This is the first texture test the team did. It served as a proof of concept for the texture and only used materials the team had available at no cost. The mixture is made up of sand and epoxy. The sample seen on the right side of the wooden block is a epoxy and sand mix while the sample on the left is the epoxy with sand sprinkled on top.
Seen above is first hold cleaned with an ultrasonic cleaner and resurfaced. The team was looking to see if cleaning the holds with an ultrasonic cleaner was feasible. A local jewelry store in Flagstaff was generous enough to clean this hold in their ultrasonic cleaner at no cost to the team. It was at the end of their work day, the cleaning solution was dirty and about to be replaced. From visual inspection one can see the hold is very clean after an hour in dirty cleaning solution. After the hold was cleaned, the first test texture was applied to a hold. This is the first mix by Retekt. This showed the team that a mixture could bond to the hold.
Seen in the above photo is the ultrasonic cleaner the team purchased. This is used to clean the holds prior to coating. Cleaning ensures the best possible bond of our mixture to the clean hold. The device runs at 440 kHz and can be set to a range of temperatures from 40°C to 90°C. A timer can be set for up to 1 hour. Generally the longer the cleaning time the more particles are removed from the climbing hold.
Seen above is the initial ultrasonic cleaner testing once the teams cleaner arrived. This shows the best solution use. With Vinegar the results are clearly seen above and this is just after 30 minutes of cleaning.
Seen above is all the samples created during testing for a final texture. The final texture a can be seen in the bottom half of the dome shaped climbing hold in the top left corner of the photo.
This is the first attempt at dipping a climbing hold. It used a Smoothcast coating mixture with normal playground sand of uniform granules. A bolt that was handy was used as a prototype dipstick. Once the resin dried the bolt was no longer able to be removed from the climbing hold.
Here, Kyle is pouring a resurfacing mixture onto a climbing hold. The hold is the other half of the broken hold from the first ultrasonic cleaner testing. This half has not been cleaned and the mixtures seemed to bond to the dirty holds but the bond is weaker.
These are the 6 climbing holds before being recoated with our teams custom final texture mixture. They have all lost significant texture from their original states.
The custom mix has been applied to the 6 coats. The texture is still drying in this photo.
Seen here is another angle of the newly coated climbing holds on the wall. They were colored a dark purple and are marked with purple and orange tape.
The drying rack has the space to dry many holds all at onece. When not being used for drying holds, it can be used to for storage.
The team is able to recolor the holds to almost any color. This should eliminate the need to color routes with duct tape.
These materials were purchaed to measure the ammoung of materials to add for each batch or resurfacing material. This will provide consistent results.
.jpg)
The project was a success! The retextured holds feel similar to new holds. This project was a great challange and a ton of fun. Thank you for your support! CLIMB ON!!!