Stuffing a banana bag

StellarPR

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I ordered a combat sports unfilled banana bag, because shipping on a filled bag was rediculous. But I have never filled my own punching bag before. I have read many things but I am not sure what the best thing would be. What I was thinking of doing was making a cylinder from carpet padding to put around the outside edge. then filling up about 2 feet with tightly packed cut up sheets. Then putting 20-30 pounds of sand in a bag, surrounding it with cut up cloth. filling up to about 4 feet, and putting in another 20-30 pound bag of sand, and filling the rest with cloth. Hopefully i can find about 50-60 pounds of unwanted sheets and clothing. Has anyone ever filled a bag in a similar matter. If anyone has inexpensive recommendations, please let me know. Hopefully i can find about 50-60 pounds of unwanted sheets and clothing.
 
I'm stuck with the same question myself, I'm planning on buying a 6ft bag unfilled and wanted to know the same thing
 
my trainer goes to home depot to get a thin piece of foamto put around the sand and cloth so it looks straight and not bulky. He puts sand in bags wraps them in cloth and uses a baseball bat to stuff it as compact as possible. The weight ranges from 130 to 150 lb.
 
^^^^^I'd do that.


Your way is waaaaaaay too complicated,and if you think about $30-$40 shipping for a 100 lb. heavy bag is expensive then your a cheap SOB and an idiot.
 
I stuffed mine with cut up pieces of cloth. An easy way to get 100 pounds of it is to go around your local fabric stores and ask if you can buy all their scraps. Some places will just give them to you for free, and some will charge a little bit, but it's still really cheap. I found that it's best to fill it up gradually, and let the cloth settle with use. After maybe 2 weeks of use, I got all the cloth into it. It's really rigid and firm, without the hard spots that tend to work through whatever padding is in bags with sand.
 
50-60 pounds of unwanted sheets and clothing is going to be waaaaaaaaay bigger than a bag... and layering the sand and sheets isn't going to do anything because the sheets and clothes are going to get compacted and create weird density problems.

Go buy sand. It's cheap.
 
wouldnt using only sand, make the bag weigh over 300 lbs. Considering the small tubes of sand that go in the back of pick-up trucks for the winter weigh 65lbs.
 
I fit 100 pounds of sheets and cloth into a 6 foot bag. I got maybe 50 pounds in initially, and then over the course of a couple of weeks' settling, I fit in the rest.
 
i was on teh fairtex message boards researching this same topic and the admin over their suggested getting one of those heavy duty cardboard mailing tubes and filling it with sand to give a nice heavy center of gravity to the bag and then packing scraps of cloth around it in 1 foot lifts before compacting with a 2x4, sledgehammer or baseball bat. This is what i plan on doing when i get my bag.
 
That sounds like a really good idea Lucky Strike. If I ever decide to get my bag over 100 pounds I think that's what I'll do.
 
I've tried the tube in the center of my Fairtex bag thing...way to fucking hard to keep it centered while you're standing at the top of it on a chair and packing cloth around it...if the tube is off center, it'll be off center and make hard spots on the bag...


...using sand, esp. in the thread-starter's idea, would be a huge waste of time-eventually the sand will work its way down to the bottom of the bag, and will be all screwed up...and using only sand is murder on your hand bones and shins, so I've heard...


...I used only cloth, cut into small pieces (5"x5") to compact well, old college sheets and clothes, blankets and what not, but I didn't have any textile plants to go to for their scraps...I even had to buy some super cheap sheet sets on clearance to use for the bag, but the cloth works fine, good weight and density, feels like the bag at the boxing gym...


...but for all the effort of cutting the cloth (hours upon hours of labor), buying new scissors after they get worn down, and the extra cloth, in retrospect I wish I would have bought a pre-filled bag and paid for the extra S&H
 
BackBrainKick said:
I've tried the tube in the center of my Fairtex bag thing...way to fucking hard to keep it centered while you're standing at the top of it on a chair and packing cloth around it...if the tube is off center, it'll be off center and make hard spots on the bag...


...using sand, esp. in the thread-starter's idea, would be a huge waste of time-eventually the sand will work its way down to the bottom of the bag, and will be all screwed up...and using only sand is murder on your hand bones and shins, so I've heard...


...I used only cloth, cut into small pieces (5"x5") to compact well, old college sheets and clothes, blankets and what not, but I didn't have any textile plants to go to for their scraps...I even had to buy some super cheap sheet sets on clearance to use for the bag, but the cloth works fine, good weight and density, feels like the bag at the boxing gym...


...but for all the effort of cutting the cloth (hours upon hours of labor), buying new scissors after they get worn down, and the extra cloth, in retrospect I wish I would have bought a pre-filled bag and paid for the extra S&H


Hmm...you make a good point...actually thinking about the logistics of trying to keep a tube centered while packing loose cloth around it seems pretty difficult....perhaps i should just stick to cloth. Buying an unfilled bag saves me around $150....i've got a ton of old sheets lying around and just thinking of what else i could get for that $150 (some nice bag gloves, fight shorts, rashguard, etc) will make me endure the hours of cutting.
 
I think that I agree with BackBrainKick. Although the bag I made from nothing but scraps of cloth is basically indistinguishable from a quality manufacturer filled bag, in both weight and feel, I wouldn't go through the process of filling again. I would just suck it up and buy a filled bag.
 
wmhunt said:
I think that I agree with BackBrainKick. Although the bag I made from nothing but scraps of cloth is basically indistinguishable from a quality manufacturer filled bag, in both weight and feel, I wouldn't go through the process of filling again. I would just suck it up and buy a filled bag.


Damn.....my poor wallet
 
I just got and stuffed a banana bag from fairtex. It weighs 117 lbs now and is stuffed completley with rags.

I used rags because I've seen sellers of heavy bags BRAG about their bags being stuffed with "100% rags" (check out aries site to see what I mean)
I used old bedsheets and clothing from around the house, this was maybe 35 lbs worth. I purchased ~ 80 lbs of sheets from the bins @ goodwill for .67/pound. (I'm impatient) I just folded the sheets and cut them into strips, about 4-8" wide and cut the strips to about 18" long. I left them in the hunks that folded sheets end up in when you cut them for the most part as I made a pile, cause they are pre-packed that way somewhat. After the pile got big enough (about 4 sheets worth), I grab it and just stuff it in the bag, trying to keep the sheets lying flat relative to the bottom of the bag.

To pack it, I'd put in 6-8" at a time, stuff my legs in, grab the sides of the bag and ram it in with my legs. As it got fuller I could loop the straps against my forearms and really push. This made the upper parts of the bag slightly denser than the bottom, which is nice since it will settle anyway.

As I said, I got it to 117 lbs using only rags in one go. Thinner stuff like bedsheets are the best because the high thread count makes it heavy when it's packed. much denser in rolls than most denims, canvases, and especially carpet and blanket. Some rugs can be dense, but I avoided using them. No sand was needed and I'm sure I can easily get my fairtex bag up to 125 lbs with a week or so of settling. (for clothing, dress shirts, skirts, t shirts and slacks are decent. Sweats, and sweaters are not desireable.)

The hardest part was cutting the cloth into chunks/strips, that took 12 hrs spread over 3 days (use fabric shears and don't fold so much the going is too slow or you lose more time in cutting speed vs. total legnth of cuts to make)

Hope it helps

Chaghatai
 
Chaghatai said:
I just got and stuffed a banana bag from fairtex. It weighs 117 lbs now and is stuffed completley with rags.

I used rags because I've seen sellers of heavy bags BRAG about their bags being stuffed with "100% rags" (check out aries site to see what I mean)
I used old bedsheets and clothing from around the house, this was maybe 35 lbs worth. I purchased ~ 80 lbs of sheets from the bins @ goodwill for .67/pound. (I'm impatient) I just folded the sheets and cut them into strips, about 4-8" wide and cut the strips to about 18" long. I left them in the hunks that foldedd sheets end up ion when you cut them for the most part as I made a pile cause they are pre-packed that way somewhat. After the pile got big enough (about 4 sheets worth), I grab it and just stuff it in the bag, trying to keep the sheets lying flat relitive to the bottom of the bag.

To pack it, I'd put in 6-8" at a time stuff my legs in , grab the sides of the bag and ram it in with my legs. As it got fuller I could loop the straps against my forearms and really push. This made the upper parts of the bag slightly denser than the bottom, which is nice since it will settle anyway.

As I said, I got it to 117 lbs using only rags in one go. Thinner stuff like bedsheets are the best because the high thread count makes it heavy when it's packed. much denser in rolls than most denims, canases, and especially carpet and blanket. Some rugs can be dense, but I avoided using them. No sand was needed and I'm sure I can easily get my fairtex bag up to 125 lbs with a week or so of settling. (for clothing, dress shirts, skirts, t shirts and slacks are decent. Sweats, and sweaters are not desireable.)

The hardest part was cutting the cloth into chunks/strips, that took 12 hrs spread over 3 days

Hope it helps

Chaghatai


Only took 12 hrs? Sweet...that's not that bad of a time investment to save me $150. With my fiancee helping me we could probably get everything cut up in one saturday afternoon. Thanks for the tip on using bedsheets. Did the fairtex bag come with a foam liner?
 
^^^ foam liners only make the bag feel "soft", which I don't think is desirable esp. if you want to condition your fists and shins to not feeling pain...


...I've noticed with my Fairtex bag, after a year, the bottom is bowing out a bit like a "bell", and the top feels soft and loose...now I gotta re-stuff, or add a few more sheets...


...regardless, a self filled bag may not be better than a factory stuff, but it beats the hell out of a shitty free standing bag, or nothing at all
 
BackBrainKick said:
^^^ foam liners only make the bag feel "soft", which I don't think is desirable esp. if you want to condition your fists and shins to not feeling pain...


...I've noticed with my Fairtex bag, after a year, the bottom is bowing out a bit like a "bell", and the top feels soft and loose...now I gotta re-stuff, or add a few more sheets...


...regardless, a self filled bag may not be better than a factory stuff, but it beats the hell out of a shitty free standing bag, or nothing at all


I'm just worried about injuring my hands/wrists. I'm going to start training with the goals of getting in shape and fighting in amateur MMA events but i'd like to avoid injuries as much as possible obviously. I'm sure my training regimen will be less strenuous then someone trying to make it in pro MMA.
 
Lucky Strike said:
I'm just worried about injuring my hands/wrists. I'm going to start training with the goals of getting in shape and fighting in amateur MMA events but i'd like to avoid injuries as much as possible obviously. I'm sure my training regimen will be less strenuous then someone trying to make it in pro MMA.

that's why god made bag gloves and wrist-wraps :icon_chee
 
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