I’ve decided that I have to build some trials stuff. I know generally how they’re made, but where do you get wood? My town is teeeny, so there’s nowhere (that I can think of) where I can get some.
Also, does anyone have suggestions on how to make it better? Or at least how to not make it worse? Basically how to put it together to have maximum coolness.
Build heaps and heaps of sandwich boards…they’re awsome. If you haven’t yet seen it, have a look through the recent thread of mine that talks about trials stuff. Kris made some really handy suggestions. I get all my bits of wood from construction site rubbish bins. Yesterday i picked up a chunky bit of wood. I don’t know what I’ll use it for but I’m sure I’ll think of something eventually.
Andrew
I’ll try the sandwich boards, thanks.
I just found out where I can get about a billion pallets(sp?) for free. Those can be useful, right?
hell yeah, build em up in piles, make gaps, have varying slopes, pallettes are excellent to have, especially if you have loads of them.
That’s what I thought. And my grandma has one of those big spool things, if I can ever get it from her (she lives far away).
How do you build a sandwich board?
For the last one I made I did this:
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Cut the sheets to the right size with a significantly larger width than height for stability.
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Cut a couple of planks of wood to the width of the sheets. Mine have a 35 x 70mm cross-section.
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Line up a plank along one of the long edges of a sheet and fasten them together in this position with glue first and then screws (although I forgot the glue this time and it seems pretty damn strong). Repeat for the other sheet and plank.
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Attach the hinges. To do this, I lay the two side of the sandwich board down with the planks together and facing up. I then separated them about 2-3mm but this will vary depending on the size and style of hinge (I’m assuming). Then attach the hinges making sure that they are the right way around. To check this, fold them up towards you. They should be able to fold all the way up. When you’re attaching the hinges put in a few of the screws loosely on each hinge and check the alignment then put the rest in and tighen them.
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Drill holes slightly bigger than the rope you’re using in the bottom corners of each sheet.
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Tie a knot in one end of the string, feed it through and tie the other end. Repeat for the other side. When doing the last knot it might help to move the sides in together a bit so you’ve got a bit of rope (or string) to work with. The knots will probably have a bit of give in them to start with.
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Cut the ends of the rope or string. I left about 2cm on each but that’s up to you. Melt the ends and lightly melt the actual knots to help fuse them together. Wayne told me this one the other day and I think it’s really handy.
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Set up the sandwich board and hop around on it for many hours but save time and energy to build another.
That’s just how I made my latest one. Good luck with yours. In the attached image the latest one is the better of the two.
Andrew
Cool, I’m going to try that. Is it better to have the pieces of wood on the outside or the inside of the sandwich board?
For all practicle, and riding purposes I cant tell the difference between 2x4’s inside or out. However someone else recently mentioned for preforming it looks more impressive to have the 2x4’s on the inside.
Yeh well they should be pretty similar in strength and in both cases the landing surface is identical in size.
Andrew
my brother made a huge sandwich board with 2x4s on the side to be used as steps. it was probably 4’ tall. HOPEFULLY HE CAN PUT UP SOME PICS (WINK WINK). He also used a chain instead of twine.
That sounds awsome, I’d love to see some pics. What sort of angle did he open it to?
Andrew
um, it was less than 45, probably 30 (since it was so tall opening it too wide would result in it breaking from the weight of the uni)