Wall bases, supports and ways to keep walls up

[Janskis]

Hi all

 

The current way things are done in Finland is to anchor the walls to the ground properly. This is great for building sturdy stages where you can lean on the walls and do stupid s#!t the stage designers couldn't think of. But the problem is the time it takes to build, usually a whole day. Based on several match videos from the states, USPSA clubs use portable bases where you just insert the wall and it stays up.

I've been playing around with the idea on the base design, but I thought that I could ask from those who probably have already solved most of the problems I can't even think of at this point. We did consider casting with cement, but the holes for wall legs become a problem. Is steel the way to go? Anyone willing to share their designs or pics of existing solutions?

[JFlowers]

We build walls in one of two ways.

 

Wooden frames with T bases, usually made so they unbolt for easy storage.  The T bases have holes in them to drive spikes into the ground.

 

PVC frames with open ends of the pipes at the bottom.  We drive rebar into the ground and the PVC frame drops down over the rebar.

[shred]

The steel plates with either a cluster of tubes or cluster of rods work pretty well if staked down and also if the wall sections are tied together it helps reinforce things.  Standalone, they're not something you want to put a lot of weight onto.  We had a guy make a few braces that went diagonally from the top of the wall to the ground which help a lot, but they rarely get used.

 

 

[Janskis]

On 8/20/2020 at 12:21 AM, shred said:

The steel plates with either a cluster of tubes or cluster of rods work pretty well if staked down and also if the wall sections are tied together it helps reinforce things.  Standalone, they're not something you want to put a lot of weight onto.  We had a guy make a few braces that went diagonally from the top of the wall to the ground which help a lot, but they rarely get used.

 

 

Our current design philosophy is to have walls outside the shooting area, ensuring that they are not leaned into. We are trying to make a difference in our country to try to lower the general threshold for keeping matches. Currently our typical L2 matches are done with such painstaking attention that they could easily be L3

[Janskis]

We ended up buying plastic buckets where we inserted short plastic tubes wide enough to accommodate the wall legs, and then we filled the buckets with concrete. The first prototypes are drying up now and we'll test them tomorrow. I'll post pictures if I just remember to take some.

The bases are stackable and have handles to make carrying easier. They are quite hefty so they shouldn't budge due to a slight breeze...

[Ming the Merciless]

23 hours ago, Janskis said:

We ended up buying plastic buckets where we inserted short plastic tubes wide enough to accommodate the wall legs, and then we filled the buckets with concrete. The first prototypes are drying up now and we'll test them tomorrow. I'll post pictures if I just remember to take some.

The bases are stackable and have handles to make carrying easier. They are quite hefty so they shouldn't budge due to a slight breeze...

 

I like that idea!  Also less of a trip hazard, nothing like scoring targets/running the tablet and tripping over wall bases, but I don't think I'd like to stub my toe against one.