[Lopez]

How small is small? I got one in my room which is just 1 full sheet of ply at 20 degrees and kicker as big as i could fit to get the top all the way to the ceiling.

Pretty simple to do. Just an A frame made out of studwork timber, some joists going across the back of the boad to reinforce, and a couple 'braces' at the bottom to prevent the frame from opening up and flattening with me attached.

Been about 10 years it's been up and still solid.

A board this size is not particularly fun, I only use it for winter training and some quick campusing sessions as i'd go to the wall for anything else otherwise.

With some holds it'd probably make a decent system board and maybe get to do a couple moves up then down. I should probably do that really.

Couple of photos should give you the idea

[Lopez]

And found this old pic where you can see the 'proportions' in use

[Andy B]

I built one that was a trapezoid shaped frame so that I didn’t feel like we would hit the supports all the time. I then panelled the horizontals at the top and the just off vertical supports at the back to make and arch shaped climbing surface.
In retrospect we didn’t use the vert wall much and the holds made it feel like a spookier prospect to hit when falling off, but it was a good board.

[Paul B]

I’m fairly confident that my incorrectly orientated cheap softwood ply panels aren’t going to rip off the frame any time soon though, and I ain’t a lightweight (unfortunately).
If you can get marine ply for a similar price then I’d go for that, but it was significantly more expensive when I bought it to convert a van recently. I obviously need better suppliers.

Of course they're not going to, and softwood doesn't necessarily mean it's worse ply (the gold standard of shuttering ply is softwood and nobody ever wants to pay for it). My first ever board was made from OSB  . I just don't see why if you're building a board you wouldn't chose to try and put it the correct/best oreintation, perhaps that's just me...(I've already been called a jobsworth once today) 

I’m experiencing no flex - no creaking - and going by the specs of the screws holding it to the rafters its good for 1000kg.... (though the 11 bolts are not equally sharing of course).

1000kg is ~10kN; your fixings won't be limited by their own tensile capacity, it'll be either the wood they're into or almost certainly the bearing of the head against the timber (this ranges from about 2.5N/mm² for C16 to 5N/mm² for D50 hardwood or to put it differently a 70mm dia. washer or a 50mm dia. washer respectively).

This is pure pedantry of course.

[Andy B]

I’m fairly confident that my incorrectly orientated cheap softwood ply panels aren’t going to rip off the frame any time soon though, and I ain’t a lightweight (unfortunately).
If you can get marine ply for a similar price then I’d go for that, but it was significantly more expensive when I bought it to convert a van recently. I obviously need better suppliers.

Of course they're not going to, and softwood doesn't necessarily mean it's worse ply (the gold standard of shuttering ply is softwood and nobody ever wants to pay for it). My first ever board was made from OSB  . I just don't see why if you're building a board you wouldn't chose to try and put it the correct/best oreintation, perhaps that's just me...(I've already been called a jobsworth once today) 

Sorry Paul, I didn’t mean to sound like I was disagreeing with regard to the orientation. I would definitely put boards up the right way, it’s just that I didn’t know about it until you posted (hence the waddage before I started posting) and my board was already up by then.
Re. Softwood. I know that it isn’t the defining feature of quality, I was just using it as a descriptor for the cheapest stuff in b and q cos that’s what they call it on their website. The point I was trying to get across to drew was that I don’t think you need to spend the extra on the best quality stuff. I’ve built boards from marine ply, cheap ply, OSB and chipboard and they’ve all been fine.

[lemony]

Here's mine that went up a few weeks back. Holds are on the bid side as it's more about staying fit (and sane) than getting strong for now. 30 degrees (straight in reality, had to use pano to get it in shot) and a mix of discards from Climb Newcastle and Hard Wood Holds.

I have no idea if my plywood is the right way around.

[webbo]

So I have the boards, the wood for the frame, 200 + holds. We have just moved house, so the garage currently has the above,5 bikes, a fridge freezer, washer, tumble drier, the range cooker we couldn’t sell to people who sold our other house to.  Plus a few other things, so it’s out for a board at the moment.
We have 4 bedrooms two which have double beds in, one which is now a sowing room and the other room which has built in sauna is the grandsons bedroom.
So we have lots of room in front of the garage to build something there. However my question of would it be acceptable to build something there was met with Stoney silence.
Any suggestions for the next step other than showing the missus pictures of Dan’s hair.

[SA Chris]

begging and oral.

[Paul B]

Sorry Paul, I didn’t mean to sound like I was disagreeing...

I was a bit touchy yesterday after dealing with a contractor who repeatedly believes they can defy physics.

[SA Chris]

Feel your pain. We have one in West Africa who believes we have the power to bend the time continuum.

[Duma]

Think some folk were asking about setting on a home board - Ben (head setter at yonder and half of impact route setting with Cailean) think he's ben99 on here but doesn't post much - anyway, he's built a board for lock down and they put up a vid about setting it. Not watched yet, but he ought to know what he's talking about.

[gme]

Sorry Paul, I didn’t mean to sound like I was disagreeing...

I was a bit touchy yesterday after dealing with a contractor who repeatedly believes they can defy physics.

Is that not normal. Mine all want invisible stuff.

[tomtom]

Cheers for that vid Duma. Been doing some setting on mine over the last couple of days.

Interesting - Ben suggests few feet widely spaced so you have uncomfortable moves (or something like that) - though on mine I have quite a lot of feet (small edges) and this allows me to work out the best position for my feet. I’m still only 6-9 months into board climbing and still learning a lot about my body position and where feet work best (which is often quite different on a steep board from what I first think) - so having lots helps.

They also have loads of large handholds - so more spaced feet works better...

I can always take some off though 😃

[SA Chris]

I can always take some off though 😃

Or just not use them. Crazy I know!

[Paul B]

Is that not normal. Mine all want invisible stuff.

Yes. Still this did make me smile 

[Fultonius]

We've decided that, since the van can't actually fit in the garage anyway (too high), we can probably use one corner for a board. We're got a fair bit of space/height to work with, but not sure the ideal dims.

I don't want to go much more than 2m wide at the base of the steeper wall, as it will impinge too much on the workbench.  Any thoughts on:

Ideal kickboard height?
Ideal angle of side wall (currently set at -10)
Ideal angle of steep wall (currently set at -30)

Note: I'm not a huge fan of 45 boards, so probably don't want steeper than 30. I'm also too shit at bouldering to do anything less than jugs at that angle.

3.3m high at apex. Am I best to have a vertical finish board?

[Duma]

30 sounds good to me, if you've got the height (which you do) and it's your only climbing I wouldnt go steeper. If you've only got 2m width I prob wouldn't bother with the side and maximise the width of the main board. At 30 don't think you really need a foot board or top vert bit

[SA Chris]

In order to simplify build, I'd not bother with a kickboard. If you feel you need one later, it's an easy retrofit. My board is 26 deg and i don't miss one. Not sure the side board is worth the bother at all, and if you do put one in, for the complexity of putting a 10 deg board in, you might as well just go vertically, and not lose any room at the top of an already fairly narrow board. Don't bother with a vertical finish, additional construction faff. KISS.

[SA Chris]

lol, fools never differ

[Duma]

Ha, jinx

[Yossarian]

Ok, we’re going to try to get some timber to build an outside board along the lines of the Yonder guys’ one. I’ve built 2x freestanding boards years ago which were massively over engineered. Hopefully this time it’ll be a bout simpler.

We’re aiming for 30-40deg / board length of 4.8m but we might just start with 3x boards high, so climbable length of 3.6m

What size timber for the verticals would you experts recommend? 2x6 or 2x8?

[Somebody's Fool]

https://www.flickr.com/photos/48193219@N00/49754151171/in/dateposted-public/

I built this for someone last week, it’s 20 degrees and 3.66m. It’s just built out of 4x2 as that’s all he could get his hands on. Feels very solid when climbing on it though, so imagine 6x2 would be more than strong enough.

[Paul B]

What size timber for the verticals would you experts recommend? 2x6 or 2x8?

Whilst trying not to be completely unhelpful it totally depends on the centers. Bigger section allows for bigger centers (with some caveats here about how much you're happy with the ply deflecting [SLS] / how far it can span [ULS]).

[Somebody's Fool]

It was actually 3.1m high. Was intended to be higher and I think it would still work fine, but he was conscious of neighbour’s window.

[Paul B]

Out of interest what are the centers of your 4 x 2 behind?

My back of fag packet calcs are based on my home wall which uses the same and doesn't flex at all.