Anyone actualy made his own dummy ?

[TzuChan]

Just wondering, not planning on making or having one made in the near future, but maybe after three years or something, better start saving money then. So anyone actually made one himself ? You have pictures ? How much did it cost you ? What materials used ? What kind of wood ? How long have you been using it, and is it still intact ? .. ?

[gnugear]

I made mine from scratch. I only had to pay for some tools ... maybe $50 worth. I made it from a evergreen log and hand chissled the square holes. It took forever and was murder on my arms, but it came out pretty good. My only complaint is that it's a little bit off center, and I've had some problems with splitting. I poured about a bottle worth of Elmers Wood Glue in the cracks and that seemed to fix the problem.

I'm going to try another one next month, but I'm going the laminated route.

[IronFist]

I made mine. You can see pictures here: click on "photos" (http://woodendummy.4dw.com)

Mine is a PVC body, wooden limbs and stand.

IronFist

[TzuChan]

looks excellent, but I see I have to buy a book, no problem, not that expensive in comparison to the 800$ dummy. But how much will the dummy cost me more or less if I make it by your book ?

[IronFist]

My costs were as follows:

PVC pipe for the body: $35
Limbs: $170 including shipping (I had them made by professionals. It's too hard to do it yourself if you're not a woodworker).
Wood for the stand: $40
Nuts and bolts and stuff: $5 or so

So it's about $250 for everything.

IronFist

[Sihing73]

Hello,

I made my first dummy, or attempt at one, when I was about 15-16 years old. I had just been exposed to Wing Chun, I was a Judoka at the time. Anyhow, after getting my butt handed to me I asked to learn Wing Chun, I was told NO!. He later relented though :D I went out and bought every book I could find on Wing Chun. I then decided I needed a dummy.

My "dummy" was a horrible contraption, but I built it with love :rolleyes: It consisted of six 2X3's nailed together and round holes drilled through it , at an angle no less, through which I placed round arms. After gluing and nailing this thing together, quite a site really, I nailed two cross beams across the backs and then nailed them to a closet door in a rarely used room. Thus making my parents even happier about my finding Wing Chun.

After high school I bought a PVC dummy and used to stick in a doorway or in my wall-locker to practice. I was in the Army. I have since graduated to a real wooden dummy which I bought from a student of an old Sifu in Hong Kong. I never went to Hong Kon and bought the dummy sight unseen. Still, it is well made and has lasted me almost 13 years now.

After my first attempt at "building my own" I decided to leave it to those who knew better ;)

Peace,

Dave

[Buddha_Fist]

I made mine during the time I was looking for a job. It took me a month building the dummy and it was real hard work, even though I had some real good tools. The body was made out of pine tree since making the holes is too hard when using harder wood. For the arms and the leg I used "Mezquite" wood (using the core which is #@$@ hard). I am pretty content with the results, although the leg is a bit to high.

For the dimensions, I think you should adapt it to yourself, although you can also get schematic drawings from here:

http://www.wongshunleung.com/download.html

I got the wood for free, so I don't know how much it would normally cost. I spent for the extra tools I had to buy, around $70.00

[TzuChan]

Looks all very hard lol .. I'll try to find a used one for about 2-300$ :)

[PHILBERT]

I got a question, what would be a good piece of wood to purchase if building your own wooden one for the base of the dummy? Im thinking of having the shop teacher at my old junior high make one, maybe see if a student wants to make one as a project and get $50 on the side or something. I pretty much can purchase the supplies for the frame, I just wonder what I should do about the round part of the dummy.