BOSU Ball Wall Mounts

I recently built a home gym and noticed that one of the problems with small area gyms is lack of places to put things. I have 2 BOSU (BOth Sides Up) balls and they take up a lot of floor space that I could be using for workout space. They also don't look that good leaning against the wall and BOSU balls are pretty easy to mount on the wall.

 I will be posting further Instructables on other aspects of my gym, but this is my first one! I'm really excited to share my experiences with you, and this one is really easy to make! Please let me know if you make it and show some pictures of how it turns out!

 Also, please visit my site which has cooking idea/videos – although it’s a constant work in progress but will also be housing a lot of hardware type things as I become more accustomed to writing them.

 This project can be either screwed or glued before being bolted to the wall. I actually did both - mainly because the wood was too thin to be screwed in and I was afraid the screws alone wouldn’t hold.

 NOTE - the thickness of the wood is not really that important - the idea is to hold it off the wall and have enough substance to be held up with wall anchors. The hooks are used to secure the ball to the wall and put it back when done. These instructions are for a standard BOSU ball size. And the length and width of the wood can vary quite a bit and it will still work. I made it out of scrap wood used for my fence and it worked quite well from one deck board – approximately 6 feet of wood and about ½ inch thick. 

REQUIRED ITEMS:

• Wood
• This is for the frame, it helps with drilling minimal holes in the walls to mount your BOSU's. For this example, I needed (1) 16 inch piece and (2) 8 inch pieces at approximately 1/2 inch thick. The thickness of the wood determines how far it will sit off the wall but also how strong it will be.
• Garage Hooks – you need 2 of these per mount.
• Small Clamps (if using glue –required) – 6 inch ones provide smallest form factor for strong clamps 
• Toggle Bolts or Anchors
• For attaching to the wall – depending on drywall or stud mounted.
• Screws or Glue (strong glue recommended - I used Gorilla Glue)

OPTIONAL ITEMS:

• Washers
• Not the exact ones I used, but as long as they work with toggle bolts you use, they should work just fine. You can do this without them, but I recommend using them. They help spread out the impact on the wood frame.
• Paint
• If you want it to match your walls as I did in the example - you may prefer it to be natural wood finish or a different color entirely. You won't see much of it though with the BOSU ball in place though, so you can leave it also to reduce costs. I had some extra paint lying around from repainting the walls for the gym.

TOOLS NEEDED:

• Electric Drill or Screwdriver
• Note – I like Ryobi products, but any electric drill works, it’s more of a personal preference, this one also comes with a charger and a battery. If you do a lot of work, you may like the larger capacity batteries that I prefer – they last much longer.
• Hand Saw / Electric Saw - either work
• I used the hand saw because of the size, portability, lack of battery, and small cuts.
• Leveler (not required but very useful - I happened to have it laying around from a prior project)
• Stud Finder (not required but very useful, I used this one listed) Or you can use dry wall toggles like I did, then you don't have to worry about finding the studs.

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Cut (1) 16 inch long piece of wood, by 2 - 3 inches wide cut of wood and paint it first if you want it to match your wall. This will be used as the top backing for the holder – in this picture, I cut all 3 pieces and have already painted them. This picture was clearly after I mounted the hooks.

 Note: If you are going to paint your wood – don’t do it after you mount the hooks. I did for the first one, and that is definitely something I would change for this next time.

 Cut (2) 8 inch long by 2-3 inches wide cuts of wood for the bottom supports.

Take your "U" hooks and line them up along the side of the longer board. They should be able to accommodate the BOSU ball, which is 24 inches wide. I put the ball in there to double check. Be sure to check in case yours is a different size though.

Please note - these pictures are from the one that I did first - I highly recommend painting them prior.

 You can either screw them or glue them. I used thin wood, so originally I screwed them and had to put washers on them to help the screw heads stay out of the hook itself. Then I kept them in, but decided they would be better glued and clamped.

 Next either screw or glue the bottom half of the hooks to the 8 inch pieces of wood.

NOTE - Make sure you have enough room for the BOSU ball to fit flat side down along it before putting the screws in - for a standard BOSU ball this is approximately 24 inches from tip to tip, but it depends where the screw holes on yours are. You want to line it up so that the "U" hooks sit with one side parallel to the 16 inch piece of wood. (See pictures). This will make the hooks support both the sides of the ball and the bottom. I duct taped them first to make sure that the ball would fit in there before screwing or gluing.

Use the screws and / or glue to secure both the top holes in the hooks.

Next, do the same with the bottom part.

The third picture in this step is of the first one I did, that I didn't first paint. This was using the small clamps to help the glue dry and hold the screws.

Screw / glue your hooks to the 16 inch piece of wood slightly closer to the bottom part of it to leave some room up top for Toggle bolts to secure to the wall. (See pictures).

 I had the best results using Gorilla wood glue and clamping it overnight to let it dry before mounting it.

Now your mount is complete and ready to be mounted.

 For mounting it to the wall, locate the area on your wall where you want it mounted making sure that there are no studs behind it if using anchors or toggle bolts, or that there are studs behind it if using wood screws. I definitely recommend toggle bolts though as its not holding more than a few pounds.

 You can do this either using a stud finder, or by knocking on the wall where it sounds hollow.

 Once your located where you want to mount it, mark on the wall lightly in pencil.

 I held the mount against the wall using a leveler to make sure that it was level. I then used a small drill bit (size of the bit doesn't matter, but tiny was great). I went through both the wood and the wall to make sure that the holes were lined up.

 Next I took a 1/2 inch drill bit - although it depends on your toggle bolts size requirements - and drilled the holes in the wall larger - a 1/2 inch in my case. 

Lastly, I mounted it to the wall my putting my anchors - I used 2.5 inch toggle bolts - through a washer, then the mount, then another washer, then my toggle. 

So, this was obviously two mounts. Hopefully this works as well for you as it does for me and my wife. As you can see, I made a his and a hers so we can store the BOSU balls together. Please let me know how it works out, or if you have any questions. Thank you!