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Spider Web Construction

This very powerful team building exercise requires four to five hours of advance preparation:

Materials required are:

  • (2) 4" x 4" x 8' posts
  • (2) 2" x 4" x 8' boards (cut into two foot lengths)
  • 4" Nails for securing 4 lengths of board to each post
  • Several hundred feet of colored nylon string

Construction of Web Posts:

Bottom View

With one 8' post lying on the ground, place a single two foot length of 2 x 4 perpendicular to the end of the post. Square the 2 X 4 with the edge and end of the post. At this point you should have about 4" of the 2 x 4 overlapping the bottom of the post. Using two 4" nails, nail the 2 x 4 to the post. Now, using the 2 x 4, roll the post over ¼ of a turn. Take the end of the second 2 x 4 and butt it into the standing 2 x 4 that is nailed to the post, making sure to square the edge of the second 2 x 4 with the end of the post. Rotate the post one more time. Take the third 2 x 4 and butt it into the second, now standing, 2 x 4 and square the third 2 x 4 with the end of the post. Now stand the post up so that it is supported by the three 2 x 4s. Butt the fourth 2 x 4 into the third 2 x 4 and nail the fourth 2 x 4 to the post. You now have a stable post standing 8' tall supported by the four 2 x 4s. You are going to need two posts, so repeat the process and build the second post with stand

Construction of the Web:

Place the posts 14' apart. Using the colored string, one end of the string to one post at a point 6 ½ ' off the ground. Attach the trailing end of the string to the second post at 6 ½ ' off the ground. Tie another piece of string 3 ' off the ground between the posts. Tie a third piece of string between the two posts positioned half way between the first and second pieces of string. Now, standing midway between the posts tie a piece of string vertically to the top, middle, and bottom horizontal strings. As you tie this first vertical piece of string, you want to tie it so that the center of the horizontal lines are about 8" closer together than they are on the posts. Continue to tie vertical lengths of string between and connecting the three horizontal lengths of string. Each vertical length should be about 18" to 2' apart. As you tie these additional vertical length to the horizontal lengths do not decrease the natural distance between the horizontal strings as you did with the first string. Now, we are almost done. Leaving the center vertical string alone, gently slide the upper and lower knots of all other vertical strings four or five inches to the left or right. You should now have something that looks very much like a very large spider web. If you use your imagination, you can vaguely visualize people being passed ever so carefully through these holes.

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