How To Build a Balance Beam for $30 with Rockwell’s 20V Drill Driver

I know most of you have been dying to hear more from Andrew.  And if he and I are being 100% honest here – this was supposed to be one of the posts he wrote.  He was super excited about it because we’ve worked with Rockwell a number of times in the past and he absolutely LOVES their products.  But it’s life.  It’s the holiday season and he’s been swamped at work, leaving little time once he does finally get home to write for the blog.  So low and behold you have me….again.  Hope that’s ok.

We are, however, super excited to not only tell you about this awesome product but show you how to build a Balance Beam for your little ones for under $30!

Skibbles started gymnastics in the fall and it’s been an absolute blessing for our lives.  She looks forward to it every week.  She comes home and practices what she learned all week until her next class without us even asking.  We have both been utterly amazed at the things she’s been doing so far.  She has a few more weeks in her initial 20 week sign up, but we’re already planing to re-enroll her for the spring season.  When Andrew and I were pondering what to buy her for Christmas, I wanted it to be things educational or brain-stimulating and that’s when I got the idea that we should get her gymnastics equipment so that she can really practice at home.  I started looking up trampolines and balance beams and mats and was a bit taken aback by the prices.  Ohhh, the prices.  I knew that, at least with a balance beam, that Andrew would be able to build it himself.  I showed him a picture and off to Lowe’s he went.

He came home and told me that everything was under $30! I was super excited.

Materials:

• One 4×4
• Two 2×2 pieces of wood cut 15 inches each (Lowe’s will cut this for you – Andrew just had these laying around)
• One roll of 72x96in Black Door Mat carpet roll
• Screws
• Box Cutter
• Rockwell 20V Drill Driver

Basic Tutorial:

• Roll the 2×4 into the carpet and cut it lengthwise after it’s completely covered.  Set piece aside
• Cut 2 6x6in squares from remaining carpet. Set aside
• Wrap both 2×2 pieces of wood in carpet and using Rockwell 20V Drill Driver, drill two screws on opposite ends to secure the carpet.
• On the ends of the 2×4 take your 6×6 inch squares and secure the carpet to the ends of the 2×4
• Wrap the 2×4 into the remaining piece of cut carpet and at 3in intervals screw the carpet into the 2×4
• Attached the 2×2 pieces of carpeted wood into the bottom of the 2×4 at approximately 3 inches in
• VOILA – a balance beam

The Rockwell Drill Driver is an amazingly powerful and lightweight tool that Andrew has been using to fix everything in our house since we got it to accomplish this Christmas present for Skibbles.  It has a brushless motor that gives you 50% more runtime than standard brushed motor drills with a computer controllers power distribution that reduces heat, friction, and wear. One of Andrew’s favorite features is the on-board battery fuel gauge that actually tracks that status of the battery charge for you at anytime.  And lastly, he’s obsessed with the LED work light that actually lights up the work area while drilling.  Like I mentioned, he’s been working crazy hours and he actually had to do the balance beam when it was getting dark out and this allowed him to easily do so.  Oh, wait, one more important thing to mention – there’s a 20 year Warranty with FREE batteries for 20 years.  Yes, you read that right.  TWENTY YEARS.

Rockwell tools really do Rock and we want to make your holiday season rock too!  Enter our giveaway below to win your own Rockwell 20V Drill Driver and hopefully you’ll get your to do list tackled for the new year (sooner than later)!