climbing wall design help

[rdsk8ter]

I will do my best to explain the whole setup but I'm trying to fit two different styles of climbing walls in one area while keeping the wall as tight to the wall as possible. Here's what I'm thinking the wall will start at about 5' and go to around 12' high and be 4' wide. On one side it will be the pegboard holes and on the other side will be a rock hold wall ideally id like to keep it around 5-6" off the wall but max but not more then 8". The kicker is the wall needs to tilt out on the top for the rock wall and flat for the pegboard. Keep in mind the board will be 2-3 layers of 3/4" plywood so there's a bit of weight there.
The idea that I have but it seems complicated is to build it like a draw bridge but the hand winch (2000lb) would allow it to tip then drop and pull the other side up I guess I'm having a rough time working out the tracks-wheels in my mind I'm sure there's and easier-cheaper way I'm overlooking. I say I'm cheap the wife calls it frugal either way I don't like paying money for thing that I can re-purpose.
Pardon the crude drawing

 

[LonestarLando]

Where do you intend to put this? Maybe provide pictures of the area to show what you're working with (house, shop building, etc...) Does it have to tilt? Are you trying to build it so it can be switched by 1 person?

 

[Rock knocker]

Seems like you're going to have a lot of vibration

 

[b-dog]

haha I'm a climber and an engineer and don't understand what you're trying to do

What 2 types of climbing are you trying to accommodate? What's the purpose of the peg board? It might help if you drew in a climber and a wall.

BTW, I'm in Denver and climb at ET about twice a week.

 

[Rock knocker]

haha I'm a climber and an engineer and don't understand what you're trying to do

I don't either. Not an engineer, but a climber who has built more than one large commercial gym

 

[drivesitfar]

RD: talk about great exercise. is this for you or your kids? what sort of safety do you plan just in case you or one of your kids or friends happens to fall?

i was thinking of putting a climbing wall on the side of my 12 foot cement block garage wall 20 years ago for my wife and the kids, but ended up putting a gym in our garage instead.

just an FYI. i'm 61 and i still might put one up for myself hence me tagging along in your thread.

1) is there only enough room for one wall and not two separate ones?
2) is this attached to your house, detatched garage or free standing?

can you post pictures of any similar ones you might have seen or maybe just the parts. online links on where to purchase supplies would be great too for those of us maybe wanting to help you find better options or buy some for ours.

good luck

 

[racingtadpole]

OK, I think I have an idea what you are trying to do, maybe?
Sketchy.. You will end up with a lot of dynamic load on the static pulley supports. In the dropped position it will probably need some means of pinning the lower section to stop it moving as you move about on it.

Of course I could also have the completely wrong end of the pineapple too...

 

[rdsk8ter]

sorry for the delay basically I am trying to fit it in the gym I am building as an extension of the garage. There is already going to be a bunch of equipment that would need to be moved to make room every time I want to use them. All that being said if I need to I will make them side by side but just trying to avoid that

b-dog
The peg wall is the wall where you use dowels and pull them out of the one hole and go into the next to move up the wall. Much like you see on ANW

Lonestar
It doesn't have to tilt but it would be really cool if it did as I grow with the wall it would need to have added challenge.

drivesitfar
I do plan on using the wall myself and I will be putting a crash pad under it

racingtadpole
I do plan on pinning the wheels on both sides once its in place it'll give it a pivot point

 

[conversekidz]

Rdsk8ter is trying to make a peg board like this

As you can see in the picture the board is made of 4 pieces. At the center **** joint Rdsk8ter would have it hinged down to allow for the full climb.


Rdsk8ter am I right in what you are trying to accomplish?

If you have a limited space, and you are trying to work on rock holds, have you though about a climbing treadmill wall?

I use to do a lot of cardio climbing with something similar.

 

[texasranger]

If I understand your drawing correctly you basically want a 4x7' climbing wall mounted 5' off the ground. The entire 7' sheet would tilt out from the top and pivot at the 5' mark. Then you want to flip it over and put rocks on the back.

It that is what you want, then you could skip the flipping over part and attach rocks to some extra pegs and put them where you want on the beg board. I can think of a few options to keep the rocks (and pegs) from spinning in the peg holes, but I'm not a climber so maybe there's a good reason not to do it that way.

 

[LonestarLando]

Just spit-ballin here. But what about instead of tracks, you just had 4 pieces of angle at each corner attached to a standoff piece? To change the wall you would remove the top pipe....lower it with the winches...then attach the cable to the other end.....remove bottom pipe.....hoist....then insert bottom pipe....then insert top pipe and done.

Just trying to think of what you could do somewhat cheaply and with available materials/items. You'd have to do more work with dimensions and all to make sure there's no clashes and that everything fits right.

I wouldn't climb the wall when it is just suspended by the cables though. I would recommend some sort of rigid attachment if you're going to do that.

If this thread goes on, I'm sure we can find ways to make it more rigid. This is just my initial idea.

 

[rdsk8ter]

Converse your are correct those are the two things I am try to combine. My initial thoughts was to put them all on the same wall but the pegboard is a straight up climb the rocks would rip me apart if I fell beings you fall straight down. For the most part rock climbing walls are never straight vertical for that reason but over a 10 ' span a 1" will do wonders when falling.
Lonestar that's not a terrible idea but I really want to be able to tiling the unit.
I really appreciate the help I know there's a way to make this happen but something just isn't clicking with my brain lol

 

[texasranger]

Converse your are correct those are the two things I am try to combine. My initial thoughts was to put them all on the same wall but the pegboard is a straight up climb the rocks would rip me apart if I fell beings you fall straight down. For the most part rock climbing walls are never straight vertical for that reason but over a 10 ' span a 1" will do wonders when falling.
Lonestar that's not a terrible idea but I really want to be able to tiling the unit.
I really appreciate the help I know there's a way to make this happen but something just isn't clicking with my brain lol

If you are replying to my post I meant make the rocks removable. Good info about the angle, makes sense.

 

[rdsk8ter]

They are removable but it would take alot of work to pull them all. Another thought is if I make a removable arm that can pivot out of the way would it be strong enough at like 7' or will it not be high enough. Basically forming a triangle at the 7 foot mark (2' up) and leaving the winch at the top.

 

[LonestarLando]

With the setup I sketched up....you could tilt the wall. You would just remove the top pipe, and leave the bottom pipe in to tilt out. You would then put the pipe back into the brackets on top of the climbing wall + another pipe through the top standoff brackets.

Finally, you would have to add a flat bar bracket (blue in pic) on both sides at the top.



You could either use different sized brackets for different pitches...or put in multiple holes in 1 bracket.

 

[rdsk8ter]

I was afraid that this would be the only option the only thing with this setup is that I would have to keep a ladder in there to use to secure it that's why I was asking about the 7' being where the gussets are thinking this morning I could actually move them up to like 8' 8.5' and use my bench to reach them so I don't have to keep a ladder in the gym. What about the blue parts moving down to that range or even just the bottom side?

 

[b-dog]

My honest opinion is that you're over complicating things. I do the same thing when I'm drawing and designing but then I try to dial it back for cost and simplicity.

The whole reason for making this flipping contraption is so that you don't hit your elbows when you fall on pegs, right? You shouldn't be falling unexpectedly with the pegs, at least not that often. When you expect to fall, it's pretty easy to push off a bit and clear everything on the way down.

Just make a regular wall with integrated peg holes. Pivot the wall a few feet off the ground, add your hand crank at the top so you can adjust the angle and call it done. I would at least do that first to make sure you're actually going to use the wall, consistently, before you go all out. You can always modify the wall and re-use most of your parts later. My hangboard and rock rings are good for collecting dust and that's it. For me a small bouldering wall would get old in about a minute.

 

[LonestarLando]

I was afraid that this would be the only option the only thing with this setup is that I would have to keep a ladder in there to use to secure it that's why I was asking about the 7' being where the gussets are thinking this morning I could actually move them up to like 8' 8.5' and use my bench to reach them so I don't have to keep a ladder in the gym. What about the blue parts moving down to that range or even just the bottom side?

If that's what you want, you will still have to have the brackets on top and bottom of board (bracket photo I provided in a previous post). But, you would have to add pipe brackets in the middle of the board on both sides. Something like this:


This isn't a problem on the peg board side....but you would have to position your rock holds around where the pipe go across the board on the other side.


Your standoff pieces would also have to be offset. The bottom would have to stick out farther than upper brackets.

I did a quick AutoCAD sketch below. This is a rough sketch if your climbing wall started at 5' High and you had a 7' high board. The bracket shown above would be mounted in the middle of the board (3.5') on both sides. This puts the upper brackets in the 8.5' range like you're talking.

 

[rdsk8ter]

I like that so far what about going into the side with a bolt and a flat steel piece on bother sides then I would not have to worry about the position for the rock layout

 

[LonestarLando]

That's up to you, I can not provide an absolute yes or no since this is just a conceptual design.

If you like the concept so far, maybe try to get an items list together and try to price it out thus far. Like wood, pulleys, pipe and angle steel, fasteners...etc...

Also, are we talking about attaching this to a typical house wall with sheetrock, 2x4 studs w/16in centers?

 

[rdsk8ter]

I have 4 studs (added extra to make sure it would hit them) it will be spanning there is Sheetrock over top

 

[rdsk8ter]

there are 4 studs all in a 3' span plus at the 8' mark a double 2x4 header board the main support beam is there too its 3.5" od 1/4 wall if I needed to support there I'm sure it could be secured too also

That's up to you, I can not provide an absolute yes or no since this is just a conceptual design.

If you like the concept so far, maybe try to get an items list together and try to price it out thus far. Like wood, pulleys, pipe and angle steel, fasteners...etc...

Also, are we talking about attaching this to a typical house wall with sheetrock, 2x4 studs w/16in centers?

 

[drivesitfar]

RD: so am i understanding this correctly that you are making the same board hold the finger and feet holds that you will also be using for the peg climbing? originally i thought one was dropping out of the way to use the other.

i'd love to have a peg climbing wall and even though a finger hold might be better for your grip i agree with b-dog that a wall this small would get pretty boring pretty fast.

there are some places in my area that built 50 foot tall walls in almost an entire warehouse and i wonder if they sell monthly or yearly memberships? i'll check on that and get back to you with pictures.

best of luck in the meantime and didn't mean to put a damper on your project just letting you know there are better ways to improve your grip if you just want to build a climbing peg board.

i used a gyro that was made by a company in the USA so they are better than the imported ones except for a German made metal one i also use that is quieter.

http://www.dynaflexpro.com/product-s-gamer.html

have you ever bought or used www.ironmind.com captains of crush grippers? before i started using my gyros i had sprained my wrists trying to improve my strength by hitting a BOB punching dummy and i could barely squeeze the CC Trainer which is i think 100 pounds. within 90 days of using my gyro for an hour a day or more if i was driving on a trip i improved to almost squeezing my #3 which I think is 275 pounds. i'll be 61 in a couple weeks and i can still squeeze shut my #2.5, and maybe i'll start using the gyro again more often and see if i can squeeze that #3 shut and work on the #4. without the gyro I'd still be squeezing the #1 like my strong adult sons do.

do you have any peg board pictures to post of some you like cause there are many many versions?

 

[racingtadpole]

Hinge it at the bottom, put a couple of same model scissor jacks at the top on either side (these would need to be on a pivot also to maintain geometry). Wind the jacks out to over hang from the wall. The jacks could be operated from underneath with a socket, battery drill, crank handle (the leader never falls remember)..

 

[rdsk8ter]

Had an idea hit me today I'm going to still use the track idea to guide the piece in place with the winch but I will actually just use a couple floor flanges on the peg side so when I put the rock side out I can take and screw in pipe then tilt it back up and have the winch hold the weight but the pipes will keep it sturdy still gotta play with math a bit but I'm thinking this should work and I can use different length of pipe for the legs to change the angle