STEP 2: PREPARE WOOD FOR ITS NEW LIFE OUTSIDE

Once you have a standing A-frame (congratulations!) you are ready to sand and paint all the wood. The rationale here should be obvious, you don’t want splinters and you don’t want your precious wall to succumb to water damage from living out in the open. We will also take this time to drill the holes for the T-nuts.

Sand down all the edges of the plywood sheets and A-frame beams (fig. 5). Don’t worry about sanding the 2”x6” supports as they will be on the back of the wall. Sanded surfaces should be smooth enough that you would feel ok desperately grabbing one as you flail around on your project and not worry about wooden shards shredding your calluses. Pay special attention to the top beam because it’s fun to have this as a top-out jug, and the more you sand it the more fun it will be to grab. We had to do this on a ladder and used a harness and slings around the top beam to go in direct for safety. If you are building your A-frame from scratch you could also sand and paint the beams before you put it together.

Once everything is sanded to your liking, it’s time to drill (fig. 6). I used a tape measure to draw a grid of holes 8” apart on each plywood sheet with a sharpie. You can make it a straight up grid or, like I did, offset each other row by 4” so it makes a pleasantly diamond-y shape. You could do more or fewer holes, it’s not really important, the super important thing is when drilling (with the 7/16” bit!) to drill STRAIGHT DOWN THROUGH the wood and not at an angle AT ALL! Also, run the bit in and out a few times to clean up splitery wood around the edges. Being meticulous about these two things now will make your life much easier later when you are adding the holds.