Mon Sep 11
General
 Home
Fisix
Home Walls
climer
Links
Tall Tales
Tendons
Trips
copyright 1999 ©
all rights reserved
Karl Lew
|
|
www.climerware.com
|
|
Free-standing Climbing Walls
by Karl Lew for StoneAge Gear
Got the rainy day blues? Too crowded at the gym? Need to rehearse a series of moves? Sounds like you need your own climbing wall. If you’ve got the space and time, you can max it out and build your own home gym such as Randy Leavitt describes in "Home Climbing Gyms". But let’s say you want to start small , cheap and simple…
Spend $40 on a rainy day afternoon and you can get your very own free-standing climbing wall. Yes, it’s that simple! What’s more, you’ll be able to adjust the tilt from vertical to overhanging any time you want. Spend a little more money and time and make yourself an adjustable crack. Hey, you don’t see many of those in gyms!
Oh yeah, there’s a catch. You’ll need to add climbing holds. Lots of holds. But more about that later.
Project #1. A single panel climbing wall
For this and the next project, you’ll need a climbing panel, so let’s build that first. Go buy, borrow, scrounge the following:
Lumber
Two 4’x 4’ StoneAge climbing panels. These panels are really great, and they come with T-nuts and are pre-textured. If you want to do it all yourself, use one 4’x8’ panel of ACX ¾" plywood (CDX plywood is cheaper but is full of voids, and tends to allow T-nuts to pull through). Find a nice one that isn’t warped or splintered.
Eight kiln-dried 2"x4"x8’ studs. Four are for the panel itself and the other four are for the braces that prop the panel up and help adjust its tilt. Choose them as straight, and as defect free as you can. Some knots are OK, but not a lot.
Hardware
Six 4" bolts, at least 3/8" in diameter
Twelve washers for the bolts
Twelve nuts for the bolts. Each bolt gets two nuts, one locks the other.
A box of 1 5/8" (that’s "one and five eighths"). These wonderful creatures have a Phillips head and secure themselves without predrilled holes.
Wood glue (optional, but gluing everything down may prevent future wobbliness)
Tools
One good 7/16" drill bit. Get a good one, ‘cause you’re going to be drilling LOTS of holes.
An electric drill. Do this by hand only if you’re a masochist.
A cordless screwdriver. (see note on drill)
A crescent wrench, maybe two.
A saw. Handsaw is fine. Powered saws are more fun but aren’t really needed.
A carpenter’s square is handy. You can improvise if you don’t have one.
Tape measure.
Build a 4’x8’ climbing panel
Back from the store? OK, let’s go build our panel…this goes fast, so don’t blink.
- Saw one of the 2"x 4" studs in half to get two 4’ lengths. Attach (and glue) these to the top and bottom of your plywood panel using drywall screws every 6"-8". This will be easiest if you rest the panel on top of the studs, as shown below.
- Measure the distance between your top and bottom 2"x 4" studs. It should be about 7’9". Cut three of your 2"x 4" studs to the measured length.
- Attach (and glue) two of the 7’9" studs to the sides of your panel to complete the framing. Use drywall screws every 8". Again, rest the panel on the floor as you attach the studs.
- (Skip this step if you’ve got a StoneAge panel) If you haven’t already done so, place the climbing panel on the floor, panel side up. Drill 248 holes. Exactly. The anarchists out there can drill as many as they want anywhere. But I’d suggest a more useful arrangement (be creative later). Drill 31 rows of 8 holes each. Within each row, space the holes 6" apart. Space the rows 3" apart. And yes, you WILL need that many holes. Do it like this…
- Attach (and glue) that last 7’9" stud to your panel between the other two 7’9" studs. Make sure it blocks as few (none?) of the holes as possible. This is where being systematic comes in handy.
And that’s one climbing panel.
But then again, it’s not going to do you a lot of good on the floor, so let’s tilt it up…
Tilt that wall
To tilt your wall up and make it stable, you need the remaining four 2"x 4" studs, two for each side of your panel.
- Take two of the 2"x 4" studs and drill holes 3" apart as shown below. (Repeat for another two studs)
- Drill a hole in each side stud of the climbing panel, 6’ from the bottom. Your AB studs will attach here.
- Drill a hole in each side stud of the climbing panel, 5" from the bottom. Your CD studs will attach here.
- With the help of a friend, tilt up the climbing panel to the desired angle. Secure each pair of studs you just drilled to the sides of the panel. Attach bolts as indicated by arrows. Use two washers and two nuts on each bolt. Note that the CD stud extends beyond the base of the climbing panel. Be sure to put a block of wood under end D to prevent the panel from tipping over backwards.
- Add a crash pad and put some sort of padding on the braces, especially the floor (CD) braces.
- Climb on! Oh wait. Go out and get some holds. I like StoneAge holds (
www.stoneage-gear.com) because of their imaginative variety. They have over 600 separate designs to draw from and keep coming up with more. My favorite way to get holds is by subscription—my StoneAge holds arrive once a month. Don’t worry about getting too many holds. In fact, on each panel, you’ll want about 120, instead of the 10 to 20 holds you find on standard gym panels.
WARNING Climbing is an inherently dangerous sport. Any person or organization using Stone Age products is solely responsible for learning proper techniques for their installation and use, and assumes all risks and accepts all responsibility for any and all damages or injury of any kind including death and disfigurement which may result from the use/misuse of any product manufactured or supplied by Stone Age.
Project #2. The Tilt-a-Crack
Still bored? Let’s build a tiltable climbing wall with an adjustable crack. This will take two climbing panels (you can reuse one from Project #1) and mount them in a 10’ (or up to 12’) wide frame that also tilts, just like the single panel climbing wall of Project #1.
Lumber
Two 4’x 8’ climbing panels (see Project #1)
Four 10’ lengths of 2" x 6" kiln-dried lumber. (Dry is harder to find but easier to work)
One 4’ length of 2" x 6" kiln-dried lumber
Four 10’ lengths of 2" x 4" kiln-dried lumber.
Two 8’ lengths of 2"x 4" kiln-dried lumber.
Two 8’ lengths of 1" x 12" pine shelving (or ¾"x 12" plywood)
Four 8’ lengths of 2" x 4" kiln-dried lumber (or reuse AB, CD studs from Project #1)
Hardware
Six 4" bolts, at least 3/8" in diameter (or reuse from Project #1)
Twelve washers for the bolts (or reuse from Project #1)
Twelve nuts for the bolts. Each bolt gets two nuts, one locks the other. (or reuse from Project #1)
Four metal brackets for attaching 2"x 6" rails to fence posts
Twenty four 1 ¼" screws for attaching the metal brackets. Get the ones that don’t require predrilling.
A box of 1 5/8" (that’s "one and five eighths") drywall screws. These wonderful creatures have a Phillips head and secure themselves without predrilled holes.
A box of 2½" deck screws.
Wood glue (optional, but gluing everything down may prevent future wobbliness)
Four clamps with 4" capacity.
Tools
One good 7/16" drill bit. Get a good one, ‘cause you’re going to be drilling LOTS of holes.
An electric drill. Do this by hand if you’re a masochist.
An electric screwdriver. (see note on drill)
A crescent wrench, maybe two.
A saw. Handsaw alone is workable. Miter and/or radial arm saws are helpful.
A carpenter’s square is handy. You can improvise if you don’t have one.
Tape measure.
Build the tiltable frame
Build the top and bottom rails of the frame. For each rail do the following…
Saw one of the 10’ lengths of 2"x 4" stud so that it is 9’6". Using the 2 ½" deck screws every 8", attach the sawed stud to the front of one of the 10’ lengths of 2"x 6" lumber. Center the 2"x 4" stud so that it ends 3" from each end of the 2"x 6" lumber. This leaves room for the vertical supports. Here’s a cross-section:
Now attach one metal bracket to the each end of your top and bottom rails using the 1 ½" screws:
Construct your side rails. Saw your two remaining 2"x 6" boards to 8’3/8". That extra 3/8" lets your panels slide back and forth. Saw two of the 2" x 4" studs to 8’ 3 5/8". Join each to 2"x 4" to a 2"x 6" board, just like you did with the top/bottom rails. This time, the 2"x 4" stud will overlap the 2"x 6" board on each end.
Join the side rails to the top/bottom rails using 1 ½" screws for the brackets and 2 ½" screws for the overlapping portion of the 2"x 4" side rail studs. Here’s what the joint should look like:
Make sure your frame is square (!). Secure it in position by attaching four corner braces to the front of the frame. These corner braces can be made out of 20" lengths of 2"x6" lumber. Make sure the bottom braces are set back from the bottom edge by about ½". This will let your frame tilt forward without squashing the corner braces:
Gently tilt up your climbing wall frame as described in Project #1. Have a friend help you set the frame at a slight angle (5-10 degrees). Be slow, careful and gentle when you do this step, because your frame is still a little wobbly. Tighten all the bolts and make sure the frame is solid and sturdy. It should wobble a little side to side, but be rock solid when pulled down and/or forward.
Carefully insert your climbing panels into the tilted frame. Notice how the panels can slide back and forth so you can adjust the crack width from 0"-20". You’re almost done.
Saw yourself four 4’ lengths of 2"x 4" for the back corner braces. Secure them with sixteen of the 2 ½" deck screws. These back braces stiffen the frame and keep the panels from falling out.
Now mount the crack faces onto the sliding panels. Take each 8’ section of 12" pine shelving (or plywood) and attach it to the side of a climbing panel using drywall screws every 8". Stagger the screws for strength.
Adjust the crack to its desired width and wedge it in place at the top two corners of each panel. To do this, you need to make some wedges. Clamp them down…and CLIMB!
For that extra nice touch, you can add textured climbing wall coating (www.stoneage-gear.com). Also attach some 2"x 4"s to the back of each climbing wall so you can climb up and fiddle with the wedges.
Have fun and send me feedback! —Karl mailto:karl@climerware.com
WARNING Climbing is an inherently dangerous sport. Any person or organization using Stone Age products is solely responsible for learning proper techniques for their installation and use, and assumes all risks and accepts all responsibility for any and all damages or injury of any kind including death and disfigurement which may result from the use/misuse of any product manufactured or supplied by Stone Age. |
