UKC

can anyone help? i am building my own bouldering room and the cost of the holds has added up. i was wondering whether anyone new how to make climbing holds? and if the do could they me know?

Cheers Chris

In reply to Chris Torridon climber:

make a mould out of sand, clay, silicon or vinyl. Make sure you get the right texture into the hold. Put in a plug that will later become the bolt hole. Mix up some polyester resin from a yacht chandlers (messy), mix in about 25% by weight silica beads to reduce the weight and to act as a filler and pour, squish the stuff into the mould. Even off the back face whilst you can still cut the mix with a knife, wait til set and bolt on. It wont be this simple
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In reply to Chris Torridon climber: you can always cut them out of wood if you want edges, slopers and smears. pockets and jugs have a habit of breaking if they are wood but you can always press stones you can pick up in quarries (ethics?)into a sand box and then fill the mold with high density concrete. Very labour intensive but it works. Really depends on how fast you want your wall finished and if you can be arsed.
Alternitively, find a friendly individual good with resin and fibreglass for some features.
Enjoy. Trying to build my own in time for winter training.

In reply to Oli Carlon: What d'you mean ethics? Derbyshire council use Yarncliffe to collect stone for their walling efforts (I think) - so there is plenty of bits of grit lying around there. Reminds me of that passage in "Climbers" where one of the character is building a rockery with random bits of stone from famous crags - Cloggy etc.

Anyway...planning my own cellar wall too. Surely plywood and a few screw on footholds are the main requirements. Stone chips could work well maybe.....?

In reply to Stig: Recently had problems with a bunch of ramblers (you know, the flask of tea, gaiters, map and compass but never leave the F**KING ROAD!!!!!!) having a go at me for loading loads of bits of rock into my car giving me the old "take nothing but photos, leave nothing but footprints" and "well if everyone took a few rocks then there would be none left...."
Just wanna save others from the ear ache I got listening to Harold, Hilda and the sunshine club.

The only problem I have had with using rock is that it spins really easily. The bolts chew the rock fairly easily.
The way I solved it was using rubber washers between the bolt head and the surface of the rock. Works a treat.

Hope the wall is going well Stig.

In reply to Chris Torridon climber:
I have found that for features it is best to make them before you put the plywood up on its frame . i.e when its horizontal. Make a resin mix 60/40 with dry sand. The cheapest resin is that used for car body filler. (Big pots for about 10 pounds from discount car part strores.)
Drill two wood screws or more into the ply and mould the resin around the screws. For larger features use large headed screws or coach screws.

These cheap resin holds are particularly good for footholds and slopers and don't require any molding. (just some latex gloves for shaping with your hands.)

Apart from that the cheapest way of making holds is wood.

In reply to Chris Torridon climber:
search this site or google because there is a page which gives all info needed !
when i go walking on the beech with youngster i look for pebbles that will suffice and currently have maybe 15 real rock holds in my garage board. also my local wall (rock antics) are selling old holds (surplus) at quid a go and have around hundred or so left (i got the best ones like!)

In reply to Chris Torridon climber:
use wood. just cut the holds to the thickness you need, and attach the block to the wall. texturize. climb.

In reply to ragnarok:
Yes, I've had some success using timber too.
I used an angle grinder with a very coarse sanding disk attachment to shape the hold quick effective and gives a good surface texture.
They look much more appealing than other wooden holds which are usually just random unshaped lumps of timber.
They are also significantly less expensive than buying polyester resin and fillers etc.

In reply to Chris Torridon climber: When making featured boards i didnt bother using screws to mold around-as sugested above but it seems like a good idear.

When making the hold - just dont bother! i looked in to it in great detail and even experimented and sure it workes but it doesnt become cost effective unless you manufacture loads of holds out of the same mold as the molding is the most expensive part. silicon is the only type you can use for under cuting holds and to get the best texture. even after doing that you have great problems geting the holds to fill out and get a good texture as the resin rises above the sand.

Go to www.customholds.co.uk or .com i cant remmber but they will give you the best prices on the market for holds at the moment

In reply to Chris Torridon climber:

Use wood.

Resin holds trash your skin, are expensive and arent as adaptable.

Make your own wood holds out of decent pine.

The low friction of wooden holds means you have to hang on harder meaning you train harder. So when you get hold of something with a bit of friction outdoors it'll feel lots easier.

In reply to Chris Torridon climber:

I bought some pockets and a few slopers, and made everything else out of wood. That's because I like shaping wood, and didn't feel the need for phantasmagoric, multicoloured swirly things on my wall.

Some more comments:

http://www.tradgirl.com/climbing_faq/home_walls.htm#holds

http://www.rockclimbing.com/topic/97297

In reply to Chris Torridon climber: have you looked at ebay for climbing holds. Buy the holds off there from a guy called, freeclimb. He his starting of a climbing hold compnay, and the holds are pretty good, plus cheap. Dont buy off anybody else as you useually get ripped off

In reply to Chris Torridon climber: try your local wall, undercover rock in bristol used to sell of old holds very cheap