I was really bummed that doorway pull up bars are sold out everywhere due to Covid-19 / quarantine, so I decided to make my own. It uses $20 of materials to make which is on par with similar bars on Amazon. I 3D modelled and printed some end caps for it with Ninjaflex so it doesn’t scuff up my walls

Instructable: https://www.instructables.com/id/Doorway-Pull-Up-Bar-From-EMT-Conduit/

Disclaimer: I don’t know how strong it is, and the weakest point is definitely the set screw coupling the two pieces together. If anyone has recommendations for making it stronger please let me know in the comments! I weigh 200 pounds and it seems to be holding me just fine.

Steps to make Doorway Pull Up Bar

You’ll need some EMT conduit, 2 feet of 2×4 wood, and some screws and bolts

Materials

• 1″ EMT Conduit – You only need around 60″ of it (5 feet), but Lowes only sells it in 10ft sections. $11 – Lowes
• 2 of Right Angle Elbow (1″ EMT). $6.18 each, $12.36 total – Lowes
• 2 of Set Screw Coupling (for 1″ EMT). $0.87 each, $1.74 total – Lowes
• 2ft long 2×4 – $0.50 ish? You could also use more EMT for this I guess 3″ long bolts and nuts – 2 each. I used 1/4-20 x 3 in machine bolts here
• 2.5″ wood screws – 2 of them
• (Optional) washers to go between the bolts and EMT
• (Optional) Something for covering the ends of the EMT on the doorframe, like duct tape or foam or literally just a rag taped to it. I used 3D printed Ninjaflex to make my own cap but I understand 99.9% of people don’t have that.

Tools

• Something to cut 1″ EMT – I used a jigsaw, you could also use a metal hacksaw.
  
  Drill and drill bits
  • Optional – Step Drill bits make it really easy to cut large holes in the metal.
• Clamps to hold the EMT while cutting/drilling it
• Time: ~2 hours if you’re doing it in your apartment clamping to the kitchen counter and figuring it all out as you go. Probably 30 minutes if you’re following this tutorial and have a real shop and a drill press.

Cuts

Cut the EMT Conduit to the following sections:

• 42″ (or approximately 2″ more on each side of the molding of the doorframe.)
• 8.5″
• 8.5″

Cut the 2×4 to somewhere between 2 and 3 feet long, you really only need 3″ longer than the spacing of the handles, and with my handles spaced 18″ apart (next step) 24″ is plenty for me.

Drilling Holes and Assembly

First you need to decide how far apart you want the straight grips to be. I estimated that 18″ apart felt about right, but anywhere from 16″ to 19″ is probably fine. I’m 6″2 so I wanted them a little bit wider than a shorter person might want them. Let’s do it for 18″

Here’s the order that I drilled things in:

Right Angle Connectors to 2×4

1. Measure 18″ apart on your 2×4 and mark the hole locations. You want two wood screws for each side, so make sure the right angle elbow is far enough up on the wood for that. Maybe don’t put it all the way up though because you want space for your hands
2. Clamp one of the right angle bars onto the wood on top of your marked holes as shown in the picture
3. Drill holes into the wood. First use a 11/64″ drill bit in the EMT so the screw can pass through it without issue, then use a 1/8″ bit in the 2×4 wood so that the wood screw gets a good grip.
4. Drill in the first screw.
5. Tilt the EMT until it’s as close to 90° to the wood, then drill/screw in the second screw.
6. Repeat for the second right angle connector

Set Screw Couplers

Screw in the set screw connectors wherever you want, I angled them at 45° because I thought it looked cool and just in case I needed to screw into them (Didn’t need to). Attach the 8.5″ sections of EMT to each set screw

If you wanted to make this part more secure, use some bolts and nuts for this part as well. I didn’t feel like buying more bolts so I didn’t.

Horizontal bar – the main stuff

1. Hold up the assembly so far to your doorway and determine where the long conduit section needs to be attached. For my doorway with molding on both sides it needed to be right up against the set screw coupler, so I marked the spots there
2. Clamp and drill holes through the horizontal pipe and the right angle connector where it needs to be. I just used a single bolt to connect these, but it’s a big bolt so I used a step drill bit to drill it to the right size. This part will depend on your setup, but use lots of clamps and hope for the best with alignment. If your holes aren’t lined up perfectly don’t worry about it, just drill the hole a little bigger. EMT is plenty strong.
3. Drill the first hole, put a bolt through it, then mark where the second bolt hole needs to be on the two pipes. For alignment it might be easiest to drill a small hole through the two pipes while they’re sitting on top of each other so it’s perfectly aligned.

Finishing Touches

Print 2 each of the end caps on this page and slide them onto your pipe, they should fit snugly. If you’re printing in normal TPU and not ninjaflex you might need to add some tolerance, but it also might just slide on without issue.