What does your Woody look like???

EricV wrote: Anyone have any suggestions for clever homemade holds that are easy to do? Especially for a roof area.

In the past i found two viable ways of making hold. The ones that you buy are better so look out for some used ones.

The first way is to collect rocks with a relatively flat back and drill at a right angle to the flat part. Then use some thick rubber, such as several layers of bike inter-tube and put it on the back of the rock while you are bolting it on the wall. The rubber acts as a spacer between the rock and the wall that allows it to lie flat and be tightened without cracking. Be careful with approach, sometimes the rocks crack if you select rocks that are to thin.

The second way to make cheap hold is to make them your self with bondo. Bondo is a fiberglass filer resin used to fix dents in cars; you can get a gallon for about $20. We used the bondo paste not the liquid stuff.

So you take your bondo paste and mix it with coarse sand or very very fine gravel to give it a good texture. Then you pour the mixture into 'molds' of things that you want to be holds. We found that things like plastic jars and other things out of the recycling bin were quick and easy. You can make a hold more positive by adding spacers to the mold( we used cardboard and play-do).
Let is dry for a few days and take it out of the mold. Flatten the back out very carefully since this is the side you will be placing against the wall. Drill with a wood or concert bit and your hold is ready.

A major issue we faced while making hold out of bondo is that we did not have a belt sander to smooth out the backside. Instead of using a sander, we drove on a smooth road, leaned out the door and pressed the backside of the hold on the roadway. The roadway quickly grind it down flat.

hope this helps.

Thanks Adam!

And Matt, thanks! I never thought to do the spacer... I was thinking some long hours with a sander and router. But that would be really cool. Just need to get a good bit for drilling through some rocks now ( and find some viable rocks too I guess ) also, definitely a creative way to get a flat side for that bondo method!

matt c. wrote: A major issue we faced while making hold out of bondo is that we did not have a belt sander to smooth out the backside. Instead of using a sander, we drove on a smooth road, leaned out the door and pressed the backside of the hold on the roadway. The roadway quickly grind it down flat. hope this helps.

That is cool!

EricV wrote: Just put this up in the single stall garage 6' wide and 8' tall at about 40 degrees with a roof after! Next step is a vertical wall on the right. (Need more t-nuts) It's been a fun project for sure! Now it's time to get creative with volumes and holds! Anyone have any suggestions for clever homemade holds that are easy to do? Especially for a roof area. Edit: Sorry, not sure how to rotate the picture from mobile...guess it's an excuse to stretch the neck out!

I like the triangular shaped feature,,,,i've made dozens of those from scrap wood for my home wall, the largest about 4.5 ft long....they are easy to do and make for great use.

Greetings to all!

Excelent forum thread :)

Just finished with my first garage wall. Built to the specs of the Moonboard, but its shorter, due to height restrictions. Just waiting for the extra money so I can buy the moonholds. In the meantime I made some wooden holds out of the leftover scraps. Also built a hangboard/pulley system. Will put some slopers and crimps on the blank side for training. Overall this was a fun, rewarding project. I am in no way a handyman, so I learned alot from mistakes. Always measure twice, cut once...learned that lesson the hard way haha.

hey stephen. cool design! is that free standing or do you hate it attached to the ceiling or wall?

My woody keeps getting bigger... but slowly. I keep climbing on it instead of building on it.

Planning on extending the vertical section a little bit more and adding a slightly overhung finishing section above the main bit. The vertical is too low to really "climb" on, but I can traverse on it, and I'm a lot worse at small holds on less-steep walls than on big overhangs.

matt c. wrote:hey stephen. cool design! is that free standing or do you hate it attached to the ceiling or wall?

Hey matt, the climbing wall is freestanding, but the hangboard section is attached to the ceiling.

Bought a house last fall with an 1820’s barn, so I finally got the chance to fulfill my dream of building a wall. Much more to do, but calling it “finished” for now so I can actually climb on it a bit. I had originally done some designs in SketchUp and while they were great for ideas the actual build process was a lot more free form as making things fit in a 200 year old barn was interesting to say the least, especially as I had never built anything like this before.

The basic idea grew to encompass more than half of the barn and nearly 600 sq. feet of surface. The wall has 4 sections.

• On the far left is a vertical wall with top rope anchors and bolts for aid practice. Hand crack on the face and a thin fingers layback crack in the corner.
• 20 degree wall
• “Wave” 30-20-10 degrees on the plywood sheets
• The cave has triangle roof out to a 30 degree prow.

Some pictures...





A few terrible cell phone pictures from the build process






The below picture links to an interactive panoramic image taken about the halfway point.



And finally the wall as it stands today. Here is another panoramic image



Still need to build the training area, finish the top outs and finish the wall surface, but psyched to finally have my own space to climb at the end of the day. Now just need but a ton more holds and get setting!

Dominic, that is AMAZING!! lots of variety for some room to grow! So Cool!

How did you do your hand crack? I've been considering adding one onto my measly wall to learn some technique...

Thanks!

I spent a ton of time perusing this thread coming up with ideas, so thanks to everyone who has posted before me.

The hand crack was pretty easy but really does rely on being built into the wall rather than an add-on.

I took two 1x8s (of nicer wood than just the 2x6s I used for everything else) and also a 1x5 I used for the back of the crack. I used a router to put a quarter round on the two pieces that make the sides. The routed edge ends up being flush on to the outside of the sheathing and the sheathing acts as the main element to keep the crack flexing out. I also braced the outside of the crack every 6 inches with extra framing. If you look at the outside arete to the left of the crack you can see one last diagonal brace I took back to the barn wall.

Wish I had taken a better picture while I was building it, but hope that helps. I had seen lots of designs with deeper cracks that use bolts to provide that strength against widening but didn't have the real estate to put bolts in the back. It really does need to be braced well, you would be amazed how much outward force a hand jam generates.

Dominic that thing is no woody! its a full out climbing wall! and it look soo sick! that rafter is screaming out for an overhanging crack to be bolted to it.

That's a monster! Looks about the same size as the commercial wall I pay to climb at!

I had originally planned to put a big V shaped overhang around that rafter... and of course have a horizontal hand crack too. I think I still may once the psyche to build overcomes the psyche to climb.

On another note. What have others done in regards to liability with a home wall? I'm fine with my close friends coming over but I start to get nervous when it becomes friends of friends... or neighbors etc.

Are "Climb at your own risk" signs enough? Or do I need to go further and get my insurance involved?

That being said. Anyone in northern Baltimore want to come over and set some routes?!

Dominic Albanese wrote:Are "Climb at your own risk" signs enough? Or do I need to go further and get my insurance involved? That being said. Anyone in northern Baltimore want to come over and set some routes?!

My thought is that a climbing wall is no different then having a swingset, trampoline, etc on your yard. While some insurance companies may charge more for those I think that homeowner's insurance is broad enough to cover the wall. Unless you started charging money or if the wall was built unsoundly and it collapsed. A sign may help mitigate risk but if you are truly worried just have ppl fill out a simple waiver form. If built correctly with the right crash pads and setting there should be little to worry about.

Awesome wall by the way!!!

Awesome barn build-out! The winters make me wish my wall was enclosed but I sure am enjoying being outside during the beautiful summer weather we've been enjoying in the PNW. Might have to come up with a temporary solution during the winter (heavy duty curtain or something to hold the heat in).

I've added a few more holds (the Atomik screw on feet set is a great deal BTW).

Just stumbled across this. I've been slowly building a climbing spot in the garage. If I ever finish, I'll post a pic. Thanks to everyone for the ideas, suggestions - as I'm sure you all know, there are some damn impressive walls on here. We'll done!

Wood on wood!

Scale was used to test all the weight's...weight. Surprisingly one of them was off by a pound!

I decided I needed to build a personal climbing wall so I could make sure I could always get a workout, even when life gets really busy. I'm sure I am not alone here in this. This is what I came up with:

The crack sizes are (for me) Cups almost too big to still be cups, tight hands so tight you can also ring-lock/thumbstack/whatever, barely an OW so it can be tea-cup fists or hand/hand stacks, baggy fingers, and tight fingers. As the caption reads, it is free-standing, and it's about 37 degrees overhanging. I am also proud because the cracks do not flex, and the wall is rock solid and does not wobble. It also disassembles into 21 separate pieces so I can move it when needed.

Since taking that picture I drilled holes down the face of each pillar, every six inches, and put in threaded inserts so I can load it with climbing holds. I added a few inserts to the top of the wall for finishing holds, and painted the front of the finishing "rail" with grip paint to make a desperate sloper rail. I also added four 1/2 inch plates to the inside of the cups crack for a few sinker hand jams (as well as a down climb for circuits), and added gentle tapers to both the finger cracks to make bomber locks every foot. The tapers can be pulled on in any direction so they should be fun, especially with feet added around the cracks. I might also make little screw-on foot pod flares for the finger cracks for yet more diversity, and maybe a couple for the tight hands crack to make an easier tight hands option.

So far the wall is really fun. With the exception of the OW, the cracks all turned out harder than I expected, but the tapers/plates have mostly tamed them. The thing I am most proud of is you can dyno on it and climb dynamically and the wall will only wiggle a little tiny bit (1/16" -1/8") if you are a heavy person. I'm very psyched on the thing. It should be an outright replacement for other training facilities when needed, and a wonderful supplement otherwise :).