Make Your Own Barrel Jump Standards

I am able to get used plastic cherry barrels for about $4 each without the tops at a local food processing plant. These food grade barrels come in handy for storage, cut down for water barrels, and the shorter cut ends upturned for mounting blocks. They also make great jump standards.

What You'll Need

You don't have to have great carpentry skills to make these standards. You'll have to know how to run a drill with a 3/4" bit and a jigsaw. I am terrified of power tools, but even I can handle these ones! You'll need a template for a circle about 5" in diameter. I used a margarine tub top. You'll also need two plastic barrels, well cleaned out, a piece of chalk and a tape measure.

Measure

From the bottom outside of the barrel find where the barrel begins to be flat. You'll drill the first hole just above this point. Now you'll draw a circle with your chalk and template. Place the template so that when you trace around it with the chalk, the hole you drilled will be at the bottom of the circle. [3]Marking the Holes

Draw your circle, and then about 5" above the first circle, draw another. You can keep drawing circles to the top of the barrel, equidistance apart. Keep in mind that there has to be enough plastic left on the barrel that it stays strong enough to hold up a wooden or plastic pole. I only made three holes per barrel. You could perhaps stagger the circles to get more choices in height, but since this was my first attempt at making barrel standards, I stayed conservative.

Cutting the Holes

The jigsaw blade should fit into the hole you drilled and from there you cut around your chalk mark. You may also want to drill a few holes in the bottom of the barrel so that rain water doesn't collect and provide a home for mosquito larvae.

Your barrel standards are now done and you can set them up using poles in a number of ways. With the holes facing downwards the barrels can be jumped on thier sides too.