UKC

I’m considering building a simple board, probably about 40 degrees. I used to have a board in my old house and my favourite holds were always the wooden screw ons  from companies like beastmaker although the board was mostly resin bolt ons.

I’m now considering forgoing the t nuts and bolts and just using wooden screw ons. Has anyone else got a board like this? Pros and cons? Any pictures?

Hi Matt,

I’ve got a small 40(ish) degree board with entirely screw on wooden holds. Haven’t ever had a t-nutted board so can’t compare directly. 
I absolutely love it though. I’ve reset once in 3 years, found this useful to get my eye in setting wise but will keep it the same and add more holds going forward for a good while (I keep slowly buying more every year or so).

I generally have a load of warm up boulders that I cycle at the beginning of a session then work a few projects (they can be projects for months). I think this works but if you enjoyed volume of new boulders over getting really into a project you might not enjoy it as much. I’m on the board 1-2 times a week.

It does get a lot better the more holds you have though, I’ve got about a hundred which is a nice number for a small board but there’s plenty of space for additions.

Hardwood holds are great, I’ve mostly got these. I bought some crusher holds recently, the were cheap but definitely nowhere near as well made. Ok for filler if you’re on a budget though.

Tim

You don’t need to be limited to screw on type holds. I’ve used large bolt on holds with M6 screws and these washers:

https://www.accu.co.uk/solid-countersunk-washers/24503-HKW-M6-A4

This was on the recommendation of a couple of route setters and has worked well (as long as the holds have additional holes for supplementary grubber screws) although I won’t be pulling as hard on these most people!

My 45 is mostly wooden screw ons plus a few resin holds which are a mixture of screw on and bolt on.

If I was to start again from scratch, I might not bother with any tnuts.

There are so many good wooden hold makers, you can get whatever shapes and sizes holds you want. I have a mixture of beastmaker, hardwood, silly goat, strongholds and Taylormade. They are all good and I think having the variety is helpful.

The only 2 disadvantages of going fully wooden:

- consider the conditions where your board is going to be. Mine is indoors so I don't have any issues. Some outdoors/shed/garage/cellar boards can suffer badly from condensation if you don't get the ventilation right. Some woods are worse than others when condensed. I've heard oak can be particularly bad for it.

- If I'm not able to climb outdoors or on resin for a while, my skin goes very soft. Wood is great for not wearing out your skin when it is combined with rock/resin but it doesn't do much to condition your skin. Not an issue if you always have access to rock/resin. But if not, I'd consider adding some resin holds. These can be screw on or bolt on. Retired holds from a wall are ideal to avoid the rough new hold feel.

Completely agree with everything said here.

I also have exclusively wooden holds. Silly goat mystery boxes are a little like going back in time to when I used to collect Poonami football stickers as a kid. So addictive. Taylor made holds are made of the most incredible wood. They’re like art. HWH and beastmaker - every hold is a perfect hold. They’ve got it absolutely dialled. 
 

I’ve sent you a DM.

Edit: when I say poonami I mean Panini. The activities of my 9 week old daughter clearly has mangled my brain.

I have a mix t-nuts and screw on holds. I personally think its worth having both especially as ply is so expensive I tend to move the t-nut holds more than the screw on its super easy to screw them on and off. I created a grid load of grids on the board and put the t-nuts on then fitted the screw ons in between