Lacassem hitting area build DIY

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

13 hours ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

The pipe insulation is pretty cheap. Looks classy compared to the colored pool noodles. I had a few pool noodles at first. I used the existing garage door tracks to attach the side net. It slides on the rails so it goes out of the way when I’m not hitting.

Working on the ceiling next. I got 50 2” thick 1’x1’ acoustic panels in black. They delivered this week.

What mat are you using there?

[Tom the Golf Nut]

1 hour ago, Bulldog said:

Cool ball dispenser

I took an old shag bag and used the parts and a Planters Peanut Can from Sam's Club. It works!

 

1 hour ago, Lacassem said:

What mat are you using there?

That one is home made. Built a 2x4 frame with the boards lying flat. Then covered in plywood. Then added the foam gym floor puzzle pieces. Topped it with indoor outdoor carpet from Lowes. Obviously I added a cut out for the Optishot2 but you can hit right off the platform as well. It's held up for 7 years already. I do have a regular matt for when I decide to change out the Optishot for another system. The darker spot is the only minimal wear area. It is where my right foot pivots.    

Edited November 30, 2023 by Tom the Golf Nut

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Step 1: structure is complete just need to move it a few feet tomorrow and will be getting the screen in it.

this is 20x13 and is 12’ high. Plenty of room and while still will be a little chilly in the winter here, the full enclosure should cut the bite and will have some heat sources to throw in.

 

[Josh Parker]

17 minutes ago, Lacassem said:

Step 1: structure is complete just need to move it a few feet tomorrow and will be getting the screen in it.

this is 20x13 and is 12’ high. Plenty of room and while still will be a little chilly in the winter here, the full enclosure should cut the bite and will have some heat sources to throw in.

 

Lookin good!

[Tom the Golf Nut]

2 hours ago, Lacassem said:

Step 1: structure is complete just need to move it a few feet tomorrow and will be getting the screen in it.

this is 20x13 and is 12’ high. Plenty of room and while still will be a little chilly in the winter here, the full enclosure should cut the bite and will have some heat sources to throw in.

 

Excellent! Good space to work with. You’re going to have a lot of fun with this.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

So the edges of the carport are now as high as advertised....Have to cut the hitting screen/enclosure down to 8' high (still 10' wide which is good). Anyone out there think that will be too short?
 

Dont think it will be an issue with full shots through PW, might just have to keep wedges simple which I do not plan on doing to much with wedges full shot wise.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

Mine is 8’x8’ and I have no issues. But it also depends on how far away your hitting mat is from the screen. But I wouldn’t cut the screen. Secure it on the top and two sides then let the bottom be free but have the extra material come toward you and attach the last grommet or two to the floor side rails. This way when the ball hits and drops it will roll back to you. Zoom in on the picture that will make more sense.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

7 minutes ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

Mine is 8’x8’ and I have no issues. But it also depends on how far away your hitting mat is from the screen. But I wouldn’t cut the screen. Secure it on the top and two sides then let the bottom be free but have the extra material come toward you and attach the last grommet or two to the floor side rails. This way when the ball hits and drops it will roll back to you. Zoom in on the picture that will make more sense.

Thanks Tom! that's what I was thinking. I will be about 10' from the screen and the extra netting (the netting is 10x10x10) I am going to angle up towards the top of the structure (I cut down the front to so it wont be 10' deep only 5' which will be plenty). With the screen definitely going to do what you did there.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Got the screen up and the net (not shown, was too dark for a picture). Very happy with this and hit a ball into it, works great!

next up is the hitting platform 

[GolfSpy_BEN]

18 minutes ago, Lacassem said:

Got the screen up and the net (not shown, was too dark for a picture). Very happy with this and hit a ball into it, works great!

next up is the hitting platform 

Really coming along. Nice work!

[GolfSpy_APH]

Looks great Mark! I want to say something witty and sarcastic, but it just looks like a good setup. Nice you have some natural turf!

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

5 hours ago, GolfSpy_APH said:

Looks great Mark! I want to say something witty and sarcastic, but it just looks like a good setup. Nice you have some natural turf!

H hit one ball off it lol. It will be fake soon enough. I’ll be repairing enough grass in the spring don’t need to fill divots too lol

[Josh Parker]

Great project and it's looking good!  

[MN_Bogey_Master]

10 hours ago, Lacassem said:

Got the screen up and the net (not shown, was too dark for a picture). Very happy with this and hit a ball into it, works great!

next up is the hitting platform 

This is going to turn out great!  One question, do you still plan to hang your projector from the top center?

[TSauer]

This is coming along nicely! I like seeing setups that aren't a typical garage/shop setup, it gives me some inspiration. Looking forward to seeing its final form. 

[Samuel09152]

This is looking real good, jealous fo the real grass!! 

[Placasse61]

10 hours ago, Lacassem said:

Got the screen up and the net (not shown, was too dark for a picture). Very happy with this and hit a ball into it, works great!

next up is the hitting platform 

Looks AWESOME! Can't wait to play a round there soon!!!!

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

1 hour ago, MN_Bogey_Master said:

This is going to turn out great!  One question, do you still plan to hang your projector from the top center?

So not sure yet if I’m going to hang it. I’m leaning towards putting it under the hitting platform.

[IndyBonzo]

Looking great @Lacassem!  Really impressed with the cage, and inspired to likely do the same.

Interested to hear your experience if you put your projector on the ground in an enclosure.  That seems like it would be fine, and actually simpler in many cases - especially like yours where you have a very tall ceiling and it would be tough to mount other than extended from the cage.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

4 minutes ago, IndyBonzo said:

Looking great @Lacassem!  Really impressed with the cage, and inspired to likely do the same.

Interested to hear your experience if you put your projector on the ground in an enclosure.  That seems like it would be fine, and actually simpler in many cases - especially like yours where you have a very tall ceiling and it would be tough to mount other than extended from the cage.

It will probably work better suspended behind the hitting area. I’m really tossing back and forth between it…..problem is it’s not really conditioned in the space since it’s just a tent so I need to take it down and put it up when I want to use it. Not a big issue if I do it right.

downside on the ground is 1) it could still be wettish and 2) blades of grass effecting the projection…..I’m gonna have to do a hangar lol……

[IndyBonzo]

2 minutes ago, Lacassem said:

It will probably work better suspended behind the hitting area. I’m really tossing back and forth between it…..problem is it’s not really conditioned in the space since it’s just a tent so I need to take it down and put it up when I want to use it. Not a big issue if I do it right.

downside on the ground is 1) it could still be wettish and 2) blades of grass effecting the projection…..I’m gonna have to do a hangar lol……

All good points.

Mine (eventually, hopefully soon) is going in my garage, which has a 2-story open ceiling with no rafters.  (!!)  Wasted space.  So my options are to extend from the cage, or put the projector on the ground, which seems more stable and much simpler.  Admittedly, I was going to let you be my guinea pig on that!  Ha.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

9 minutes ago, IndyBonzo said:

All good points.

Mine (eventually, hopefully soon) is going in my garage, which has a 2-story open ceiling with no rafters.  (!!)  Wasted space.  So my options are to extend from the cage, or put the projector on the ground, which seems more stable and much simpler.  Admittedly, I was going to let you be my guinea pig on that!  Ha.

So my thought was to build the platform (would need 2x6s for the projector I have) and was going to build it like a floor and cut an opening in the front to slide the projector into. For you that could be easy enough since there wont be grass and will be a flat space.

Hanging it actually might save me some money because it will just be 2x4s for the platform now.

[edingc]

1 hour ago, Lacassem said:

So my thought was to build the platform (would need 2x6s for the projector I have) and was going to build it like a floor and cut an opening in the front to slide the projector into. For you that could be easy enough since there wont be grass and will be a flat space.

Hanging it actually might save me some money because it will just be 2x4s for the platform now.

What about some 3/4" plywood to make a DIY Swing Shield? I imagine if you thought it out well you could permanently mount the projector to the enclosure and have a handle on it or something so you can carry it like a suitcase back inside. Then you'd just have to leave your cabling out in the elements. Setup/tear down time would be quick, too.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

2 hours ago, edingc said:

What about some 3/4" plywood to make a DIY Swing Shield? I imagine if you thought it out well you could permanently mount the projector to the enclosure and have a handle on it or something so you can carry it like a suitcase back inside. Then you'd just have to leave your cabling out in the elements. Setup/tear down time would be quick, too.

That thing is really cool. I did find a projector hangar though, definitely going that route.

[Tom the Golf Nut]

@Lacassem if you are going to suspend from the ceiling make sure the projector is high enough and has enough keystone correction. Go to the Projector Central website and use their calculator. It will give you the distance from the screen and other useful information. It will also tell you what projector models will work.

You can also put in a brand and model that you are interested in and you can see if it will work. The darn projector is the hardest part of the build. 

I got burnt on my replacement projector. Distance location was good but it didn’t have enough keystone correction for the height it was mounted. I had to make an extension to lower the projector and it was getting close to my swing path. I also couldn’t move it back because then the image was bigger than the screen. 

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

1 hour ago, Tom the Golf Nut said:

@Lacassem if you are going to suspend from the ceiling make sure the projector is high enough and has enough keystone correction. Go to the Projector Central website and use their calculator. It will give you the distance from the screen and other useful information. It will also tell you what projector models will work.

You can also put in a brand and model that you are interested in and you can see if it will work. The darn projector is the hardest part of the build. 

I got burnt on my replacement projector. Distance location was good but it didn’t have enough keystone correction for the height it was mounted. I had to make an extension to lower the projector and it was getting close to my swing path. I also couldn’t move it back because then the image was bigger than the screen. 

I like this site. Looked up both the projectors I already have. Should be good. Just cant tell how low I would need to put it? But 20' away should be fine

[Tom the Golf Nut]

It’s a trial and error process. I hold the projector while it’s on and move back and forth to get it to fill the screen. Then once I got the distance right I move my 8’ ladder in place and put it on the top. Then stand in my hitting location and make sure I’m not casting a shadow on the screen. I knew I was going to mount it higher and use the keystone correction but it gave me a good 80% there feeling. Unfortunately for me the unit had less keystone correction than I needed and had to lower the unit from the ceiling by 16”. But it all worked out.

[GolfSpy_SHARK]

Minor setback.....

We had some weather here this past week and I made the grave error in trusting the tie downs that were provided with the tent. I put it all together and even said "not sure if this will be good enough"....yea it was not....

The tent was decimated by the 50+ mph gusts. Luckily amazon has been great I made the argument of it was a carport designed to be outside in weather covering a vehicle and I followed the instructions on tie down and that was not good enough. It is being replaced for free thank goodness.

Needless to say I will be tieing it down my way when I receive the new one...Positive note my well built hitting screen enclosure survived and went unscathed. 

MORE TO COME AFTER ROUND 2 OF TENT BUILDING 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

3 hours ago, Lacassem said:

Minor setback.....

We had some weather here this past week and I made the grave error in trusting the tie downs that were provided with the tent. I put it all together and even said "not sure if this will be good enough"....yea it was not....

The tent was decimated by the 50+ mph gusts. Luckily amazon has been great I made the argument of it was a carport designed to be outside in weather covering a vehicle and I followed the instructions on tie down and that was not good enough. It is being replaced for free thank goodness.

Needless to say I will be tieing it down my way when I receive the new one...Positive note my well built hitting screen enclosure survived and went unscathed. 

MORE TO COME AFTER ROUND 2 OF TENT BUILDING 

Didn’t know what emoji to use. Happy that the carport is being replaced, happy that that the hitting enclosure is in tack. But it sucks in the first place that the first carport got trashed. Make sure you save what is salvageable. You never know when you’re going to need a spare part. Maybe even cut the canopy to make a floor to keep out ground moisture. 
 Just something to think about, I have a friend who used paint cans. He filled them with cement and put in a long eye bolt with a washer and nut at the end. Put it into the cement and when everything hardened he buried the can. The eyebolt stuck up an inch or two out of the ground but the can was completely covered. He attached the tie downs to the cans in several locations. That sucker never moved.

[Josh Parker]

3 hours ago, Lacassem said:

Minor setback.....

We had some weather here this past week and I made the grave error in trusting the tie downs that were provided with the tent. I put it all together and even said "not sure if this will be good enough"....yea it was not....

The tent was decimated by the 50+ mph gusts. Luckily amazon has been great I made the argument of it was a carport designed to be outside in weather covering a vehicle and I followed the instructions on tie down and that was not good enough. It is being replaced for free thank goodness.

Needless to say I will be tieing it down my way when I receive the new one...Positive note my well built hitting screen enclosure survived and went unscathed. 

MORE TO COME AFTER ROUND 2 OF TENT BUILDING 

Oh wow!  Glad they sent a new one.