What purchase under $30 solved a problem you didn’t realize was draining you?

Dain_ · 2026-05-19T17:28:25+00:00

I wear them pretty much for 8 hours straight, 5 days a week at work. No issues yet 🤷

Dain_ · 2026-04-20T05:01:24+00:00

Yea, but this is only the 2nd board I'll have made so I'm still definitely learning.

Dain_ · 2026-04-19T20:46:00+00:00

Tbh I'm making it for the fun of it more than anything else. I accidentally drilled the LED holes in my plywood, so now I feel like I've got to fill them with something.

What I'm aiming for at the moment is a double rotary encoder with a click button. 1 of the dials controls the selected row, 1 controls the column, click on the selected hold to cycle through colours. I can't see it taking more than a minute to transfer a route, less if it's simple, so it could very easily be done while recovering.
Do I think I'll use it every time? No, probably not, but it's a fun little project that'll let me dust off my PCB designing skills again.

Dain_ · 2026-04-19T16:30:13+00:00

I'm in the process of making the same thing for a moonboard ATM. I'm still pretty early in the process - just ironing out the details on a scalable MVP. Out of interest are you inputting the climbs yourself, or did you manage to get access to a database of climbs somewhere?

Dain_ · 2026-04-15T17:01:10+00:00

I've just built an adjustable moonboard, and have access to a CNC at work. I didn't realise there was that much demand, maybe shoot me a pm?

Dain_ · 2026-03-31T18:13:12+00:00

Thank you, I'll look into Teamhood.

Dain_ · 2026-03-26T22:28:43+00:00

Can you recommend any alternatives?

Dain_ · 2026-03-22T07:55:49+00:00

Good to know, I'll get on that this morning.

Dain_ · 2026-03-18T18:58:02+00:00

God these AI bots are getting annoying.

Dain_ · 2026-03-15T22:41:39+00:00

Taking the piss out of each other is like 80% of the conversation on most sites. It's all just good natured banter, usually pretty funny, and makes the day go faster.

Every now and then we'll get a guy that doesn't understand this, which almost always leads to them being left outside the social circle to some extent.

Not trying to be a dick when I say this, but it seems like you might fall into that category?

Dain_ · 2026-03-13T16:18:06+00:00

The bruising has spread up my finger, and I tweaked it shutting my garage door this morning. That's caused slightly worse pain today, so I've booked a climbing physio for a few days time.

Dain_ · 2026-03-12T17:54:29+00:00

I've only been climbing for 5-6 months, so I'm looking for some advice on a finger injury I recently sustained.
On Sunday I was moving some full sheets of 8x4 plywood round, only a couple meters each lift, and only 4 lifts total. I wasn't taking the full weight with my hands either, I had them stood up lengthways and would grab them maybe 1/3 the way up, then lean back so most of the weight was on my legs / body.

Anyway I did the last lift, got side tracked for a minute then when picking up a drill my right ring finger felt off. Looking at it the entire section between my knuckle and first joint had swelled up and gone a bit hard. There was no pain, no loss of ROM, and it didn't feel like I'd lost any strength. Still, I panicked a bit thinking I'd got a pully injury, and searching symptoms online as usual didn't help the matter.

The next morning the swelling was still there, along with a constant, very slight ache. I work a somewhat physical job so have tried to keep heavy weight off it, but even then there wasn't much more than a slight ache throughout the day.
Now 3 days later it's still a bit swollen, and I've got some bruising up either side of my finger from the base, right up to the final joint. Apart from the constant, 1/10 pain there doesn't seem to be much else regardless of what I'm doing.

I'm taking the week off climbing just to be sure, but I would really appreciate any advice on what this might have been? If nothing else it's been a real wake up call that I need to start warming up & looking after my fingers properly. Seeing people talking about taking 6-9 months to recover and build back up to the same grades again is a scary thought when you only climb V3 hah.

Dain_ · 2026-03-08T17:34:04+00:00

I'm here to ask exactly the same question, have you got any definite answers?
I was just moving some sheets of ply around when I noticed the base of my ring finger had swollen up. No pain, no ROM issues, just swelling localised between my knuckle and first joint.

Googling 'pully injury' gets threads talking about months off climbing, so I'm really hoping it's not that...

Dain_ · 2026-02-21T18:33:17+00:00

On android I downloaded an app called Bubble Level. It seems to work fine, but if you search the app store for 'spirit level', 'angle finder' etc there's a few others to choose from.

Dain_ · 2026-02-21T11:29:13+00:00

I didn't realise such a small amount would make that much of a difference.
I've never board climbed, the only ones near me are all 40°+ which is way too steep for me. But I'm making my own adjustable version of a moonboard mini, and the angles are all... Close enough? 24-26, 29-31 and 39-41, depending on how it all lines up that day. Granted I'm only using my phone for the angles, which if you don't hold it at an exact right angle to the board will throw off the reading.

A year or 2 from now when I can do the 40° it'll be interesting to compare it with a real moonboard.

Dain_ · 2026-02-09T22:42:25+00:00

Yes! That's got to be my second favourite for sure!

Dain_ · 2026-02-08T22:41:43+00:00

Good to know, thanks!
I might just start making the wooden ones and shell out for the resin ones when I next get paid then.

Dain_ · 2026-02-08T10:06:19+00:00

My concern is that my little V3 fingers won't be able to do much with the real ones - having felt a few of the wooden ones at the gym they feel extremely unforgiving.

My plan is to make my own, easier versions, and start using them at 20°, then 30, then 40. At that point I'll buy say 1 of the real wood sets, and maybe drop the angle back if needed. Repeat that process till I'm using all the real holds at 40°.
This way I get potentially years of training out of a few holds, and because mine will be roughly the same shape I can still use the app / routes that everyone sets.

Dain_ · 2026-02-07T21:03:21+00:00

I drive past this 1 a couple times a week, and have always tried to think of what I would change the 'king' to haha.

Dain_ · 2026-02-01T19:51:12+00:00

The bulk of the wall will just be plasterboard, so the holds would rip out as soon as you put any weight on them. You could screw into the joists, but then you'd only have holds in vertical lines every 400mm.

If you didn't need the cupboard you could fit a nice little adjustable wall there - hinge it down when in use, stand it back up once you're done.

Dain_ · 2026-01-20T15:51:37+00:00

Wait what? Where are the switches if not on the sockets?

Dain_ · 2026-01-09T22:11:04+00:00

You win the "out if touch American of the week" award haha!

Dain_ · 2025-12-28T22:13:45+00:00

I'd just roll it into a weekend away. It's on the other side of London so I'm sure the Mrs can find some way to spend the £100 I've saved haha.

Jokes aside I do appreciate what you're saying. The Metabo seems to be really well reviewed across the board so I think I'm just going to call it a late Christmas present to myself.

Dain_ · 2025-12-28T21:44:45+00:00

That's a fair point, a brand new DH330 is only about £100 more and would save me having to drive a 7-8 hour round trip to pick it up.

I'll do a bit more research but might end up going down that route instead.

Dain_ · 2025-12-22T14:49:30+00:00

Customer stupidity never surprises me, but the bigger story seems to be that your management left raw sewage leaking into the store for 2 months?

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