DIY Bolt on Triangle Volume
First off, their are a ton of resources on how to make volumes. My only complaint is that none of them incorporated a bolt. All of the home made volumes I have seen rely solely on screws. Unfortunately, the local university that I help set at occasionally and provide general guidance is a fairly new wall. As a result, they are not keen on putting too many screws into the "newish" wall yet so I needed to create a volume that incorporated a bolt and as few screws as possible.
I started with the standard triangle volume. There are plans all over the place. Below are a few links that provide a really good overview on how to make one.
The second link is to one of the best resources I have found for the DIY climber. It has everything you could ever want/need to know for a home wall.
So, I started with the same basic design as the two links above. I veered away from their designs as soon as I had the basic shape constructed pictured below.
I didn't think that the screwed plywood would have enough strength to support a bolt that would be cranked down on. Additionally, I assumed that without anything underneath, any force on the volume would create torque on the t-nut, bolt, and wood frame in which one of the three would break. So, I braced the inside of the volume with 2 x 2s. One 8ft length was plenty to brace all three interior edges. Each brace was glued first with wood glue, then allowed to set overnight beforeIi ran the screws through. The braces sit flush in the point of the volume and I trimmed the ends with my miter saw so the volume would still sit flush with floor.
The next step was to sand out a small flat spot to drill out the bolt hole. I found that the edge of my forstner bit kept catching the edge and would not drill properly without a sanded out flat spot first. I used my dremel (Harbor Freight brand) for this. Afterwords, I drilled out the open area for the bolt head first with a 3/4 in forstner bit. I then used the a normal 3/8 in bit to drill out the bolt hole itself in the center of my 3/4 in hole. Lastly for this step, I glued a washer to help support the bolt head and avoid compressing/crushing the wood when bolted to the wall.
I started with the standard triangle volume. There are plans all over the place. Below are a few links that provide a really good overview on how to make one.
The second link is to one of the best resources I have found for the DIY climber. It has everything you could ever want/need to know for a home wall.
So, I started with the same basic design as the two links above. I veered away from their designs as soon as I had the basic shape constructed pictured below.
I didn't think that the screwed plywood would have enough strength to support a bolt that would be cranked down on. Additionally, I assumed that without anything underneath, any force on the volume would create torque on the t-nut, bolt, and wood frame in which one of the three would break. So, I braced the inside of the volume with 2 x 2s. One 8ft length was plenty to brace all three interior edges. Each brace was glued first with wood glue, then allowed to set overnight beforeIi ran the screws through. The braces sit flush in the point of the volume and I trimmed the ends with my miter saw so the volume would still sit flush with floor.
The next step was to sand out a small flat spot to drill out the bolt hole. I found that the edge of my forstner bit kept catching the edge and would not drill properly without a sanded out flat spot first. I used my dremel (Harbor Freight brand) for this. Afterwords, I drilled out the open area for the bolt head first with a 3/4 in forstner bit. I then used the a normal 3/8 in bit to drill out the bolt hole itself in the center of my 3/4 in hole. Lastly for this step, I glued a washer to help support the bolt head and avoid compressing/crushing the wood when bolted to the wall.
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