This is the Ape Board. It's a prototype finger training tool aimed at rock climbers. Attach some cord to the board and you can take it anywhere. Its great for warming up your fingers before you crush your projects and can be used for training when you're on the move or if you have limited space. It doesn't take up much room in your bag and weighs in at 400g (including the cord) so you won't even notice its there.

You can download the two files that make up the board and 3D print your own Ape Board - Test it, let me know how you get on and look out for version 2 in the near future!

The board is 300mm long which is too large for the majority of desktop 3D printers so I've split it into left and right parts. Print them with the back of the board on the print bed, as they are in the STL files, so that the layering doesnt weaken the board. I've used PLA and had good results, I wouldn't recommend printing this in ABS as it is not quite as rigid and test parts have flexed too much.

The board has held up really well with a month of regular use so I recommend the following print settings for use with PLA:

Layer Height: 0.2mm

4 Perimeter Shells

40% Rectilinear Infill

60mm/s Print Speed

Print with a Raft and Support. When printed without a raft the print tended to warp at the corners.

The Left part will take approximately 10 hours to print and use about 150g of filament & The Right part will take approximately 19 hours to print and use about 300g of filament.

Once you've printed the parts you'll need the following:

4 60mm lengths of 5mm diameter rod. I used carbon fiber rod because the shop was out of 5mm steel rod and it's worked just as well.
Superglue - Or any Cyanoacrylate.
Plastic Weld - Any plastic adhesive with Dichloromethane (Methylene Chloride) will do & a small paint brush to apply.
About 1.4 meters of 6mm Static Cord.
Be very careful with the Dichloromethane - It's highly toxic and you should always read the label before using.

Once you have threaded the cord through the long hole in the Ape Board, tie a loop in the end using this knot (ignore the rock rings, they're heavy as hell).

Finally.......Wait. Sorry I know its the last thing you want to do now but a very useful study has shown that the strength of PLA parts will increase steadily for roughly 72 hours (3 days) after printing. It's better to wait and use the board once the filament has achieved its optimal strength, after all you will be hanging from it.

You may also want to lightly sand down the texture in the pockets. I have found this depends entirely on the person, some think it's great as it is, others prefer to take the bite out of it a little.

Please send me some pictures of your Ape Board in use and look out for Version 2.0 in the hopefully not too distant future.