Two days ago my wife asked me to go with her to her physical therapy session because there was one "apparatus" there that she wanted me to see. It is a rocker board. It lets patients do balancing exercises to improve ankle strength, better hip posture or alignment and general coordination. There are a variety of commercial models online, several of them will deliver in 2-3 days when ordered. So, that was two days ago. I dropped everything I was doing at the work shop yesterday; did it as a project and finished it this morning. Amazon and any online retailer will not have been able to deliver one. Now, I'm bragging but indeed it was easier than I thought.
The board is straightforward construction. The rocker "feet" design will have to be worked out. To accomplish true symmetry, I drew just half of the entire rocker and use it to draw the other half on a piece of card board. I traced that onto a stiffer hard board to make a template.
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| Cut some leftover 3/4 inch plywood and trimmed it on all four sides with solid wood. |
I rough cut four pieces of 3/4 inch plywood. Using double sided tape the template guided the router bit to create exact copies.
Two pieces were glued together to make two thicker rocker feet.
To prevent the rocker board from sliding on smooth floor surfaces, I attached rubber "soles" with contact cement. The rubber soles were cut from an old Yoga mat.
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| A couple of pocket hole screws per rocker and two Torx screws from the top side of the board secured the rocker feet. |
By shifting weight to one leg and bending the other slightly and switching by repeating the movement to the other leg rocks the board in alternating sequences.
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