 pounds. The pole does not budge a millimeter on spins. It's pretty sturdy. The entire process is documented in a series of videos from July in 2008. I think they are still all up on You-Tube..somebody even assembled them into a playlist. Joel
Juliet · 5/30/2009
Thanks everyone for all your help! My boyfriend has agreed to help me make a pole. If it gets too expensive once we get done gathering all the supplies I might just get one off of Ebay for $100-150. Yeah I've seen Joel's videos and studied them a lot, plus other versions on the web. Everyone has different answers so I will just see what works for me. I did some research and most of the professional poles are attached at the ceiling as well so I am more confident it will hold my weight. I can't wait to get started!!!