My Latest Baby (PICTURES)

[Oti]

Hey everyone. Just thought you might be a little interested in what I'm building.





I'm giving a lot of credit to David since he said he was going to build one first. Also for the idea of making it double as a Log Grip. He's the mastermind and I'm the builder.

Slavery.

Gets things done.

[RiderLeangle]

So is that a Log Grip or a Slider Jump? If it's the latter you had a bad idea putting the bar across at the end. David's Night Time shot makes it clear how it's set up at the end


And are you sure the connectors that drop it a level are secure?

[Captain Obvious]

Well, it's a great looking work-in-progress!

Sliding to the end only to have your fingers smashed between the bar and the final support brace would be bad, but since I don't see anything stopping the bar, I'm assuming the final support brace that Rider is referring to is temporary.

Looks great, look forward to seeing more of it!

[Oti]

It's a Slider Jump right now. After it's done, I'll work on a Log Grip "attachment". Then I'll just swap them out, depending on what I want to practice.

It's not welded at the bottom end. That was only set there so I knew the bars were parallel. The top end is welded, but that's where you start, so it's ok. I've taken everything into account, don't worry. Look at all the stuff I've made so far.

The connectors had better be secure. After I made the first track, I threw it outside to see if it'd break. It did, so I turned up the amperage on the welder (thus making a stronger weld) and re-made it. Then I made the second. Following that, I connected them and set them up outside and slid down them. They seem fine. On top of that, I'll be adding more supports as I progress in the project, so it should be fine.

Captain Obvious, you nailed it. Like I said, that bottom bar is only set in place. I considered welding it there and then putting stoppers before it, but then that bar COULD be in your way, so I decided against it. I'll probably weld the bar to the tops of the stoppers instead.

I can probably finish it today, but I'm lazy and tired, so I wouldn't count on it. I am anxious to try it out, though, so that gives me some motivation.

Oh, and by the way, it doesn't slide worth a crap.

I had to WD-40 that stuff, yo.

[quasikoz]

Man, that looks good and looks like you've definitely put alot of work into it.

I wonder if there is any other type of metal that's "smoother". But I don't really know what I'm talking about when it comes to that stuff.

[Ninja Chris]

Unless you change that bar at the end, it's gonna smash your fingers. Get the pipes to move upward at the bottom of the slope, rather than across.

Unless you weld a couple pieces of metal upward slightly up the path... But it's already kinda short.

Props though!

[Badalight]

Yeah, the horizontal bar at the end has already been talked about, it's temporary.

[Oti]

Yep.

[Badalight]

Looks good though, hope it ends up sliding well or it'll kind of ruin the purpose. If anyting you can just angle it more so it slides easier.

[Captain Obvious]

WD-40 should do the trick for getting it to slide.

If that doesn't cut it, the only other thing I can think of would be valve oil (or slide grease, etc.) like for use on brass instruments (trumpet, trombone, etc.)

[Oti]

Captain Obvious, you're nailing this stuff. Seriously, get out of my head Charles.

The pipe I have doesn't slide down the tracks very well, so I tried some WD-40. Works extremely well and even though it's dried, there's a thick residue left behind, so it still works.

I really thought the hot sun would totally ruin it, but low and behold, those guys got it right on the 40th try.

[ouchthathurtstv]

Is there a gap at the end of the Slider Jump? In honesty I think the log grips harder.

[davidcampbell]

Haha, wow just saw this thread, nice! You beat me to it!
I'll give you some ideas I plan on using for mine and mention a couple things I would do differently.

For the log grip attachment I was planning on starting with a large (2 1/2' or so?) diameter pvc pipe, so that the log will be light and hollow (easy to lift up onto the rails) and then bolting some verticle metal bars on that would connect to a horizontal bar. Pretty simple. For the handholds I was planning on just grinding out some little concaves in the outside of the pipe(just be careful not to make an actual hole).

You mentioned strength issues in the weld joints. It might be stronger if you double up your verticle pieces like in this asci drawing:

<pre>------------------------
l l
-------------------------
l l
------------------------------</pre>
Hopefully that came out right?
Also if you can I'd try to make the last bar longer so you can gain a little momentum for the jump.

That's how I was originally planning on building mine, but I was planning on using 10 foot sections on pipe which would have left me with 26' long bars I would have had to transport from where I would weld them to where I would set them up. Also being that long they would flex a lot and probably bend or break?

Then I smacked myself in the head and realised I was totally over-thinking it!
So my current plan calls for six 10 foot pipes, eight 10-16 foot 4x4's and no welding (you can probably already picture my design).

<pre>l l----------------------
l l l l
l l l l------------------------
l l l l l l l l
l l l l l l-------------------------l l
l l l l l l l l
l l l l l l l l
l l l l l l l l
l l l l l l l l</pre>

The far ends of the bars would lay on the ends of the 4x4's. I will probably drill down through the bar to make a hole for a screw to go into and hold it to the 4x4 (though that would make a bump on the bar) so I'd make the hole larger than the screws being used so that the head would go though the bar and be held inside the bar with a washer. (hopefully that's not too confusing).

or you could just weld some kind of bracket to the bottoms of the bars?

for my net I've been hitting up all the climbing gyms in the area for used belay rope. If you want it to be more authentic you can use 5/8" or 3/4" nylon rope. I've seen some on ebay for cheap.

Though you could get away with just stretching one rope across horizontally as a target to grab about 5 or 6 feet out.

Hope some of this helps and good luck!

[davidcampbell]

ok asci pictures don't work here so:


Obviously not to scale!
Also I'm building mine on a hill which makes it easier.

[Oti]

There will be a gap. There's not now, obviously, but... you know. Work in progress.

I don't think your idea will work for me since my thing is already welded. Unless I broke the welds, repositioned it, then re-welded it... and that's way too much trouble. This is what I'll do if I have to:



Right now, I'm confident my welds will hold. I plan on super hardening my welds anyway, though. I mean, I already set it up and slid down it a little bit and everything seems great. I'll just over-do it to be safe. If they still break for some reason, it'll be on video and I'll post it for you guys to laugh at.

If your long bars are going to bend, do what I'm going to do. The top and bottom are obviously already secure by some means - add several legs along the way. I'm only going to need one more leg on each bar and mine will be secure, but mine is much shorter than yours.

And about mine's length - I made it using what I had. Looking at it, it is rather short, but it should be good enough to get the feel for the obstacle. One day, I'll probably redo it and make it much longer.

For my Log Grip, I have no idea, honestly. I was either going to try to acquire something to use as a log or I was going to make one by hand with a bunch of 2x4's and probably a thin layer of padding so they don't hurt too much as you drop.

I was also considering making the log only big enough for your arms to fit on, but I dunno about that.

[davidcampbell]

yeah, it should be long enough to get the feel of it. Maybe make it slightly steeper than tha real thing for extra momentum?

Those extra pieces welded onto your joints should help a lot, though you could actually double them up with just a little shrouding of that front inner corner. (this will be ok since when you're sliding down you fall forward just a bit at every drop and don't actually touch the inside corners)

With the extra support at the joints you might not even need the legs you're talking about, considering how short it is?

I really think oversize PVC pipe will be the best log grip material, as it's light, cheap and has a similar slippery texture to the real thing.

I would definitely make the log long enough for your legs, as that is the most valuable part of having a replica. It really makes a big difference if you can hold your legs on there.

[davidcampbell]

Oh and yes, I'm having legs in mine. That drawing with the wooden posts is how mine will be.

[Oti]

I won't be making it steeper. I'm going to put it at a 10 or 15 degree angle from the top. I'll practice different techniques to get more distance.

You're right, the extra supports may eliminate the need for legs, but I don't want to even give this thing the possibility of breaking.

I don't think I have huge PVC like that anywhere near me and I don't have the money to blow on things like that. I'm more or less like Macguyver - I build all my obstacles out of material I've acquired for free. I only had to buy wood to line the walls of the Spider Climb.

And I agree with you on the legs thing. I guess I'll build an entire log, then just practice not using my legs. I'll start with my legs, sure, but work up to no legs.

Just in case they slip.

[ouchthathurtstv]

Slider Jump=Positive failure in my case. For now......

[Oti]

Elaborate.

It's not fair at all to say it's a failure when it's not even done.