Draft of Wall Jump Instructions Part I

Note that these instructions are subject to change as they are only a draft.   If you have any suggestions please let me know. 

Last change Saturday May 17 9:30 am.   

I will be working on the instructions for the wall jump in the coming weeks.  (Feb 23 2016) 

Tools

• Small hot glue gun - the large nozzle on some glue guns do not permit you to get it in between the pieces
• 50 - 100 glue sticks
• flat screw driver (to help with the gluing)
• #11 blade knife (if doing cut outs) and perhaps tape to avoid pen marks on the mats
• Sharp utility knife for main cuts
• duct tape (for top pieces)
• scissors
• straight edge
• tape measure or ruler
• Pen or pencil.  I personally found that pen was better to mark the mats.
• cardboard to put under mats while cutting.   I had some old mats.
  

Foam mats

• 2 packages of 4 mats for pillars
• 4 packages for wall pieces (revised from 3-4 as with the added width I will end up using 3.5 packages of 4 mats for the wall).  
• I bought Connect-A-Mat from Walmart.  You can also get them direct http://www.connectamat.com/shop/ (check their FAQ for a possible discount).

Optional items to help with wind

• 4 stick in the ground weaves
• Jump bars to put inside wall sections

General tips

• I use gravity to help when gluing pieces together. 
• You can use your glue gun to melt the glue if you need to take something apart
• I use a flat screw driver to adjust the joins especially when I can't get my fingers behind the pieces (picture)
• You can use the same screw driver to remove excess glue
• Don't attempt to cut through the mats in one pass.  You will get a cleaner cut if you do it in a few passes and cut slowly. 
• Sharp knives and scissors cut better.  Change blades when they become dull.

Pillars (8 mats total)

• Join two mats together.   Optionally add the edge pieces to the top and/or bottom. Not sure if adding the edge piece to the bottom will make it unstable. So far I have not done this myself.  Height of the pillars is not that important.  You can also add the edge piece to the long side if you want the pillar to be a bit wider.  Then you would only cut the one side with the tabs.  

• Place these mats upside down on a flat surface and glue the join of the two mats and optionally the edge pieces.  I do this upside down because the mats are not always the same thickness and hopefully this will make good side flat.  Do not use too much glue or it will come out the other side (the good side). I stick the nozzle between the two mats.  You can practice on two unused edge pieces. Note in the photo below I had cut off the sides first but changed the order of the steps later. You can see the glue in the joins. 
  
  

• Cut a thin piece off one of the long sides so that the edge is straight and no longer has the tabs.  Do this for both sides.  I don't measure this cut but I do use the straight edge to help guide the knife.
  
• Measure the width to figure out where the middle point is so that you can cut the piece exactly in half.  Mark and cut the piece in half.   Now you have two of the four sides of the pillar.
• Repeat this with two more mats.
• Decide which end is the bottom for each of the four pieces and cut off the tabs if you did not glue on the edge pieces.   If you don't like the tabs on the top you can also cut them off. 
• If you are doing cut outs now is the time to mark and cut them out.  I marked them on the backside and then cut them out because it was smoother and easier to draw on.  But since I wasn't always holding the  knife straight up and down this resulted in some gaps on the good side when I swapped the pieces.  It is better to mark on the good side and cut that side.  You can use tape if worried about pen marks.  Use clear tape on the mat, draw on the tape and cut through the tape and the mats. 
• Glue the cut outs so that they will not fall out.

Pieces for the pillar (again I changed the order of the steps so the bottom is not cut off in this picture)

• Glue two of the sides together.  I find that gluing the bottom end first ensures that the bottom will line up.

• Glue the remaining sides together.  Note how the pieces are put together in this photo. I only do the pillars this way. 
  

• Repeat to make the second pillar.