Advice please

adt1989 · 19 Jul 2016

Hello
I am looking some advice. I am about to start making a martial arts board holder but I wanted to get some advice on the type of wood to use. Generally they are made from cheap soft woods. I want to know if people think any specific wood could be better as I don't mind paying more if it will be more durable.
A quick summary of what it will be used for: A board holder is used to hold wooden or plastic boards in order for them to be punched or kicked to test our techniques, so it is subject to repeated impacts. So I in my limited woodworking experience am unsure what wood is best at taking repeated impacts without splitting or snapping.
The holder will be free standing not affixed to a wall.
Advice greatly appreciated.

Wuffles · 19 Jul 2016

W̶h̶y̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶m̶a̶k̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶ ̶o̶u̶t̶ ̶o̶f̶ ̶c̶o̶n̶v̶i̶c̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶s̶e̶x̶ ̶o̶f̶f̶e̶n̶d̶e̶r̶s̶?

I'd have thought the joints will be the hardest part to make strong enough

- Other than that, no idea, sorry. Do you have a picture you could link to? Is it ever likely to be accidentally hit?

Banbridge is a fairly small place, and yet I keep meeting people from Banbridge. House sitters a couple of years ago travelled over from there, and a mate of mine, a plumber called Colum is from there too.

adt1989 · 19 Jul 2016

Apparently I cant post links to pictures.

They are old traditional design consisting of an A shape frame with 4 legs and a rectangular shape box type structure on top, each end of the box has a ledge that you balance the boards on. Generally the others I have seen start to split around where the nails or screws are or the ledge that holds the boards breaks.

Its a small world Wuffles

RobinBHM · 19 Jul 2016

Birch ply could be an option with timber legs.

Wuffles · 19 Jul 2016

Good idea, you could also laminate some 18mm doubled-up to make it withstand most things*. In fact, you could make the legs out of laminated 18mm ply too.

*except Statham, or Chuck Norris, obviously.