Building a Freestanding Climbing Wall Timelapse

I've just finished building a 40 degree, freestanding climbing wall in my garage. Here's about 20 hours of work compressed down to 2 minutes.
If you're interested in how to build one, and tips I have on things I learnt through building it, I made a 20 minute video where I discuss various aspects of the build. Check out - • Building a Freestandin...
Music by Epidemic Sounds (www.epidemicsound.com)

[@statue9639]

sturdiness level: over 9000. awesome build

[@jetjaxon]

Sturdy AF! :D

[@alexhaworth]

Hey mate - 11 months on - hows it going? are you still happy with your setup? I'm about to build one in my spare room but with scaffolding pipe instead of wood for the frame. Cheers

[@liamfoxadventures]

Great build. Any issues with the lumber sitting right on top of the concrete? Here in hawaii it gets super humid in my garage and I noticed the lumber was damp when I pulled it off my concrete ground. I'm planning building a moonboard mini.

[@suzannenadeau7213]

Thanks for the help!! I chose 2 feet for the moonboard dead space. Two more questions! I'm not able to tell in the video how you attached the wall 2x6's to the kick board, beyond the whole wall being attached by three bolts on each side. Did you just use a few wood screws per joist (at the 40 degree mitre cut side)? Also, for 40 degrees from the vertical, the mitre cut that is made is also 40 degrees right?

[@jetjaxon]

Hi Suzanne, you may have missed the note on Instagram - I used joist hangers to join the 2x6s to the kickboard, which also had a larger piece at the back for the nose of the 2x6 to press up against. I can't recall on the mitre cut - I think that is the case, you might want to double check though.

[@wr8069]

Nice

[@cameronlouderback5559]

I would love to make one but don’t know how to

[@robatkinson3333]

wow.

[@suzannenadeau7213]

I'm building a moonboard version of this, and saw below that you address adaptations for removing the side posts and bracing (not really sure what this would look like, could you expand on the idea?) What do you think of just extending the plywood size 'dead space' on both sides, so that the structure is the same as yours but with extra space on the left and right between the Tnut grid and the frame/vertical posts. In your experience how much space would be necessary for moonboard type problems? In addition to body swing I'm also thinking about backflagging space in the air (and to keep it a moonboard I would tape off the sections of ply you can't touch).

[@jetjaxon]

I would think you would want at least 1.5 feet on either side from my experience moonboarding. Many of the problems hang out far on the side with dynamic movement and you wouldn't want to get too close to the frame. I don't have any tough problems that close to the sides... mostly use for down climbing during endurance circuits.

[@suzannenadeau7213]

@@jetjaxon Awesome, thanks! When you said removing the side posts and bracing to compensate, where would you brace? If I understand correctly you'd just have the back vertical post with no middle or front... Still toying with the idea of removing them but don't have any ceiling joists to use instead...

[@boulderingnoobs8279]

Badass. Interested in how much putting something together like this costs? No worries if you don’t want to say. Great work!

[@jetjaxon]

I spent about $900 AUD on the actual board in materials. Could be done cheaper - I think with better engineering or a simpler but taller board, like 2400mm*3200mm you could do for about $700 AUD. I was just trying to work with the space I had. I spent a lot on holds, like $1500 - because I was living in the US and had the opportunity to buy a bunch of holds and ship them back to Australia when I got a shipping container to send all my stuff back. I think you could get sufficient used holds for a board like this for about $300. So I think totally doable for about $1k.

[@boulderingnoobs8279]

jacksonclimbs nice one dude!

[@Tombola.]

Hello, i would like build a freestanding climbing wall, too. Which size have the wood for the substructure?

[@jetjaxon]

Tom 2 inches by 6 inches. If you look through my videos you will see I did a video where I talk all about the wall and the materials I used, among other things.

[@itsdunkedon6962]

Hi Jackson I have a couple questions about the wall if you don’t mind 1. What is the width of the wall 2. Where did you get your holds 3.how much did the entire wall cost

[@jetjaxon]

Hey mate, did you watch the other video where I discuss the wall build? GOES for about 20 mins, linked in the description.

[@itsdunkedon6962]

Uh yes thank you

[@crisgarcia4400]

Did the structure feel flimsy or lose up until you put the 40° wall in ? I'm making my own wall using 2X4's however mine is 12 ft tall. Running into the issue of if it'll be bomber or not once I have it all together. For now I just have all the frames built separately

[@crisgarcia4400]

@jacksonclimbs

[@jetjaxon]

Hi Cris, if you notice right at the 1 minute mark I put a large angle beam in the back for support. I also put in brackets, so the structure you see at 1:03 is starting to get a lot stronger. Once I put the frame in at 1:23 - it was already bomber enough to my liking. Then when I put the ply on, it got even stronger, it doesn't budge an inch. I've mentioned to others that I think I went overkill, and didn't realize how much the ply would increase the strength. If you're concerned, I'd just save some wood and add some angle brackets at the end to tighten the whole thing up if it is needed. The wooden angle brackets work much better, and are cheaper, than the steel brackets in the photo that you can see I used. GL! Let me know how you get on :)

[@crisgarcia4400]

@@jetjaxon many,many,many thanks! I do see the brackets and I think since mine is 12 ft tall I'll have to use a lot more than I already have. Was it the Angeles supports that gave it a really secure fit?

[@jetjaxon]

Definitely, notice that I have angle brackets running both vertically and horizontally in order to tighten up the framework. If you are going 12 foot... moonboard?

[@crisgarcia4400]

Ehh, not necessarily. The 2X4 I bought was 12 ft long so I figured for less cuts it would be best to make it 12ft tall. Plus who can complain about a taller wall right :) again thanks a million I'll stay in touch and show you the final product!

[@neilkelman8261]

Hey Jackson, couple of questions if you have the time. - Is the small kicker in any way an annoyance, and if so, does the extra height in climbing make up for it? Moon board kicker is 370mm. - Do your side posts get in the way, if so, would you prefer them to be another meter (or more) wider each side, even if the climbing area was the same? - I'm about to design and build mine this weekend, any tips on design or features of it? Any advice? I'm a Carpenter so making it is no problem, but I haven't been climbing long enough to know what I don't know. - How wide is your board? Cheers. -

[@jetjaxon]

Hi Neil, Board is 2900mm wide. Kicker is only 170mm - much less than moon board - I was worried that the heel drop on the foot holds might be annoying if heel hit the ground, but that hasn't been an issue for me. Having said that, because the kicker is lower, I have to start off higher hand holds, so increasing the kicker height would allow for lower starting holds on the board. Having said that, if you have a ceiling height limit to work with, every inch on the kicker is additional travel you lose on the board. I'd want 3200mm of travel before I was opting for more kicker. If I was building a moonboard, the 170mm would be too small a kicker for those problems. I'd get more advice from people with moonboards, but I'd think you would only want to drop to maybe 250mm for a moonboard, but that's speculating. As for the side posts - yes, they do get in the way a bit and I need to foam them up - mainly for moves where I risk falling back and hitting my head on them. I was restricted sideways - if you weren't you could modify my design, but keep in mind that the actual plywood is giving structural stability to my design where it lines up with the side frame. You might need some bracing in order to compensate from not having that. If I has unlimited space and height, I'd go with a 30 degree board, 3200mm of travel, and 3200mm wide. 40 degrees was making the most of the roof height I had. If I had gone even 35 degrees, the limited travel would have made it less worthwhile IMO.

[@neilkelman8261]

jacksonclimbs Cool, thanks for the advice. Hope the back gets better.

[@leoingson]

@@jetjaxon A climbing hall owner once gave me advice that a lot of foot injuries actually happen on small footholds being too low. Reaction time is too long - you hit ground before you can adapt.

[@jetjaxon]

@@leoingson Interesting, I think that might be a concern where you are on a more vertical wall. I find with the forty degree I just tend to fall on my ass rather than my feet.

[@leoingson]

@@jetjaxon Also interesting ;)

[@Hponting1228]

I imagine you didn't have the space for a full size moonboard? Looks like that area is prone to flooding?!

[@jetjaxon]

Yeah, area is prone to flooding, there is a shot of me in there cleaning up after it. I've plugged up the garage for normal rain, so that should help. I'm thinking of doing a french drain along the front of the garage too. With the big rain events I'm going to have to clean up afterwards, but that should only be a couple of times a year. It's also why I sealed all the ground timber with a marine lacquer - which you can see in one of the shots there. I would have gone a moonboard, but yeah, don't have the roof space, you need like 12 feet, and I wasn't even close. Plus the local bouldering gym has a moonboard. The only thing I can't train locally here is linked bouldering circuits - so this will cover that.

[@847MicRoss]

I have a underground garge with a crack in the foundation. It leaked in a couple times after it rained and eventually rotted the kickboatd. Crack is fixed now.

[@847MicRoss]

Also I want to build a moonboard but don't have the full clearance as well. My plan is to make a freestanding base of the moonboard on wheels. This includes the kickboatd and the first two sheets of plywood. Some how I will make the third sheet on top attachable. The goal is to climb the 2/3 structure in the garge. And when it's nice roll out the 2/3 structure from the garge and attach the remaining piece.

[@statue9639]

@@847MicRoss cunning plan. any updates on how you went?

[@847MicRoss]

@@statue9639 Be amazed kzbin.info/www/bejne/aXSok5WQhs2VZtk Theres a longer version on that channel too.

[@leoingson]

I'm new to the channel. What's the actual point on "freestanding"? You miss some space, and need to spend more money?

[@jetjaxon]

Renting, landlord doesn't allow to drill to fixtures.

[@bu6jon]

This isnt really freestanding if it is attached to the crossbeam in the ceiling..

[@jetjaxon]

It's not.