Making professional quality, plastic climbing holds is a relatively easy venture. It may take a few tries to get things "just right," but once you’ve got the method right, you can go on the rampage. Making homemade holds is a lot cheaper than buying them. You might lose a bit of money experimenting but once you sort your method, you'll probably never go back to buying commercial holds. Why would you?

As the moulds are the most expensive item in the process, try to design holds that will give maximum variations of grips depending on how they are placed on the wall. Below, are instructions to help you make your own holds for your own wall.

The first thing you need to do is design a shape for a hold and pour the mould.

1. Buy dry Oasis foam blocks from places such as garden centres or flower shops. These are the blocks for arranging flowers in vases.

2. Using any tools you want, carve the foam block into desired shape. After doing this, take a 3/8" bolt and washer and force it through the middle of the hold to create the hole for bolting it to the wall. Make sure you leave enough room to fit a socket in the hole if you are not using the Allen type bolts.

3. Next, build a box around the foam hold that is approximately 1/4 inch bigger and taller than the hold itself. Cardboard is fine for this.

4. Glue the back of the foam block (the part that would connect to the wall if this were the real hold) to the bottom of the box.

5. Now, using 100% clear silicon caulking (use the tubes in a caulking gun), force the silicon all around and over the top of the hold, filling the box with silicon. ****This is the trickiest part of making holds. It is very important to make sure that the silicon is FORCED into every little space in and around your mould. Otherwise, you will get ridges after it cures that turn into VERY sharp features when you pour your hold. So, make sure to force the silicon in. Some suggestions are to let the tubes of silicon sit in hot water before pouring the silicon. Or, mix the silicon in mineral spirits to make it more liquid.

6. Let the mould set for about a week. When it's done setting, cut the foam block out from the bottom of the box and you have a mould. Basically, the mould is just an inverse image of the hold that you carved into the foam block.

Once you have made the mould, it's now time to pour the hold. Use a liquid polyester resin that you can buy at most major hardware stores. It's the kind that has the picture on the front of boats, cars, etc. Also, buy another tube of hardener as well, you generally use twice the amount that they recommend. Also, they sell tubes of colouring for resin which means you can have nicely coloured holds. Supplies you will need:

1. Mask to protect from fumes.
2. Rubber gloves.
3. Mixing bowl or bin (this will eventually get destroyed).
4. Something to stir the mixture with.
5. Fine/course play sand.
6. Silicon spray to lubricate the mould to get the hold out easier.
7. Polyester resin as used for fibreglass. (buy this in bulk to really save)
8. Tube of resin colouring or food colouring to colour holds
9. Goggles to protect eyes.

1. Put on all protective gear.

2. Pour play sand into hold to determine how much you will need.

3. Pour sand into mixing bowl.

4. Pour resin into mixing bowl with sand and stir. You can generally "eye-ball" this mixture. Basically, make it so it is wet sand. Not too runny, but not too dry or clumpy.

5. Put just a drop or two of the resin colouring or food colouring in and stir to get the desired colour.

6. Now, add the hardner. This can be a bit tricky. Too little, and your holds will never cure. Too much, and you risk setting things on fire. Basically, follow the directions that come with the resin and then add a bit more. It may take a few times, but you'll eventually get the right mixture.

7. After you've mixed everything together, spray some silicon lubricant into the mould and pour your mixture into the mould.

8. Shake, vibrate, pound rapidly, whatever, the mould with the mixture to get all the air bubbles out. This way, you'll have a nice, filled-in texture when the hold hardens.

9. Let your holds cure outside. Depending on how hot it is, let the holds cure for anywhere from 1-3 hours. The hotter it is, the faster they cure. Try to set them in direct sunlight as well. After 1-3 hours, push down on the hold that's in the mould to see if it's gushy or soft. If it is, let it cure more. If not, pop it out of the mould and turn it over to let the other side cure in the sun.

10. After this process is over, let the holds cure a couple more days to make sure they are totally dry and that that all the chemicals have evaporated.

11. Once this is done, file or grind down the back so it's flat, file any sharp things off the hold, and you're in business...climb away!!!

Again, buy stuff in as big of quantity as you can. However, in the experimental stage, you may want to buy quarts of resin in case you get a weird brand/kind so you haven't wasted too much money. After that though, definitely buy by the gallon or bigger.

Be careful when doing this. These are dangerous chemicals that harm the body, lungs, etc. The potential for fire is also very real so be cautious. If you use the suggestions provided by this page, you do so at your own risk, anyone associated with this page, takes no responsibility for the use or misuse of the provided information.