UKC

What wood would you suggest for climbing holds? I've got a fair selection of bits of wood to play with, far too much time on my hands and a bit of space for a home wall. I've got a good range from Balsa to Iroko although I suspect neither of them are suitable
Also grain orientation, is it best to be pulling with the grain or across it?

cheers


mike

In reply to Reach>Talent: Oak and cherry are meant to be quite good, anything hard with a fine grain. Ash, mahogany, teak also nice if you have it. For grain orientation, pulling across it will reduce splinters, but shouldn't be a problem for good wood if it's well finished. Think about how it's loaded on the bolt, it'll split across the grain much easier.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

Use very thick ply wood.

In reply to escalator: urgh! no! It'll splinter horribly and there's all kinds of nasty glue and resin holding it together, and to get stuff without voids you have to pay quite a bit. Get some decent hardwood, glue thin planks together if necessary with the grain perpendicular. Most timber merchants will have offcuts which are perfect.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

You can laminate ply with lots of resin W or similar glue. Cut your layers out, glue up and cramp together. I have several holds on my wall made from offcuts of ply and they have not broken yet depite my hideous bulk swinging from them. I have also made holds from pine and MDF which have been fine. A shedload of cheap emulsion on top and job's a good un.

In reply to gareth uglow:
I'm fairly lucky with stocks of wood, I've got a reasonable stock of surplus mahogany which will make a nice set of small crimps and I'm looking into persuading the parents that a nice oak fingerboard would be a good addition to the house.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

I made mine mostly from some sort of pine, it's dull but easy to work and plenty strong enough for handholds.

jk

In reply to Reach>Talent:

Very small crimps seem to be easily broken. I found that small crimps and finger pockets were best made on a much larger base, say 6" diameter and at least 1.5" thick. I cut the base out and drilled the holes for the bolt and washer, then I used a round surform to make a couple of horizontal grooves above the bolt hole. After sanding it all down it proved to be a very useful hold, allowing feet to be placed on the more robust outside edges and preventing the more delicate crimp/groove from being kicked off. Quite good for side-pulls when the groove is placed vertically as well.

I need to change my set-up so if you come up with any stunning designs please share.

In reply to Reach>Talent:

I just randomly shaped bits of Softwood offcuts and drilled and screwed it on. Simple as that really. Oh, and i have the grain so you are pulling across it.

Dan