My Practice gear, ’cause I’m CHEAP

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   This is just for newb's 'cause I thought it was helpful.

I got started by looking Here: http://highland_tools.tripod.com/

Stones:

I went down to Lyngso, which is a garden material and landscaping 

materials place near where I live. They sell landscaping stone, patio 

stone, gravel, topsoil and stuff like that.  they also have a drive-up bin 

with good sized round cobblestones in 'em.  

http://www.lyngsogarden.com  I just found a couple that looked like they 

were about 15 pounds and then hauled them over to the scale. I brought 

home an 11 pounder and a 15.5 pounder.  I didn't bother with a 

"Braemar" stone. Total cost was about eight dollars for my two practice 

stones.

Hammers:

Orchard Supply and Lowes and Home Depot all carry 4 foot lengths of 

gray, threaded ABS pipe in 1-inch thickness. It's probably not sched 80, 

but it's a lot thicker than sched 40.  One length costs about four dollars.  

It's threaded on both ends.   I buy a few of the white PVC threaded end 

caps (98 cents each), and a can of  PVC cement (about $1.75)

Daub some cement on one threaded end of the pipe and thread a cap on 

there. Now take 2-3 turns of duct tape around that end.  Drop 3, 5 lb 

dumbell weights on the thing and duct tape it on there.

Now get a piece of sandpaper and rough up the other end a bit and get a 

little bit of "tacky" (pine tar) on there. VOILA....16 pound hammer, or 

close enough.  The great thing is, when you bust the pipe, it invariably 

breaks right by the cap, so you throw away the cap, sandpaper down the 

jagged edges a bit, thread/cement a new cap on the other end and keep 

throwing.

Weights:

I can't explain it better than this:

http://highland_tools.tripod.com/saacc/id4.html

I used the small galvanized ring that Orchard Supply sells for about $12 

for a year until I finally got sick of it and bought a D-handle from the Old 

Celt.  Aside from the handle, the entire cost for the pipe and fittings to 

hold the weights is about ten bucks.   In time you will strip thread out of 

the galvanized pipe, or break it, but they cost about a buck and a quarter, 

so go buy a new one.

Caber:

I went down to my local lumberyard and told them that I was going to do 

manly stuff like throw rocks and lumber around with a bunch of big 

blokes wearing kilts and they thought it was cool. It probably helped that 

I'd just dropped about $800 with them, to build a deck. :lol:  Anyway, I 

told them I wanted something about 14 feet long that weighted about 75 

pounds.   They sold me a flawed 6 x 6, 12 feet long, for $20.  

I took it home and spent 3-4 hours rounding off the edges and sanding it 

with a belt sander. I didn't get it "round" I just rounded off the corners so 

I wouldn't get splinters off of it.  Then I went to town on the bottom 3 feet 

and rally DID taper/round that off. It's still bigger than a real caber, but 

what the hell, it's close enough.

I'm gonna bust it, soon, the flaw was a big crack, but I could wrap the 

middle in duct tape or a few wraps of fiberglass tape and squeeze 

another season out of it, but it's cheap, so whatever.   It weighed almost 

exactly 75 pounds when I got it home, it probably weighs about 65-68 

pounds, now. That's a bit light, but it's hella better than having nothing at 

all to work with.

Total cost of all my implements is under $100 for sure, 'cause I got the 

weights for free off of Craigslist.  That $20 handle from the Old Celt was 

a big splurge.

*****

The next generation

One of these days I'm gonna go down to the Metal  Supermarket, where 

they have steel rod in diameters up to 6 inches.  I'm gonna have the guys 

haul a big chunk of 4-inch or 5-inch stuff off the shelf and weigh it.

The I remember Mister Selvigs algebra class.

If two feet  of five-inch steel rod weighs 50 pounds, then how much rod 

will weigh 25 pounds?  You get it?  I have them cut me a length of steel 

rod that weighs right around 25 pounds.  That will cost me right about 

$40..

Next door to Metal Supermarket is a guy who does some welding. I'll have 

him weld a medium-sized D-ring to the top of the  cylinder. This will 

cost me $5.00 and a 6-pack of beer.

A quick-link and Old Celts D-handle, and I'm stylin, and it'll never break. 

But is gonna cost me $50, which is a LOT OF MONEY as far as I'm 

concerned.   

Anyway, I hope some newbs found this useful.