Quote:
Originally Posted by twistedmosaic
You should invest in a good swivel pole...way better than the stationary ones. A pair of thrust bearings top and bottom ought to do the trick.
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The above is probably right on. For short and longterm structural stability you want to test a little. You need to check what is in the ceiling that will bear the torsional force exterted against the pole. It isn't just a matter on weight on the floor. If you have a attic above with joists or trusses, they were not built to hold much laterally. If that is the case you likely will need to cross-brace immediately above where your attachment point is. To this you need to put some stringers from there attached across to load bearing walls. I little lady 110 lbs moving at some speed could be putting 500+ lbs lateral force momentarily on it. I realize this isn't a tackling dummy but centrifugal force can surprise you.
IF you have a second floor above you still need to find where and what you are attaching to. The last thing you want to do is find out a contractor did a quick job of screws or nails.
It would also be bad to run a mounting lag screw in to an electrical line in the ceiling. We retrofitted an old building for our use in the Czech Rep. 2 years ago. To overcome a problem with running the electricity over a plaster ceiling an ingenoius electrician had bored a hole the long ways about 9 inches over to a box (60 years ago). It was sturdy enough for us to hang a ceiling fan from so we went with an exterior mount. One screw just barely nicked the old line we couldnt see. It all worked fine until someone touched the metal when changing fan direction switch and realized the fan case had voltage on it.
Not as likely here in the US but it pays to investigate unseen areas.
This would be a nasty surprise on a pole huh?