Climbing holds

[mitchleblanc]

Does anyone know exactly how "professional" climbing companies make their holds? In particular the texture... I'm gonna try to make some holds, and am wondering how companies do it.. like Teknik or pusher.. are their textures similar? I don't have any good samples to look at out here in Aussie land.

[dcentral]

Nice makes their holds in the gym I climb at, which is cool cause we get to climb on all their new shapes before they come out. Their new line is going to be pretty cool.

I'm not sure what their mixtures are but it's a mix of glues and other filler. They just have redone how they make their holds which has allowed them to be lighter and more durable.

They form their holds out of styrofoam and then cast a mold off of that. They also use a silicone liner inside which allows them to experiment even more with the shapes because they can insert paper or what ever between the liners to change the shape a little bit.

Tracstarr though has made a few holds he'd know better then I on how to do the home made way.

[mathieu]

one of my coworkers says he put sand and some cement coumpound together and used molds created from holds he bought and he can double his set quite cheaply

anybody tried this?

[The Mitt]

We made a bunch of holds for GZ, We mainly used autobody filler and sand. Worked pretty good.

Mitt

P.S when mixing epoxy make sure you are in a well ventaled space, it says it on the bottle and man they are not kidding. High as a kyte in just 1 hour.

[mathieu]

[quote="The Mitt"]We made a bunch of holds for GZ, We mainly used autobody filler and sand. Worked pretty good.

That's what my coworker also used

[mathieu]

another example of where the EDIT function would be nice

[mitchleblanc]

Nice makes their holds in the gym I climb at, which is cool cause we get to climb on all their new shapes before they come out. Their new line is going to be pretty cool.

That is sweet! I'm jealous. We don't have many nice (no pun intended) holds here in Australia.

They form their holds out of styrofoam and then cast a mold off of that. They also use a silicone liner inside which allows them to experiment even more with the shapes because they can insert paper or what ever between the liners to change the shape a little bit..

That's a very cool idea but ... Is the texture right off of the styrofoam? I can't really imagine that it would be? Do they coat that "mold liner" with something later? Or even coat the styrofoam itself? I wondered about maybe spraying adhesive onto a hold, then pouring sand (or some other texture.. salt? etc?) over top.. then making the mold from that..

[dcentral]

there's only texture from the styrofoam when it's either cut or shaped into the foam. Other then that it's whatever the compound is that they mix up.

The liner is made our of silicone I believe. Only really works with bigger round shaped. Not somuch with finer details.

[tracstarr]

check this place out, i've done a few this way. http://www.alumilite.com/howto.cfm?ID=20


I've also used the autobody filller method, works ok. In the end though, I find it's not much cheaper then just buying new ones unless you need large numbers of the same hold. (if you use a mold) You can also use clay to make a mold, use it, then make new molds out of it. Harder to make incut features and such though. If you want massive hold, check out the site above , there is some info on double molding to keep the hold hollow.

[Fred]

I think it's a different kind of styrofam than you are thinking of Mitch. More like you would see for arts and crafts. It's a lot more porous and textured and can be shaped easily. Remember those big styrofoam balls you would buy and make people out of them by sticking toothpicks in them?

I don't know though I'm just speculating.

[Ropeguy]

I made 2 sets of rockrings with a 30 mpa mix.one of them cracked but the others have held up well.If you want to use concrete you can play around with the types of aggregate to change your textures.I used white styrofom as a mold,poured in the mix,vibrated it and its ok,a little rough.I don't really like the testure of the white styrofoam so the next mold I'm using the blue foam.I made a reverse mold and then used a heatgun to melt the mold and make the testure a little smoother.Concrete sticks to the white styrofoam and the mold is only good for 1 use.You could try lining it with fiberglass cloth to change the testure and make it easier to come out of the mold.

[Fred]

Two words Rick: Dead Load

beware of how much of those holds you put up on your wall eh

[Ropeguy]

Yeah,My wall is 10" concrete so I wasn't that concerned about the weight.Good point though on something light the weight would add up fast,My rockrings are around 6lbs each.

[dcentral]

You could just use them to use bicep curls instead of pull ups.

[Fred]

Mitch, there's an article in the April/May 2005 Urban Climber about making holds. Check it out.