Polyurethane for climbing holds

David F wrote:A Greeting. I start my journey on the Mountain Project with a question, if I may ? How the hell do you stop the PU wearing out in ten minutes ? I have had several attempts, using 65 and 70 D resins, and they have the characteristics of hard cheese. I eagerly await an answer, and thank you in advance. David. Boulderer.

What do you mean with PU?

S. Fischer wrote:

Which component are those molds made of? is it latex ?

S. Fischer wrote:So, I'm building a backyard wall and am trying my hand at making my own holds.

Sounds like you're enjoying the learning process. That's cool, but making your own holds is deceptively expensive and not the best way to save money, especially if you value your time.

Consider that any infrastructure that you develop will be worthless once you populate your wall with holds, and thus will not be amortized over thousands of holds. And when you add-in manufacturing mistakes, i.e. useless holds, the costs just keep on coming.

The cheapest way to obtain holds is to buy used. Craigslist is a great resource (box of 50 holds, almost new, jibs to jugs, for $100); Amazon and eBay. Don't forget MountainProject's ForSale forum. A secondhand-sports store is a good place to try too.

If you do end up making your own, of course I would suggest making them super simple and versatile (jugs, jibs, blocky feet) since making the mold will be the most expensive. If you search for
how to make a cheap silicone mold, you'll come up with some
Silicone caulk/cornstarch recipe... STAY AWAY! You may get one or two holds out of this, but it tears easily, makes a super mess and smells awful. Anything with an undercut will make it tear almost instantly, and it dries as you mix it, so detail be damned. Go to alumilite or hobbysilicone.com and bite the bullet on the real stuff.

Another great idea is to make a unique mold, then, if it looks good enough, take some samples to your local gym and see if they'll trade you for some of their holds. That way, they get unique and locally made holds, and you aren't stuck with the same pinches and slopers you've already made a hundred of.

Campus rungs

I also made campus rungs for about $60 cheaper than if I were to buy from metolius. It's only cheaper if you already have the tools however (sander, saw, drill)

Hi all! I have been in the process of building a changeable hangboard for my brother for his upcoming birthday. However, we don't have any holds to put up on the hangboard. I have researched how to make the climbing holds and i have the carving and pouring resin techniques down, but am totally lost when it comes to making the silicone/rubber molds of the negative for pouring. If anyone could suggest a cheap easy method for making molds i would greatly appreciate it!

Thanks,

Lucas McDevitt

Steven, what kind, and what size of wood did you make your campus rungs out of? Those look really good!

Thanks! I just went to Home Depot and bought some square dowels. I then sanded the edges down and drilled pilot holes so they didn't split. I'm pretty sure they have various sizes in 1/4" increments. If you're new to campusing, try a 1" width.

Also, as far as a cheap way to make a mold, there really isn't one. I tried the silicon caulk and cornstarch method. It made a huge mess and it just didn't work in any combination of ingredients. I finally just broke down and bought a gallon of stuff from hobbysilicone.com. Not cheap, but if you're making your own holds, you're probably doing it for the craft and fun of it anyways. You won't save any money until you make a bunch of the exact same hold, and that can get kind of boring on a home wall. You might see if your local gym will trade you some homemade holds for some of theirs so you have variety.

Awesome! Thanks Steven! And yes, i am doing it for the fun of the craft. I really like the idea of having original, unique designs that i crafted myself, Thanks for all your help!

Lucas - this article gives much useful info. See esp. the part about building up the mold with liquid latex. Put LOTS of layers on.

camp4.com/make-climbing-holds/

Man, things have changed a bunch since I started making these things in the early 90s. Mold making and the correct chemicals to use for casting was, it seemed, a black art and closely guarded secret. Of course that was all pre-internet days so we experimented and screwed up until we managed to stumble onto a system that worked.

We did it all:
1) drilled real rocks. Sometimes successful but prone to breaking in spectacular ways. Also, having to yell "rock!" In a gym just isn't cool.
2) clay holds shaped and fired by a helpful art major girlfriend at Colorado College. I believe the school even donated the materials. Hehe
3) eventually silicone molds and resins of different types. We tried everything. Casting resin packed with sand, milled glass filler, glass fibers, stuff like that. Some of it worked.

Around 1994ish Tony Yaniro, an old friend of my bosses, came to town in his big RV/climbing gym/hold making lab/home on wheels and took pity on me. He showed me how he was making his great line of training holds. The method created holds that were as heavy as hell but felt sort of like real stone. Plus, they were almost indestructible! Our gym had lousy texture so strong holds were a must.

Later, Chas from Straight Up holds showed me a little about shaping foam. So many cool possibilities! But by this time there were so many good companies out there making superior product to what we were producing we just sort of stopped.

Anyway, it's all on the net now and with a bit of digging you can get it all down pretty quick. Have fun!

I just thought you all might appreciate a little history.

S. Fischer wrote: So far, I am happiest with a pourable 10:1 silicone that doesn't need to be vacuumed.

Can you share where you got the silicone?