Homemade Biltong Box

I first found out what a biltong box was only a few months ago from a friend who was building himself a second one. When he explained what it was all I could think was I can build one this weekend and start making biltong. It ended up being a few weeks before I got around to building one but I’ll back up first and explain what a biltong box is.

Biltong is a type of dried meat which originated in South Africa. It is made by cutting raw meat following the gain, which is cured in vinegar, salt and spices before drying. The drying box is simply a box with a light (for heat) and a fan for air flow. That’s the basics of it.

I did a bunch of Google searches to see how other people had built their biltong boxes and many of them followed my friend’s design and the one I eventually went with. Others were made from ply wood, and some were old tv boxes. The design I have used is build using plastic storage boxes.

The total cost of building the box was about $80, $35 of that being the fan. I chose to go with the more expensive 240v fan so that I could have the fan and light wired together instead of using a cheap 24v computer fan wired separately. Note: the light is a 60 watt bulb.

The Build

I borrowed a set of hole saws to drill out all of the holes, I set up 6 vent holes (someone suggested this might be too much air, I haven’t had a problem yet but I could experiment with closing two up). I also drilled out a hole for the light to be wired in and the fan to be mounted. Note: I set the light up very low to start with and my electrician later lifted the light higher (it’s now about 50mm off the bottom of the box) to prevent it from heating up the plastic too much, this has not been an issue at all. I also made some plywood brackets for the light and fan to mount against. They could have been mounted to the plastic box directly, but I had the ply and thought it would be stronger and neater. The only other holes needed were for the wooden rods to hang the meat. The vent holes were covered in an insect mesh which is taped on, I got the mesh from work but it is super cheap at any home store. Note the ply wood bracket for the fan is also covered in mesh. I have also taped around the wood doles to keep out any bugs. I’m not worries about nasty chemicals coming off the plastic, the box doesn’t keep hot and the meat doesn’t touch any off the plastic.

My electrician did an excellent job wiring it all up. I could have done it myself but didn’t want to risk electrocution or burning the house down. The build is really simple and took 1-2 hours total.

Following this I looked around for some recipes and went with the most simple I could find. I had my butcher cut me 1kg of silverside (NOT CORNED) approximately 3cm thick (this will seem very thick but its good) this gave me 4 slices. This was dipped in apple cider vinegar then spiced with rock salt, pepper corns and coriander (see photos for thickness of spice). This was dried for 4 days (its winter here and somewhat cold), the meat came out very slightly pink in the centre, I liked this, others said it needed to be drier, and some said perfect, so it’s really a matter of taste.

First batch before and after drying

The second batch I ran was 2.5kg sliced about 1cm thick, I also ran out of spice. This batch taught me a few things:

• The max capacity of the dryer is about 20 pieces.
• The thinner meat needs less spice or it’s too intense.
• When I ran out of pepper and coriander I used paprika since it was within reach, this turned out okay but I’m not a big fan.
• And obviously the thinner meat dried faster (3 days)

Second batch all loaded up ready to dry

All done, I’m really happy with my biltong box, when I’ve finished this next batch I’ll start trying some different spices and maybe in future post some recipes.

Small rock-climbing wall/ massive hang board

This post is on my home rock climbing wall/massive hang board which is still an ongoing project. Clearly it’s not a full rock climbing wall (I wish it was), but it’s a hell of a lot bigger than most hang boards. My original idea was to put up just a small hang board much like the blank slate boards, maybe a meter long to set up a few holds to work on my grip strength. The only problem was no one sells such small pieces of plywood. So I scaled up and decided use a full sheet of ply (18mm, $80 NZ) which would span the garage and leave me enough wood for a small campus board on the back side. Since I’m back at Uni I couldn’t afford the ply until my Mum offered to buy me a sheet for my birthday. When she suggested two sheets I jumped at the opportunity and the plan grew again. Now the plan includes a hanging section and a peg board, both of which only need time to finish. So this is what I’ve got finished do far, a four meter long section of wall to climb on and half the campus board.

Holds from Uprising

The rock holds, t-nuts and bolts were all bought from Uprising holds; the total cost was about $200 NZ including all the extra t-nuts. The beauty of it is that I can easily take the whole this down and set it up in another garage.

The first thing I did was measured up for the wall. I measured down from the rafters 400mm and found I would be able to walk underneath without needing to duck, this would give me two cuts and three strips of plywood from each large sheet. These strips would be 400mm by 2400mm.

After cutting the sheets I drilled out the first board for the t-nuts, these were spaced 200mm apart horizontally and 100mm from the top and bottom of each sheet. I used a 10mm auger bit to give a nice clean hole (Tip: drill from the clean side through to the back, it’s ok if the back looks a bit rough). Once these were all drilled for the first sheet I hammered the t-nuts in from the back and the board was ready to go. At this point I realised that the bolts for the holds would stick out the back from the t-nut when tightened up so I was going to need to block the ply out from the wall to allow the bolts to stick out. I picked up some off cuts from work; these were 20mm thick and 50mm wide. I used these to line the rafters in positions that would not block the bolts from sticking out the back of the t-nut (I hope that makes sense since I don’t have a picture of it). These were screwed in with small gauge screws.

Woods to pack out the ply and the large gauge screws.

Once the first sheet of ply was up I could measure and cut the next sheet to fit. This was then drilled and the t-nuts hammered in. Both of the sheets were screwed in with large gauge screws that go all the way into the rafters. I think I have spent about $30 in screws to get the climbing wall and campus board up.

Once the climbing wall was up I could set up holds, originally I put the holds randomly but I have since moved them to be spaced in several different positions for doing pull ups.

The wall, note the possible pull up positions.

The wall stayed like this for several weeks until I got around to buying some framing timber ($20 length) to run up the back of the two sheets. I then added the sheet which would be my campus board. I used more 20mm by 50mm off cuts from work. These were cut into 400mm and 800mm strips. The 400mm strips were doubled up then wood glued and screwed onto the ply. These are on super tight and aren’t going anywhere. The plan was to have some more single strips on an angle going up and down the sheet but the horizontal section is so hard I can only manage a few seconds of hang. So the second half of the campus board is on hold for now, either until I get stronger or until I decide how I will fill the other side.

Views of the campus board

 I am still working on the hanging section of the wall and the peg board (a lot of work has gone into this, should be a lot of fun when it’s done).

Note: I now have a post up about my training with the hangboard

Pull ups and a one arm hang

Homemade dip bars

Press ups are great, so are straight bar and ring dips, but I wanted to be able to do some weighted dips or high rep parallel dips as well (Weighted dips are also an excellent alternative to bench press). So I looked around at a whole lot of different set ups for dips; I saw lots of fixed dip stations made of pipe or wood. I also saw a few fixed to walls with two pipes coming out to grip. These were all great but I wanted to be able to change the width and angle of my bars. I finally settled on building two free standing bars which could be moved around. They take up more room than pipe fixed to a wall, and the design isn’t prefect but I’m happy with them. If I had the room I would set up full parallel bars outside, but these are a nice compromise.

Finding your measurements

Since I workout on my own and I’m relatively tall I measured everything to suit me. The bars are just less than 500mm wide each and stand just under 900mm off the ground. The only key measurement to make is how high off the ground to set them. To find this I kneeled down, set my arms up in the highest dip position I could manage (elbows above shoulders). From here I measured the height of my grip off the ground and my bar had to be higher than this, only 50-100mm higher is needed. This allows me to do full range weighted dips but if I fail the drop is very manageable. All the other measurements such as the width of the base are up to you, 500mm wide would make it more than stable enough.

The build

Sorry I didn’t get any build pictures of this one either, but it is a fairly simple design. I used all scrap wood, it would have cost about $20 to buy, the pipe was scrap too and would cost less than $10 to buy. The diagonal braces are just for extra stability, not sure if they are really necessary.

The two bars together, if the bases are staggered they can be placed closer together

Tips and suggestions

• If you have access to a drop saw you could do a much better job than I have, one of my bars in out of square but it is very solid, just looks a bit funny.
• When wearing my weight belt if the bars are not far enough apart the belt can catch on the wood under the bar, is takes all the momentum out of the dip and makes things difficult. You could design your bars differently to prevent this but I just check the spacing of the bars before I start my dips.
• I have set up dips with an added 32kg, not loads of weight but I’m confident my bars will hold up under a lot more weight.

I’m not currently working on my dips but this set up is very comfortable and fun to throw in every now and then.

Homemade Rope Ladder

This is a really fun alternative to regular pull ups, which I use from time to time. It challenges the grip, lockout and stability of the regular pull up. You can either, climb up and jump down, climb up and down (multiple times), or do pull ups/chin ups on the rungs. I got the idea to set up a rope ladder after seeing a video on YouTube where Matt Wichlinski makes a massive bachar ladder. It looked really cool, but I have nowhere to set something like that up (got some ideas in my head though). So I decided on making a short vertical climbing ladder. I thought about using some thick logs to challenge the grip, but didn’t have any around. What I did find was some old 60mm pressure pvc pipe. To buy it would have cost no more than $20, so it’s still quite a cheap build. I bought 6mm rope rated to over 300kg so two people could climb at once if they wanted too. I got 12 meters, enough to build 2 ladders and it was about $1 per meter. Sorry no step by step pictures, but it’s an easy build.

The build:

First you will need to measure how long you want your ladder. Since my pull up frame is 3 meters high, I was going to build my ladder about 2 meters long. This sets the lowest rung at a position where I can just pull my backside off the ground to start the climb from the lowest point, and get the most distance out of the climb. I cut off 6 meters of rope which gave me about 1 meter either side spare (some of which would get lost in tying the knots).

Next find the half way point of the rope and tie off a loop. I put a hook in mine for ease of hooking up to my pull up frame, but you could just have a loop and use a shackle or carabiner. Now you are ready for the rungs. I cut my rungs approximately 500mm wide; it’s not important how wide they are (300-500mm is find). I then drilled a 7mm hole (slightly larger than the rope) on either end of the pipe about 30mm in from the end. Try your best to line the holes up straight.

Thread the rope for your first rung, set the loop up in the centre of the rung so it will hang straight. Tie a knot approximately 400mm down from the loop on both sides. Hang the ladder up and check the rung is straight. Repeat the process of threading, tying and checking for each rung. I spaced out 5 rungs on my ladder but couldn’t use the bottom one when set up on my pull up frame so I took it off.

Tips, suggestions and warnings:

• After cutting your rope, melt the ends so that they don’t fray and are easier to thread

• I space my rungs out approximate 400mm apart as this seemed like a good distance to pull up to and climb, but you could set yours further or closer apart.

One rung which didn't pull through and one which did

• The pipe that I used was pressure pipe and so was extra thick meaning the knots I tied did not pull through. However I set up a second ladder using thinner 25mm standard pipe. When I started to climb on this the knot pulled through the first skin of the rung, this could have been dangerous if it had pulled through both and fallen 400mm. What I need to do is either tie a few extra knots so that it won’t pull through, or wrap the rope around each rung to tie off. This would make it much safer.

Pull up frame

Showing the height of the bar

This was my first big fitness related build when I moved into my house and it’s the one which gets the most use. The total cost was about $100 which I’m pretty happy with. Before I had this built I had to do my pull ups on the washing line, or go across town to a park to do my pull ups, which weren’t really the best options. This allows me to knock out my pull ups (or hangs) while I get dinner ready, or work on homework etc. The original plan was to build it out of scaffolding pipe like the Kavadlo brothers so I would be able to move the bar up and down as well as work on flags; however I priced up the pipe at over $200 which was just too much for me at the time.

The specs:

I used 100x100mm H4 treated wooden posts for the whole thing; they stand 3 meters out of the ground with 1.1 meters underground. This was the maximum depth I could dig with the post-hole borer I was using. The posts were concreted in with 2 bags of cement per post ($40 total cost). The cement I used was a simple, pour in and water type, no mixing required. The frame is 1.8m wide to the outside as 1.8m is a standardised size for the posts. This makes the whole frame 3.1m high. The total cost for the wood was $60.

The set up for the bar was sized at three heights, the top is set so that I have a small jump to reach the bar so that I can do pull ups with a full hang. The next rung down was sized to give my head just enough clearance when doing muscle ups. The bottom rung is set up so that I can do Australian pull ups.

The rungs were made with old wood I had in the garage, but ideally they could be made with steel (salmon ladder anyone?). These are just screwed on and have held up very well. The ring bolts at the top are for attaching my gymnastic rings and rope ladder.

Pull up, Muscle up and Australian pull up height.

Notes and suggestions:

To get the frame level and square, set the top beam up first and square up the posts before adding the concrete. I was lucky that I could tie off to the fence behind the frame to hold it square while the concrete set.

Ideally I would have made the frame wider (approximately 2m to the inside) to allow for an iron cross to be performed, but realistically I would require training at a proper facility to work towards this skill. And since 1.8m is a standard size for the post that is the width I went with.

I would also have liked to build the frame 3.3m high so that I had room to jump to the pull up bar, muscle up, and still clear my head from the top beam. However the frame is way too big as it is, given the proximity of the neighbours house so I had to reign myself in a bit. I’m lucky the neighbour is a good guy and didn’t complain. 

Given the height, the frame does swing a bit, not enough to make it fall over but it did help to brace one side against the fence. I still need to brace the other side too which I haven’t done. If you are making one and don’t have a fence to brace off, you could set two extra posts a meter or so behind the frame and brace off that. You could even set it up to be parallel bars behind it.

One issue I have had with the way the bar is set up is that it can twist since it is not locked in. I think this may be why I can’t get a clean muscle up as the twisting means I cannot maintain a false grip. This would be solved with drilling the frame and bar for a pin (large nail) which was removable but prevented the bar from rolling.

All finished I am very happy with the frame I built. It’s extremely versatile and sturdy.

I've since made some improvements - see here

Rope ladder and Gymnastic rings