DIY wooden wing Jumps (Part 1)

Been a while since I updated this blog. With most of the agility competition in Singapore now moving towards wing jumps, I started building my own wing jump for practice. I thought it would be great to document down how I DIY my wings and share with others the process. The image to the left shows the end results of my effort....

To begin the process, I had to get the wood and cut it to size. The dimension of the wood that I have cut are showing in the diagram below:

The diagram is pretty much self-explanatory. but for the thickness of the wood, I used 2cm thick hardwood. The slots for the support (e) as well as the main upright (a) was cut based on the dimension of the thickness of the wood. Reason for using 2cm thick wood was because I manage to get cheap wood from IKEA 'As-Is' section. $20 of wood enough to build 4 sets of jumps!
2cm thickness is also idea as it allows me to reuse my existing PVC jump cup. However, if you are purchasing wood from the carpenter, I would suggest thicker wool, 3-4cm as these works better with some of the jump cups and jump strips available from Cleanrun and Amazon. 5cm would be too thick as you would  end up having a weak joint between a and e.

Most carpenter would be able to cut the wood to the length that you specified. However, if you are in the situation like me where it's purchase from other source, you would need to cut them yourself. For a dexterity challenged person like me, sawing straight and 45 degree can be a huge challenge. So if you can, a Mitre Box would be a great investment (also useful in cutting PVC pipe straight!), I got mine from Amazon but I realised that IKEA also have their version of Mitre Box which would work as well and is way cheaper then the one I got. :(

In latter part of this series, I would cover how the wings are put together and also the various options in the décor as well as the jump cups. In the meantime, enjoy your trip to the carpentry shop!


Suggested places to shop in Singapore:
Wood - Carpenters in Defu lanes. IKEA 'As-is' section or cash converter, but you have to be lucky
Mira box from Stanley - Any self-fix shops in major shopping center
Mira box from IKEA - Ikea of course!


Special Note: The jumps are designed as practice jumps and the dimension are calculated to allow me carry at least 10 pairs of these jumps into my car boot. if you are looking at designing more for international competition, you would need do some basic calculation. In many cases just adding a few cm to both uprights.


Part 2: Joining the wood
Part 3: filling out the middle
Part 4: Jump Cups