Climbing Triangle

[Chestnut]

I saw a fun climbing thing online that was made out of wood. I didn't think much of it until hazel started climbing on literally everything. With the main set of dining chairs finished I needed a pallet cleanser. I've had some boxelder and plywood scraps sitting in my shop too long and in the way as well as the dowels for the rungs. The boxelder I'm using came from a tree in my backyard, it was leaning over the neighbor's yard, so i'm surprised that the boards are very well behaved.

I started by figuring out the length of board I'd need, using math with the dowel thickness and rung spacing. The rung spacing is to be 3.5" with 1" dowels. That puts the dowels at 4.5" on center. 9 dowels are the total height so I marked off 44" plus 4" to make it 48". As it was evening and hazel was sleeping a handsaw did this cut.

Once cut to length I put a line on the board to cut the leg blanks out of. I left a large margin to remove back and make sure if the wood moved there was space to joint things strait. The board didn't move an inch as mentioned above I expected some reaction wood and internal stress. After cutting to width I jointed and planed to get 4 parallel sides. These are around 1_5/8" thick and the final boards only need to be 3/4" thick. This is perfect because my plan was to resaw 2 boards from each blank to get the 4 legs needed.

Once the legs were resawn I planed the rough band saw face down. Finished thickness was just shy of 7/8", nice and thick like I was hoping. To attach the dowels I laid out the center locations. Then using the rockler drill guide with the depth stop set I made a 1/8" deep round mortise with a forstner bit. This will help hold the dowels in place and provide a bit more unnecessary strength. Once the mortises were done I drilled through the center using a small drill bit to clear room for a screw. The forstner point centered this perfectly.

The side angle of the triangle is 30 degrees, to get the device to sit right I cut a 30 degree angle in the tops of the boards. This was done before the layout was complete so the holes line up. It's kinda hard to explain but the pictures below will help it make sense. Once the mortises were done I measured down to set the height of the lowest rung off the ground and trimmed all 4 legs to length. No pictures, it's simple table saw cut with miter gauge (insert random table saw stock footage).

The tringle is made up of 4 legs that hinge for easier storage and transport. To make the hinge I cut some plywood and plan to use a bolt through a well placed hole. The plywood is glued onto the longer leg. A screw with an acorn nut will be how the 2 parts are held together. I don't have the screws and acorn nuts yet.

There were so mishaps gluing where the plywood got glued onto the wrong leg so I had to tear it off. Lucky I noticed before the glue had a chance to set so It was an easy fix.

The rungs are just 1" poplar dowels and easily the most expensive part of the project. To hold them on I placed them in the mortise of the leg and then pre-drilled a hole in the end. I used 1_3/4" #8 screws to secure them no glue. I didn't glue in case one gets broken, and fat chance of that. The screws were all counter sunk before sanding and finishing. It's not pretty but it's effective.

Not sure if it's clear but this looks SUPER dangerous.

Ah that's much better. I rounded off the ends of the boards as well as gave all the parts a good 1/8" round over and good sanding. I was WAY to excited to assemble this so some of my layout lines are still visible on the inside. With a 3.5" spacing my sander was not even close to fitting between the rungs.

To get the legs to fold some material needs to be relieved. My initial attempts didn't quite remove enough. During dry assembly I removed a lot more and finally had the proper clearance. I used a rasp and my ROS to make this happen. Working with boxelder is quite nice as the wood has little grain and is very soft. It's almost like basswood but has more grain than that.

With the material relieved the inside of the hinge looks like this. I took these after applying finish but it helps for the explanation.

I applied shellac for a finish. I like shellac for stuff like this quick easy and shouldn't be harmful. Side benefit the ethanol solevant smells good in the shop.

I let hazel climb on it this morning and she went strait to the top with a gigantic grin on her face the whole time. I'll be trying to teach her how to swing her leg over the top to go down the other side soon.

I foreshadowed strength a few times in the post. The 1 " dowels are quite strong. I can use this as a ladder no problem and did just to try it out and make sure that none of the dowels were defective. So if it can hold 200 lb me, a 20 lb toddler shouldn't be a problem.

These are known by another name that is trade marked, so I'm using a generic term. Pikler is the name if you are interested and want to do research.

[legenddc]

Looks like you're already putting the Rockler drill guide to good use. Glad Hazel is already enjoying it!

[Chet]

Nice project for Hazel.  She should get miles of smiles out of that.

I looked at the Piklers, they are pretty proud of their triangle$$$ aren't they.

[Chestnut]

59 minutes ago, Chet said:

I looked at the Piklers, they are pretty proud of their triangle$$$ aren't they.

 I have $50 in dowels alone for this project, once i started to consider they are "hand made" their price seems about right. I'd be hard pressed to sacrifice my time to make it for that amount, for a random person that is.

[Chet]

On 8/28/2023 at 8:52 AM, Chestnut said:

I have $50 in dowels alone for this project, once i started to consider they are "hand made" their price seems about right

Point taken.

But handmade can be pretty subjective.  Does a company mean that a human or humans are involved, or is it a case of one person making an item start to finish not jigs involved, or anything in between the two.

[Ronn W]

Great for your daughter. nicely done. I like it.

[Tom King]

I see a Ninja Warrior gym starting.

[Mark J]

You're such a good Dad! 

[Chestnut]

5 hours ago, Chet said:

one person making an item start to finish not jigs involved, or anything in between the two.

Yeah it's a marketing term so who knows. My guess is cnc mills the parts and they are hand sanded with power tools. Beats some Chinese factory i guess?