Every week, millions of viewers tune in to NBC's American Ninja Warrior, to watch as ninjas from every walk of life attempt to complete a series of iconic obstacles of increasing difficulty in the hope of becoming an American Ninja Warrior. To many American Ninja Warrior is just a source of entertainment but to many its a way of life. As the American Ninja Warrior community grows and gyms start coming up all over the world there has a been an increase in the need for ninja specific training tools.Through this Instructable I hope to aid people all over the world enjoy American Ninja Warrior as much as I do by creating low cost and colorful ninja warrior holds with casting resin and 3d printers.

Step 1: Current Ninja Hold Products

Currently the ninja hold market is dominated by a very few number of companies. These companies while having nice products, The holds are quit expensive and have high shipping costs. Many of the ninja hold companies offer very similar products and the holds come in a variety of color. However you at home can make these holds for much less.

Current companies include

Three Ball Climbing holds: Three Ball Rock Climbing Holds are Designed, Made, and Tested by Climbers. Since 1996, our holds have come a long way. Most, but not all major manufacturers have gradually switched from the old brittle polyester resin (or Polystyrene as some call it) to some type of polyurethane. We use only the highest quality NON-TOXIC Virtually Unbreakable Polyurethane for our rock climbing holds. Not only is polyurethane far stonger, our polyurethane is also worker and environmentally friendly. Our Urethane is free of harmful heavy metals.The Texture of the rock climbing holds made by major manufacturers is so close it's hard to tell the difference. Texture however is irrelevant if the shapes are sharp or potentially harmful. We pride ourselves on having the safest most comfortalbe shapes out there. Whether you are climbing for fun, climbing for exercise, or training to improve your skills, grabbing a sharp or painful hold is discouraging and limits your climbing session. We design our rock climbing holds to be Comfortable, allowing you to climb for hours without sore skin. Your session ends because you are tired, not because your fingertips hurt. In addition to strong holds, good texture, and comfortable shapes, we are the only company featuring embedded washers in each anchor point of our bolt on climbing holds. We never thought we would need to say it, (because it just makes sense) but all our anchor points are ALWAYS pre-drilled. Yes, it seems weird to us, but many competitors leave it to the customer to drill out screw-holes themselves.Even our cosmetic seconds are better than our competitors holds. Competitors sell unfiinshed cosmetic seconds. You have to sand them and drill them yourself. At Three Ball we are not going to assume that everyone has a belt sander. Every hold we sell, whether it's first rate, or a cosmetic second is pre-drilled, sanded, cleaned and ready for installation. We are constantly designing new holds and shapes so that you won't get bored with your training. However due to financial complications threeball will be shuting down this summer check out their products while they last http://www.threeballclimbing.com/

Atomik Climbing Holds is located in Provo,Utah in December 2002. Their products are made of polyuerthane and grade 8 washer. They offer a lifetime warranty on all products. They offer a wide variety of products ranging from basic cannon balls to cliff hanger rungs. https://www.atomikclimbingholds.com/

Monstro-Ninjas: Monstro Ninjas is the newest Ninja warrior hold company. Run by ninjas Eric Totten and Lucio Battista the mustache ninja himself. These two ninjas take an unconventional approach to make truly unique holds unlike any holds out in the market. Their goal is to Monstro Holds was started with one goal in mind, create new and exciting products to that test the limits of climbers, ninjas, crossfit or anyone looking to get stronger and more fit. Check them out https://monstro.ninja/

Warrior Life Gear is recent start up. Their holds are low in price and very high quality. They started there company in their own gym maine Ninja warrior. https://warriorlifegear.com/

Step 2: Materials

In order to Make this project the following items will be needed:

- 3D Printer ( I use a Migbot Prusa i3 )

- Computer with design software

- Level Table

- Release agent

- Nitrile gloves

-Ear protection

-Protective eye-glasses

- Protective respirator (for organic vapors & dust)

- 2 4000ml mixing cups

- 3 1000ml mixing cups

- Mixing sticks

-Rigid Polyurethane (alumilite rc3 )

- Polyurethane Dye (alumilite)

-Ninja warrior course to put your new gourmet grips on :)

Step 3: Designing Your Own Holds

The first step to making your own ninja holds is creating a design for your holds. Using a 3d software create a digital mold of your desired hold. The mold i am making was designed using google sketchup. When designing your hold it is important to consider who will be using the hold, where it will be used and the difficulty of the hold. no one wants a ninja hold to be to hard. When designing a ninja hold the first thing I always do is create a rough sketch on paper of the desired hold this helps when I go into sketchup and start designing the mold. I will attach some images of other hold ideas below

Step 4: Making the Holds

After you have finished designing your 3d mold box it is time to finally print the mold. For the print setup I generally use a 0.2mm or 0.3mm resolution with about 20%-30% infill this allows for a strong mold. Also make sure that you print Print with the flat side on the print bed, shape facing away. For these kinds of molds always use PLA Filament
After setting up all the settings it is now time to print the mold.
When the mold is finished turn of your printer and remove the mold from the printing bed.
Fill the mold with water to make sure that there are no leaks this will save you from a bigger mess later.
Next get your protective equipment on, give the mold a light coating of release agent and use your fingers to evenly spread the release agent around the surface of the mold cavity
When the mold has aired out enough, mix up some urethane and add dye if desired and now cast some copies of your new shapes! When they have cured for a few minutes pull them out of the mold. They’ll be hot, so be careful! Also be sure not to fill the bolt hole with urethane this will mess up your mold. Place a the eye bolt inside to remind you not to fill it in.
After making the general hold it self it is now time to fill in the bolt hole. Insert the bolt so that eye is sticking out and then fill the bolt hole to the top with urethane. This will allow the bolt to stay attached to the hold. When doing this make sure that the bolt is completely vertical.
After the bolt resin has hardened remove the entire hold from the mold box you now have your new ninja hold.
Be sure to test the strength of the hold before using it. To do this tie a rope through the eye bolt and add weights to ensure that the hold is safe enough for use.
Now set up the hold on a ninja rig or pull up bar and enjoy getting stronger.

Step 5: Closing Thoughts

There are many different designs that can be created using these steps be creative and use this instructible as a guide. Be sure to always use safety equipment and always test your holds strength. you are not limited to just one color you can also use different dyes from alumilite to make your holds different colors. You can also make mixed colors by pouring different colors into the hold mold. Also be sure to take your time. This process is very tedious and make take some practice dont get frustrated if your holds dont come out the first time it may take 2 or 3 attempts before you get the hold perfect.

Have Fun and Ninja On !!!