BUILDING A DRYTOOLING GYM

By Malcolm Kent

You can call it a wall, cave, gym or even woodie (not my preferred nomenclature), it's all the same.
Here's the story of how I built mine (wall not woodie!).

Basically I live in a city, so figuring that rent prices or buying costs would be ridiculous close to home,
I went looking in the out-of-town areas. Areas where I could see tonnes of warehousing and general
industrial grey bleakness. And after 2 months of fruitless searching, with only a sheisty tin pot garage
to my name, I struck lucky and found a reasonable sized warehouse for an affordable price.

I measured up every dimension of the space, noting that the design would have to be a little more
unorthodox given the paper thin aluminium walls and shortage of electricity. I spent 2 weeks buying
the tools I needed and ordering wood from a reputable timber merchant. There were never any
formal plans or drawings. Just a mental image and a pathetic looking cereal box cut out. Everyone
goes on about structural engineers, but frankly they aren't going to make your design safer
necessarily. Rather they can probably tell you how to build it to the same strength but with less
wood. Stubbornly I opted to ignore engineering principles and throw a spoon full of chunky timbers
in when I thought it needed it.

The warehouse in its original state. 80sqm and 6m high.

I built a free-standing frame supported by a number of key vertical columns. These resembled a mini
Stonehenge made from wood. The columns were 20cmx20cm wide and attached to the ground with
90 deg brackets bolted with expansion bolts into the concrete floor. As the framework built up
around the columns I switched to using either 2x8'' planks or 2x6'' bracing, depending on where it
was positioned. In the cave area the finished framework was essentially a massive box with oblique
cross bracing connecting from the sides to the roof beams. For the main wall, the overhang was
limited so that the wall wouldn't just topple over and the far ends were braced diagonally downward
into the ground to counteract the tendency to topple in.
A 90 deg bracket supporting a post.

During the framework building it became obundantly clear that french screws, regular wood screws
and steel brackets were the be all and end all. My universe! They really made the structure work. I
think infact I lost count of the brackets used after it passed 80. I have to stress at this point that you
can do a lot on your own as I did, but eventually you get to stopping points where you just have to
get 1 or 2 folks to help. If you and your mates know roughly what you're doing then that teamwork
can really help to tighten up the joints and stiffen up the whole structure. Infact if you've done it
right then you should be able to start climbing around on the framework well before it's fully
finished. (if you do this and it collapses ontop of you and your buddy and you never walk again .... I
hereby disclaim my way out of any liability!).

The framework being built.

Once the framework was up we began cutting the ply. 18mm thick in standard sized sheets. A
circular saw is a must for this, unless you're off work and claiming benefit and have spare time to kill.
Mostly the sheets will fit up as whole, then after that you generally find that you have to cut small
sections to fill the remaining gaps. Hopefully you don't immediately do any attaching, but instead lay
out all the sheets and drill the holes. Something like a 20 or 30cm spacing should work. I used a
12mm bit and drilled through several sheets at a time. Then hammered the t-nuts into the holes and
placed a small screw against every t-nut to stop them from spinning. And with that the panels went
up on the walls. I used 40mm wood screws spaced roughly 20cm apart (stronger screws spaced
closer together for the roof panels).

Kat measuring the spacings for the holes.

The final touches were to add some paint to the panels (the holes plugged with something to stop
the paint getting in) and to throw in some crash matting. I used mats that were 30cm deep for a cave
section that was 3.5m and a wall section that was 4.5 high.

Kat adding the final customisations.

Some useful tips:

Try to design/plan your walls around the ply dimensions of 1.22x2.44m.
Always order a bit more wood from the merchant than you think you need, especially for the ply.
Try to connect the major columns/beams with notched joints like a jigsaw puzzle.
It's most efficient to make notches with very fat drilled holes and then cutting with a sabre saw.
Maybe use cheaper chipboard for the kicker panels where footholds will be placed.
Don't over angle your walls. They always feel steeper than you first thought when designing.
Use clamps to the max, they are a great way to pull in twisted or mis-shapen wood.
The ply panels will surprise you with how much strength they add to final structure.
Save time by drilling 2, 4 or even 6 panels at a time with an extended drill bit.
Always add screws in behind the t-nuts to stop them spinning later.
If possible use a counter-sink bit to keep screw heads from hanging out.
Indoor walls don't need painting, but I did one coat of cheap paint as a rule of thumb.
Put up the lower ply sheets first so that later ones can be rested into position on the lower ones.

A notched joint for a roof beam.

Most importantly though, always keep it fun and interesting to work on. The minute it starts to
become tiresome and depressing, a change of approach is needed. A cynical, dry but slightly self-
deprecating sense of humour can really help at these times.