the holds(return to campus board hub)
Since I designed the board to accept climbing bolts, it made sense for my homemade holds to be bolted (as opposed to screwed) onto the board. Normal bolt-on holds only have one hole - because there is no standard spacing of t-nuts on climbing walls - but I designed my holds to have two holes. My board has a spacing of 4.75" both horizontally and vertically, so a hold with that spacing should be able to be mounted either way as well. This hole spacing and size is pretty much the only design restraint on the holds, but I made a CAD model of an initial hold idea anyways.
This hold is also designed to be flipped upside-down, so the top surface of the hold can be either horizontal or sloped 15 degrees down. Making the hold was relatively straightforward - I simply did a few cuts on a 2x4 with a table saw, drilled and counterbored some holes, then rounded the sharp edges on a belt sander.
With this test run done, I began experimenting some more, mainly modifying the thickness and angle of the rungs.
I also found some 1" dowel laying around - with a careful cut on the table saw, I formed a flat side that made it possible to use this as a hold too.
After some more sanding, I had a good number of holds to wrap up just in time for Christmas. Just for fun, I also tried soaking and bending some offcut wood into a bow.
However, once my brother opened the gift and we did a test mounting at home, I realized I had more changes to make...
