Wing Chun dummy

[PHILBERT]

I am going to be building a Wing Chun dummy soon and was wondering if anyone had tips for making one. I would purchase one, but I don't want to spend $300+ on one then another $50+ for shipping. I was going to buy one from a martial arts supplier, but no one around me sells them, so I decided just to build one. I am gonna put the 3 arms on it and the leg base, put some padding on the head, but was wondering if anyone here had tips for making one. Or if there is a site that describes it in detail. Thanks.

[Watchman]

You can find detailed plans, plus an electronic book that walks you through the whole process at www.wckfc.com. (http://www.wckfc.com.)

[PHILBERT]

I was reading through the forum and found other posts here about constructing one, so unless there is some new super method to it, no need for anyone else to post. Thank you, Watchman.

PHILBERT

[IronFist]

I am almost done building mine. Here's what I did.

Body: Fine an 8 inch piece of PVC pipe. This will be about 8.6 inches outside diameter (make sure it's schedule 80, there is another kind called schedule 40 which isn't as thick, and therefore the outside diamter is under 8.5 inches).

Arms and Leg: I bought arms and leg from www.wooddummy.com (http://www.wooddummy.com) They are the cheapest prices I've seen, and they sell just limbs.

Frame: Built from lumber at a hardware store.

The hardest part is getting the holes to be the correct size. First you have to cut them out, and then I ended up spending like at least an hour per hole filing them to the right size.

Measure everything twice, make sure you use a cloth measuring tape since you are working with a ROUND surface.

Don't use PVC pipe as limbs.

Don't buy the crappy PVC dummy from that one company, I forgot their name. It's entirely PVC, even with arms and legs of PVC. It's only 7 inches in diameter, to make things worse!!

PVC bodies with wooden limbs are good tho.

****, this is about the grammatically worst post I've ever made :)

Good luck building dude,

Iron

[LeiWulong]

I to built my dummy out of pvc piping but to finish it i poured concrete in the body that cemented the arms an leg in place. you could also cap off the ends and fill it with sand. both of these make it much sturdier but make it a #itch to move. And what ever you do make sure you get the thick stuff other wise it'll explode on ya.
==================================================
"Walk on"

[TomB]

Check out my site buddy!!
It contains a wooden dummy plan, and wooden dummy techniques.
martialartstechniques.homestead.com/files/vechtsporten.html (http://martialartstechniques.homestead.com/files/vechtsporten.html)
It's in dutch, but just go to the technieken and kata's section and click under wing chun on page 1 and so one. Have fun!

Greetz,
Tom

Know what water is by drinking it.

[IronFist]

Dude you filled your PVC dummy with concrete? Then the arms can't move, right?

And I've heard the thing about filling it with sand... but that doesn't make sense to me. It seems like you could only fill the bottom area up until the leg hole. If you filled it any higher the sand would just come out the holes, right?

Did anyone paint their PVC dummy? Did you use spray paint or what? Spray paint sometimes leaves a nasty coating that I wouldn't really want to be hitting, so any advice here would be cool.

Might I also add, don't buy the "attach mate" that says it can turn your heavy bag into a wooden dummy. Even tho I've never used one, it just looks and sounds really lame.

We should all post pictures of our dummies. Because, um, that would be cool, and I would like to see how other home made dummies look.

(warning, intense hate ahead)

Finally, don't buy a dummy from springtime martial arts, because they're expensive, and their lowest class model has like arms with square corners and the body is flat, not round. And then they sell that "makiwara man." Even funier is that their square mook jong is $850 dollars!!! That could buy TWO wooden dummies from other companies, and the other ones would would be of much higher quality. Then you still have to buy their $200+ stand. Right now their website seems to be missing pictures of their two lowest quality dummies, but if you want to laugh you can still go to:

Spring Time Martial Arts (http://www.springtimemartialarts.com)

The dummy with the square arms is still up, tho, but it's got a half-round body. The flat one is missing right now.

Iron

[This message was edited by Sihing73 on 06-30-01 at 02:46 PM.]

[IronFist]

Nice job editing my message :)

Did I misspell "funnier" or was that you? I forgot how my original post went.

So, are we not allowed to openly bash and insult companies? Since you took out my bolded line of defamation, I assume this is the case :)

Well, sorry if what I posted was against some rules or something. I'll try to keep it clean next time I have a problem with a company :)

Iron

[Sihing73]

Hello,

Well, I tried to keep your opinions in the post and take out the, ahem, colorful language used in some of the descriptions ;)

This is in no way personal I just figured that as strongly as you feel you got the message across without the use of some of the language.

As to dissing specific companies I don't really have a problem per se just keep it clean. But hey, I may be old fashioned. The only thing I ask is that one has some experieince with the company before bashing them :p If you have some info to share that can keep someone else from getting burned then feel free to share it. But, the only thing I ask is to try and keep it clean.

Peace,

Dave

[chongnoi]

I disagree with iron fist concerning Springtime Martial arts dummies. First of all they produce a deluxe dummy that is proper in all demensions ans made with 100% cherry wood that is oiled and waxed. It is quite expensive, around $1300, but quite nice. As for their flat portable wooden dummy. Well, i bought one. with shipping it cost $210. It was very good quality and serves a good purpose. It is easy to take with you if you travel a lot, and does not take up much space. As for falt corners on body and arms-that is not so. They are planed down to have a nice curve on them. It of course is not the same as a real full size dummy. But for a student who does not have a lot of space or money works quite nice. You can still palm strike and kick the sides quite nice. Another good thing about this dummy is that it hardly makes any noise when you work out on it. I reccomended this dummy to one of my students who lives ina colleg dorm-saves space, easy to mount, cheap,and does not disturb others when you work out on it. I wished I had had one of these for my small flat when I lived in Hong Kong. Don't knock a product until you have actually used it or understand it's true purpose.

[IronFist]

chongnoi,

I must admit their top line dummy looks very good, but still it is $1300. It better be bloody perfect for $1300.

" [flat one] Well, i bought one. with shipping it cost $210. It was very good quality and serves a good purpose."

Do the arms have play in them, or are they solid? j/w.

"It is easy to take with you if you travel a lot, and does not take up much space. As for falt corners on body and arms-that is not so. They are planed down to have a nice curve on them."

They look flat in the pic :P

"Don't knock a product until you have actually used it or understand it's true purpose."

But knocking products is so much fun :)

The entire point of my post was to say that I think there are other companies who make better products, for the money. If the flat dummy suits someone's needs the best, then by all means use that one!

Iron

[chongnoi]

Iron Fist: The arms are not solid mounted. They have play in them just like a full size dummy-but a much softer feel. It is nice working out on it as it gives a differnt feel than a regular dummy adn it seems to help with being able to stick tot he arms better as you move. Well, $1300 is quite exepnsive for their full size one-but cherry wood is quite expensive. My own personal mook jong is even more expensive and was made for me by a student. It is probably worth $2000. Body is Mahagoney. Arms and cross support slats are Teak. And the Leg is Zebra Wood. It is quite nice. For the money, two of my students purchased dummies from Ashville woodcrafters. www.wooddummy.com (http://www.wooddummy.com) (???) that are really nice. They paid $750 for solid oak dummies and they are very good quality-That is who I would reccomend for wooden dummies. The worst dummies i have ever seen was one a student purchased from Cougar Mountain-over priced and poor quality workmanship. The portable dummy from Springtime was good quality and a good price and is really nce to work out on. They constructed it 100% from hard Yellow Pine and it has stood up to two years of beating so far! I have also had PVC dummies, but I prefer the portable over the PVC-I like the all wood feel. In Hong Kong, where I trained full time for 6+ months, the Ving Tusn Athletic Association has a donated dummy from Ling Ting's organization. It is okay, but you get a much better one from Ashville for the same price. And Ling Tings model has his stupid logo engraved in the front of it.

[IronFist]

Chong,

Ashville rules! They made the arms and leg for me for my dummy. Their website could be a bit better, but their quality and prices are excellent. Another place wanted to charge me $350.00 for just arms and leg. I could get an entire dummy (PVC body) from Ashville for that price.

I see we agree on something :P

Another place that appears to have good dummies is great lion, www.woodendummy.net. (http://www.woodendummy.net.)

I might as well make a new thread talking about different dummy sites, since there are so many, and apparently other people are interested in this too. Be sure to reply to that.

Iron

[wingchunwsl]

i and i sports has good wooden dummies. www.iisports.com (http://www.iisports.com) they're laminated and everything... and they're endorsed by randy williams :rolleyes:

[wingchunwsl]

how long would it take building a dummy anyway? about how much would it cost? thanks. ;)

[IronFist]

wingchunwsl,

about this much:

8in inside diameter PVC pipe: $35 (approx)

arms and leg: probably around $130-160 depending on wood choice, etc, from www.wooddummy.com (http://www.wooddummy.com)

Lumber: I dunno, depends on your frame.

Don't forget to factor in all the time you will spend working on it to build it, probably an hour or so fileing each hole to the correct size, then building the frame. Measure twice, cut once. Cut smaller holes, and file them to the proper size. Otherwise, you may cut the holes too big.

If you can afford it, you might want to consider buying a PVC one with wooden limbs from Great Lion or Asheville Woodcrafters, but remember that stands are extra.

Iron