indoor walls

there's lots of good info on the net to help you build your very own woody.  the main difference is how you want to tilt it and how much head room you have to play with. 

basically, you'll get a couple pieces of plywood, some 2x4's, some T-nuts, holds and your in business.  I built my first one based on karl's tiltable wall.  if you can put some bolts into a wall you can use a couple of chains to tilt the wall with. but I used 2x4's with bolts to prop up the wall at different angles.  once we moved to a new house I had an empty basement to play with and my first project was to build a climbing cave.  Since I had screwed in the plywood panels, I was able to move all of them to the new house and those became the first wall.  After almost a year, I've added the other two walls and the roof, plus recessed lighting of course!

Building the wall was the easy part,  paying for all the holds you'll need is the hard part.  which bring us to making your own holds...

climbing holds

wow, you can just drill holes into rocks and presto instant hold.  Tried that, unless you have a drill press or a bench vise to hold the rock still, you'll probably end up with the same results i had.  which was that before i got through the rock, the hole was too wide for the bolt...

well, how about making molds and pouring your own.  looks pretty easy.  and it is, you'll need to get some florist's foam, some 100% silicon caulk, a utility knife, some rough sandpaper, and some cardboard. I tried two methods, the first had you glue the hold to the bottom of a small box and then fill it with silicon.  well, unless you have a lot more patience and time, you'll probably think it's finished when the center is still liquid.  after a week of drying time, i still ruined the molds by trying to remove the foam before they were dry enough.  after giving up on that method, i just coated the hold with one to two layer's of silicon, let that dry.  this worked for me, if you have any deep pockets, you need to allow plenty of time for it to dry, a full week works.  i found that the outside would be dry, the silicon hard to the touch, and you could still have soft silicon on the inside.

since it's winter and i don't want the smell of making resin holds in the house, i tried concrete.  this works kind of; here's what i found out:

  1. don't use patching cement, it's not strong enough.  Quickrete, which comes in a bucket or bag seems to work.  i also tried the Quickrete with the fibers and that seems to work too, although you have to pick out most of the rocks (don't get a mix that has rocks in it!)  I didn't do anything to the concrete, just mixed it until it was moist then spread it in.
  2. take the concrete hold out after a day or two.  while it's still moist clean up the bolt hold and flatten out the back so it's smooth.  i let them set in a plastic bag for 3 days or so then air dry for another day or two.  a week might be too soon to have fully cured so you might want to wait a few more days before climbing on them.
  3. do use a metal washer in the hold, or the bolt will slowly grind into the hold each time you tighten it.
  4. don't make small holds.  they crack when you tighten them.  if the mold is too thin, you'll blow it off as soon as you pull a move on it.   i'll save these molds for trying a resin hold this spring.
  5. make sure that you have 1 inch of hold behind the washer, that means the hold should be at least 1 1/2 inches thick.
  6. you might want to avoid jugs that you could put a lot of torque on, these have all blown of the back for me.  pinches, pockets, slopers, small pockets seem to work so far.
  7. when coating your hold with silicon, don't lift the end of the tube off the mold and start a second bead, this causes ridges to form which can get sharp, instead go back and forth, keeping the tip in the last bead so the silicon spreads across the mold.
  8. when you take the silicon off the hold, use something to scoop out the foam and then peel it off, be careful if you try to break the foam, if it splits suddenly you can rip the silicon.
  9. get big holds too, i started with all small holds and found that they just weren't positive enough to tilt the wall over too far, get a mix and you'll be able to use more angles on your wall to mix it up!

Update

After a couple of year's of climbing on the concrete holds, I've found that they are starting to break.  The early breakage was around the bolt hole blowing out the back, but now the outer pieces of the hold are breaking off, resulting in a weathered, worn down look.  Not the intended effect.  The largest holds that are the thickest or the ones that were rounded with nothing thinner than an inch or more seem to be holding up the best.

Since I now have a garage, I've switched to making resin holds from the same molds i made for the concrete holds.  The first batch used leftover grout mixed with the resin.  If you use a lot of grout you get a reasonable texture on the hold.  If you are a little light on the grout, the hold feels slimey from the resin.  Also, any groves in the mold turn into very sharp ridges, something the cement didn't do.  The next batch will be a sand and grout mix, and I'll update this when I see how those turn out.

links

Karl Lew (www.climer.com)
concrete holds (www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pines/3464/index.html)

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