DIY wooden wing Jumps (Part 4)

In this final instalment, we would talk about options for jump cups.


In my previous post Making wing jumps without going to the hardware shop, I have used our trusty cloth peg as jump cups. But in this post, I'll share with you the other stuff I use in making my jumps.


From shops
By far the one that uses the less brain power is to simply buy from overseas. Here there are a few online shop you can get your jump cups.
Clean run :- Flexi strip (Chose the flat back), Single piece in bag of 20
Amazon :- 3/4" Jump cups (these fits perfectly on 2cm thickness and can slide), 3/4" mould jump cups (not much experience with these)
eBay :- Enter the key word "Dog agility Jump Cup", personally, I find ebay Uk to be a better option in terms of shipping to Singapore


DIY
Yes, part of the fun of this project is DIY. So naturally I'll explore using DIY methods to create your own. While I am currently exploring various household items that can be modified to be jump cups, one of the easiest, and field tested method is the use of the furniture leg guard. I got a size 32 leg guard, cut it into 2 and them screw it onto the wood. Simple and straight forward.
   


It's made of rubber so that it wouldn't accidentally cut into the dog. The texture creates a nice grip between the cup and can holds non-weighted jump bar well.


As of this writing, I am still exploring various method of DIY jump cups including use of 25mm rubber hose, wooden blocks, magnetic jump cups, self locking jumping cups ....etc....


These are still in the conceptual and experimenting stage and I would address them in subsequence post. If you have any other great ideas for DIY jump cup, I would be happy to hear from you....

DIY wooden wing Jumps (Part 3)

The above picture shows what I got after I put all the pieces together. The next step is to decide what I want to use to fill the empty part of the wing in the middle.


The Easy way
I find the easiest and cheapest way is to simply use the good old trusted cloth tape (about $2 from any hardware or stationary shop). Just stick them across the bottom and top part of the just. and you will set a setup similar to the picture shown below. Be sure to tap both side.





A little more involved
While the cloth tap method is the easiest, for some, it does feel a little to cheap and they would like to get a bit of wood in there. To do that, just visit the art section of  Diaso shop or ArtFriends and get strips of art wood.  Mark them using the frame of the jump and cut them to size. Next use craft glue or wood glue and join them together. Paint the wood for the final finish.


Getting really carried away
In this project, I got carried away and decided to add an acrylic cut out to the empty space.

To do this, you would need to first draw out you cut out in digital format. You would need to supply the design in .ai or .eps format for any laser cutting company to help cut the acrylic for you. If you are not artistically incline, you can go to fiverr.com and engage any of these freelance artist to produce the drawing you want.


Only one word of advise. Most laser cutting company requires each cut out to be done within a single stroke. So avoid holes in your design. Your design should also fit as much as possible into any of their standard size acrylic. for example mine fits into their standard size of 40x28cm. and is shown below:





Notice that one of the ear of the bottom dog joins with the feet of the top dog. This will allow me to save on the cutting cost as the cutter charge by per cut....:) I got chyeguan to do this for me and was able to get each pair cut for S$30 dollars. Yeah, I know its more then the S$20 I spent on the wood, but I got really carried away for this.


Other Method
There are other method of filling up the gap. For example, you could use cloth or PVC canvases. But do make sure that there a gap for air flow, especially if you are training outdoors...