Crack Machine Texture Ideas

I'm looking at building another crack machine. My first one was too short. I also didn't add any texture to it, and I gave it a 15 degree overhang. I thought if I can climb on slippery overhung wood the transition to stone wood (pun point) be easier.

That was all well and good and it really helped me get down hand jamming, but I'm considering texture and variable pitch on my next one (ps adjustable width on both of them). I want to really improve my technique (specifically in fingers/off fingers) and was thinking some texture might help.

Any suggestions? Do you texture your crack machine? If so what do you use, where do you get it, how do you apply it, and would you do it on your next one?

I built an adjustable one, felt like I would destroy my fingers on anything smaller than hands, so I used grip tape on the inside. Available at Lowes, cheap, easy.

Skateboard grip tape works well. It'll eat your hands though.

I have a horizontal (bat hang) crack that I used Restore 10X deck paint on. It is 10X as thick as regular paint and it retains its rough shape when applied. Pretty amazing stuff.

I actually ended up sanding the peaks off to keep it from ripping my skin. It has the nearly the same feel as sandstone.

Posting to follow, but great idea on the deck paint. Seems like that would be perfect.

Can you guys show some pics of your machine? Instructions our layout plans would be awesome as well. Looks like a fun winter project!

I have heard coating the wood with epoxy that is mixed with several different sized gains of sand is a good way to texture, but I cant personally speak for its quality, but I could see how that might be better than regular paint/sand.

Let me know when you get ready to build this thing, I'd love to help!

What is the best way to make it adjustable while maintaining some rigidity so it doesn't flex?

Ray Lovestead wrote:I have a horizontal (bat hang) crack that I used Restore 10X deck paint on. It is 10X as thick as regular paint and it retains its rough shape when applied. Pretty amazing stuff. I actually ended up sanding the peaks off to keep it from ripping my skin. It has the nearly the same feel as sandstone.

This sounds too good to be true! A sandstone esque training crack is practically sexual. I'll give it a try.

Here is a photo of my old crack machine and home wall. Oh and the home wall has a 4ft x8ft roof section not shown in the photo. I'll try to post some plans for the new crack machine once I finish drawing them up.
Crack machine is adjustable on the wall and fixed at thin hands on the roof

NickO, really only two ways I know of: add more cross supports or add extra boards on the sides to make it stiffer.

Danger-Russ, you got it! ps you should come over and work some laps with me on the current setup sometime soon.

My only important note on the Restore 10X is that it is way bumpy. I had to sand it down a bunch in order to not rips every shred off my fingers.

I'd use a slightly finer roller than the one they recommend to cut down on the amount of sanding you'll do and I wouldn't mind running the roller back onto the surface to fine it out a little.

Texture from Restore 10X

psakievich wrote: NickO, really only two ways I know of: add more cross supports or add extra boards on the sides to make it stiffer.

Right on. Where does the adjustable part come in?

instead of grit, maybe do some readying for the Yos ants..?

psakievich wrote:I'm looking at building another crack machine. ... I want to really improve my technique (specifically in fingers/off fingers) and was thinking some texture might help. Any suggestions? Do you texture your crack machine? If so what do you use, where do you get it, how do you apply it, and would you do it on your next one?

For an adjustable foot-jamming "station", I used blackboard paint mixed with the following powder:

Front of package.
(Front of package.)

Back of package.

You definitely do not want a large grain like sand. I don't know the grain-size distribution of the powder I used, but it is quite fine. You might find the blackboard paint by itself works well too.

I had excellent luck taking really fine hobby sand and mixing it into a flat exterior acrylic paint. I found two types of hobby sand, one finer and one coarser, and vastly prefer the finer one. I have found that more than anything crack training is extremely hard on the equipment (shoes, hands, pants) because of the texture, so I prefer the least amount of texture I feel I can get away with. I have climbed on machines also painted with "texture paint", "deck paint", and just paint with playground sand sized sand grains, and far and away prefer the fine texture. Below is a picture of my wall. Hope this helps :)

Free-standing crack climbing wall

NickO wrote: Right on. Where does the adjustable part come in?

The cross supports are threaded steel rods. If you google image search adjustable crack machine you will come across images and plans that will make it all clear

This texture was done with multiple coats of deck paint mixed with sand. As others have said, only recommended if you wish to incorporate blood loss and skin grafts into your workout.

roof crack

Fiberglass reinforced cement -- smoother texture possible, giant pain in the neck to work with.

more roof crack

Crushed walnuts are often used for texture, I've had good luck with them.

Another alternative is to add texture to the wood itself. Take a belt sander w/extra coarse belt, and grind out small depressions, tiny ridges, etc. Then smooth it out a bit with a foam sanding block.

You should also consider not adding any texture, or only something very minimal. On my crack machine I used no texture, and I liked it perfectly that way. I never used it down to fingers, but I did use it down to ringlocks, and was able to use it much more often than I think I could have if it was eating my skin.

GO

Big fan of the wall topia texture. Like most training cracks I tape to take away the pain aspect, so that you can really train technique

How well does the grip tape hold up. I just finished adding a hand crack and a wide-finger crack to my home wall and was thinking of picking up some grip tape but i just don't know how long it will last befor I need to replace it.

Seems like it's better to use less texture (even just wood) so you don't destroy your skin every time, especially for fingers. You should note that most of the people here posting pictures of the heavily textured cracks are mostly hand size. Fingers are a lot harder to protect from sharp textures. Look at the Instagram for Tom Randall and Pete Whittaker, they have a lot of videos of them training on their cracks and I get them impression it's largely uncoated wood.

I used epoxy coating with Utah desert sand embedded. It's fantastic, but a really laborious process to get it right.

If I was to do it again, I'd probably try some kind of latex deck paint with sand mixed in, both to keep cost down and to avoid the PITA of working with epoxy.

Ray's paint job looks excellent.

In any case if too rough, take sandpaper to it. I had to dull the sharpness of the sand on mine. Check my profile for a photo. I've posted it to multiple past threads.