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Campus board

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jacobleowook · · Las Vegas · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 110

Does anyone have a good blue print of the angles and length of wood to make a free standing campus board.?

Much appreciate any help. I'm not very good in the wood working architectural area.

Thanks

S.Mckinna · · Cañon City, CO · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 1,725
metoliusclimbing.com/pdf/Ca…

This is about all you need. Its from the metolius site.
Ken Noyce · · Layton, UT · Joined Aug 2010 · Points: 2,648
jacobleowook wrote:Does anyone have a good blue print of the angles and length of wood to make a free standing campus board.? Much appreciate any help. I'm not very good in the wood working architectural area. Thanks
Yep, metolius has good instructions for building a campus board, the only thing I'd recommend doing differently is to use moon spacing instead of the 4" per rung that metolius recommends. Moon spacing is 22 cm per rung wich is closer to 9", but then you just add half rungs (every 11 cm instead of 22) this way you will still be able to compare yourself to other climbers since moon spacing is the standard. when a climber is talking about doing 1-5-9 or 1-4-7 they're talking moon spacing so it is hard to correlate it to metolius spacing.
S.Mckinna · · Cañon City, CO · Joined Nov 2010 · Points: 1,725

Didn't catch that. I spaced mine 8" apart but I made it before I ever really new what to do with training. I am still learning all the time! I need to stop glancing at things. :)

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608
kennoyce wrote:when a climber is talking about doing 1-5-9 or 1-4-7 they're talking moon spacing
I think most climbers who campus do not take spacing very seriously. They just go with whatever their gym has installed. The coaches at the gym where the campus board was invented recommend 20 cm spacing, and that's what lots of Euro gyms use. My favorite public gym campus board uses 18 cm spacing. So when most climbers say they "did 1-5-9" they just mean they did it at whatever spacing their favorite gym chose.

The Metolius instructions are right: Spacing is arbitrary.
And they suggest using different vertical spacing distances on the same campus board. (but only a few gyms do that)

I would guess that the "optimal" spacing is different for each climber, like some percentage of the climber's arm-span, not a fixed number.

Ken
kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608
S.Mckinna wrote:http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/pdf/Campus_Board_Brochure.pdf This is about all you need.
I think the main thing those instructions miss are the different options for what to do with feet -- the space underneath the lowest rung.

Lots of climbing gyms (and recommendations by respected coaches) have taken like four very different approaches on that.

See another recent campus board thread for ideas about that.

Ken
MarkDW · · Columbus, GA · Joined Oct 2014 · Points: 20

I just finished my collapsible campus board(by finished I mean 1 set of rungs and building a moon board face). It's late now, but if you're interested pm me. I'm waiting on the moon board face until I get the funds for the holds.

Halbert · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jun 2011 · Points: 582

Here is how to build a campus board according to the famous 'school room' specifications:
upskillclimbing.blogspot.nl…

Here is why NOT to build a campus board:
upskillclimbing.blogspot.nl…

Read both links, makes sense.

kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608
Halbert wrote:Here is how to build a campus board according to the famous 'school room' specifications: upskillclimbing.blogspot.nl… Here is why NOT to build a campus board: upskillclimbing.blogspot.nl… Read both links, makes sense.
The first link tells people to build their campus board in a very "macho" style, which does not permit progressive incremental training. Then in the second link he claims that campusing has lots of injuries -- not recognizing that perhaps it's the macho approach to board design (and the competitive approach to campusing as a whole: proving you can do 1-5-9 at the "correct" spacing in the "proper" style).

Then he advocates as an alternative, "short steep bouldering" -- as if no one ever got injured doing that.

The second link also assumes that campusing is only for recruitment. Also assumes that he would know who does or does not improvement in recruitment. Seems never to have read the training book written by the coaches at the place where the campus board was invented in Germany (not a UK school room) - or other books and videos which advocate different approaches.

Ken
kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608
S.Mckinna wrote:http://www.metoliusclimbing.com/pdf/Campus_Board_Brochure.pdf This is about all you need.
Another thing the generally helpful Metolius description misses is the idea of chopping each rung into three or four pieces.
Because the middle section of each rung is mostly wasted anyway, since usually you grip the rung roughly shoulder-width apart.

By chopping the wood, you get a larger number of vertical steps for the same amount of wood. Perhaps more important, you can horizontally inter-weave rungs of two different thicknesses or shapes, to get more efficient use of the space on the board.

Ken
Lanky · · Tired · Joined Jun 2008 · Points: 255

Here's the Anderson bro's advice on building a campus board. Especially useful if you have limited space: rockclimberstrainingmanual.…

PlanchePRO De Guzman · · Houston, Texas · Joined Sep 2014 · Points: 50
jacobleowook wrote:Does anyone have a good blue print of the angles and length of wood to make a free standing campus board.? Much appreciate any help. I'm not very good in the wood working architectural area. Thanks


Materials:

Twenty-seven Metolius Campus Rungs - 9 of each large (1.25"), medium (1"), small (.75")
One-Hundred and Thirty-Five wood screws (comes with the rungs)
One 6' x 4' 3/4 sheet of plywood
Two 10' x 2" x 6" posts
Two 9' x 2" x 6" posts
Four 7" x 2" x 6" blocks
Six 5.25' x 2 x 4 studs
Four 8" x 1" Bolts and Nuts
Twenty-Eight 3" Wood Screws
Six 1.5" Corner Brace
Twelve 1" Wood Screws
Six Simpson Strong Ties
kenr · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Oct 2010 · Points: 16,608

If you chop each 16-inch-long rung into 3 pieces 5 3/8 inch long, you only need 6 Metolius rungs of each size, for a total of 18 rungs for Large + Medium + Small sizes.
. (but more decking screws)

For each step in the "ladder", instead of one full 16-inch wide rung, use two 5 3/8 inch chop pieces, separated by 4 to 6 inches of horizontal space (whatever feels comfortable for your shoulder width).
(Or insert a 5 3/8 chop piece of a different size in between the two one-third rung pieces, and a matching one to the outside of one of them)

6 full rungs chopped yields 18 one-third chop rungs. Two chop rungs per ladder step gives 9 steps bottom to top.

Ken

R. Moran · · Moab , UT · Joined Mar 2009 · Points: 140

Right. And if you don't like your spacing press the reverse button on your screw driver and fix it.

Sean Patrick · · Minneapolis, MN · Joined Apr 2006 · Points: 6,198

If the spacing is arbitrary, I'm going to put those babies pretty close together. 1-5-9 here I come. 

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

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