good, bad? anyone know anyone that makes only the arms and legs out of wood, I was thinking make the body out of pvc and the extremities out of wood to cut on cost what you all think?
[QUOTE=Katsu Jin Ken;876344]good, bad? anyone know anyone that makes only the arms and legs out of wood, I was thinking make the body out of pvc and the extremities out of wood to cut on cost what you all think?[/QUOTE]
That should work fine. My dummy has a PVC trunk covered with a layer of foam and marine grade vinyl. It works great. In the past people have worried about a PVC trunk not having the weight of a solid wood trunk. But as long as it is well mounted, that isn’t an issue.
I have one made of the PVC sewer pipe. It is about the thickness of human body and is extremely heavy. The arms and leg are made of the thick and stiff PVC sewer line that can be rolled up. I used a drill with a hole saw attachment to put the arms and legs on. It is suspended by heavy rope and also tied off to the ground directly below it. This is in my back yard under the shade of trees. I can turn it 90 degrees if I use force. Striking points are covered with padding. A bit of sanding removes any edge that can scrape or cut you. This thing will make your arms sore the first few times you whip on it.
most important is the height of the arms …
Im having raven studios make the arms maybe the whole thing, you get a complete pvc dummy w/ wooden arms and leg for $448
The arms on mine are very stiff. Not as stiff as wood of course, but they do not give readily. They give just enough and you can actually manipulate them as if they were arms of an opponent. They are hard surfaced like wood, and will bruise up the arms for a while until you get used to it. I have a friend that is exactly 6 feet tall and we used him as a model. I measured his arms, head, I have even drawn a face and other parts as reference points.
“if the dummy hurts the energies wrong” to me its not a conditioning device its and energy training tool IMO
century inc martial arts has a wc dummy for cheap, probably better than trying to make one out of pvc.
I have one of those Immortal free standing ones made from plastic. The height suits me, but the problem is, if I give it some clout, it falls over, and I don’t get the resistance to test my root and stance. It’s better than nowt, but it doesn’t come close to the real thing. Unfortunately, I don’t have anywhere to put a real one, as I don’t have any suitable wall space. However, since I got it for a hundred and fifty quid, I can’t complain.
A good PVC dummy
[QUOTE=Katsu Jin Ken;876422]Im having raven studios make the arms maybe the whole thing, you get a complete pvc dummy w/ wooden arms and leg for $448[/QUOTE]
Carinna at Raven studios makes good pvc and wooden dummies of several different kinds.
She makes wooden bot jam do-s, taichi swords and other good stuff.
She is a very good wing chun stylist as well.
joy chaudhuri
“if the dummy hurts the energies wrong” to me its not a conditioning device its and energy training tool IMO
I use it for both. When I block or parry a blow I do so with the power and energy to possibly disable an arm in the process. If you can temperarily stun an opponents arm you will have a distinct advantage for a few seconds. I do not have a problem with it, but if a new Chunner were to build one of this material he should know what to expect. I personally do not like the short wooden arms of the traditional dummy. I know that you have to look at it as being longer when you are working with it, but it is difficult for some people to actually focus properly. The higher up the arm you apply your technique, the more strength or power you can put into it. And at the same time, the less that an opponent can apply.
I have had a Carina PVC dummy made to my specs for close to 5 years now. It holds up very well and works (after suitably weighted) as well as a well-made wooden dummy other than not having the nice “ring” you get when you make proper contact with the arms. Carina is a great craftsman and very accommodating.
If you are handy with tools you can make the holes in the PVC pipe yourself, and PVC is much more forgiving material than wood in the sense that a mistake in size or placement of the holes is not fatal. My dummy’s arms were originally too close together due to a problem in the specs, but with Carina’s help, I was able to relocate the holes and expand them so the feel is perfect. This type of mistake is tough, if not impossible, to correct with wood.
Yes, you can get a “real” wooden dummy for a couple of hundred dollars more, but judging from the samples I saw at Wing Lam’s, these generic dummies are so far off my specs that they are not suitable for training. This is assuming you know what you are getting. If you just want to bang on wood, they may be perfect for you.