how to make climbing holds

I have been looking around for ways to do this and theres not much. do any of you have videos or experence making holds?

this is one good video I saw:

youtube.com/watch?v=pC49NuK…

Look up Oogoo and silicon for mold material...carve holds from foam (flower foam or larger pore for more texture...your expense will be resin for holds.

Its fun but an expensive endeavour. and silicon for the mold. If your really into it then you can source true molding silicon but that is $$$$

Cheers
T

Mickey Sensenbach wrote:I have been looking around for ways to do this and theres not much. do any of you have videos or experence making holds? this is one good video I saw:

youtube.com/watch?v=pC49NuK…

sand casting with grout could work well but I personally, as someone who lays stone/tile for $, would use a high dollar thinset instead. its still cheaper than grout AND it is meant for movement. ever see a bad tile job where the tiles are still sticking down but the grout has cracked up and blown away?

besides all that, youll never make a decent jug on an overhanging wall with cement. its proven. wood is way better. get some hardwood, a belt sander/dremel/ and a drill.

makehandholds.com

I used to make some holds back in the day for my and my friends walls, and I actually like some wooden holds. They are easier on your skin for a long session. I made some favorites that were stones with fairly flat sides inset into plates of high quality particle board with epoxy (two slots in the wood so bolts could be adjusted to reach two T-nuts). But mostly, nowadays I don't think it is really worth it. The holds available now are so much better. Aside from wooden holds, by the time you get all the materials and spend the time making them and working with nasty fumes, you are better off just working and saving a bit more to slowly get commercial ones, IMO.

For wood, if there is a woodshop around, you may be able to get some scraps of various hardwoods. Pieces of mahogany stair rail worked well. I planed the bottom at different angles to change the way they lay. Scraps of maple flooring make good stock for making edges

M Sprague wrote:I used to make some holds back in the day for my and my friends walls, and I actually like some wooden holds. They are easier on your skin for a long session. I made some favorites that were stones with fairly flat sides inset into plates of high quality particle board with epoxy (two slots in the wood so bolts could be adjusted to reach two T-nuts). But mostly, nowadays I don't think it is really worth it. The holds available now are so much better. Aside from wooden holds, by the time you get all the materials and spend the time making them and working with nasty fumes, you are better off just working and saving a bit more to slowly get commercial ones, IMO. For wood, if there is a woodshop around, you may be able to get some scraps of various hardwoods. Pieces of mahogany stair rail worked well. I planed the bottom at different angles to change the way they lay. Scraps of maple flooring make good stock for making edges

even a doug fir 2x4 block from a jobsite works fine as long as you predrill the holes. taking the front of a belt sander or a drum sander and shaping the back side you can make mini pockets.

and wood is way easy on the skin

I've just recently made a few homemade holds.

A pocket hold

Sloper

jug

sloper

DwayneG wrote:I've just recently made a few homemade holds.

Those look pretty good. Did you use one of the methods described above? Some more details please....

Rumor has it that Ivan Greene can show you how to make holds.

What ... too soon?

It's actually quite simple and cost effective if you don't mind having a limited number of shapes. The urethane plastic goes pretty far, but the $ you put into the silicon is the killer unless you're going to make 50-100 casts out of every mold.

If using silicon and urethane I offer these suggestions....

1. use foam that is denser than floral foam to shape (shape the foam outside with a mask!)
2. Don't use the first shapes you come up with...chances are they'll be painful
3. try to make shapes that can be used in more way than one
4. If buying from alumilite or a similar company I would suggest buying the 2 gallons of plastic and 10lbs of silicon.

PM me if you have more specific questions!

No, I went with products from alumilite. There is a good section on the alumilite website that describes the process. To start I used dense floral foam to shape.