|
A paving machine went by my house today! - #1 the Coffin
Building a skate box 1' high x 2' wide x 6' long
|
For as long as I remember I have dreamed of having smooth concrete on the road in front of my house. A little while ago I woke up to this loud sound of machinery. I looked out the window and thought I was still dreaming. Our road was finally being paved. I was broke so i decided to look around and collect pieces of material to build a skate box. I figured that i would have to build a good frame so that the box would hold up forever. So me and some friends drew up some plans and made some decisions on the specs we would like for our box.
Use saftey equipment. If you don't know how to use tools, don't use them without proper supervision
|
Gather together everything you need.
- 1pc 4x8 sheet of plywood 1/2inch [5/8 or 3/4 is better]
- 2pc 6 foot long angle iron
- 60 feet [finished cut] of 2x4 [2x2 / 2x6 / anything. Rip pallets apart
- 3" nails, ardox [spiral] is best
- 2" nails, ardox [spiral] is best
tools
- tape, pencil, square
- saw, hand, skill, chop saw if you got
- hammer, pneumatic nailer if you got
- drill
- hack saw, steel cut off blade if you got
|
|
Coping: We used 1.5 inch angle iron bed rail and a heavier rail on the other side.
You can find bed rails anywhere. Goodwill probably has some in their recycling bin right now. Cut them off with a hack saw or a steel cut off blade if you got. File jagged or sharp edges that will face out.
dril screw holes on one face only. Don't want screw heads on the top face
countersinking the holes will help recess the screw heads
|
|
Cut 2 - 1 foot strips of plywood from each side of the plywood sheet.
1 factory edge on each goes down and your cut edges go under the coping.
We nailed a 2x4, 1.5 inches from our cut line and just ran the saw down the 2x4. Just eyeball down the edge and choose a straightest 4x4.
|
|
Cut your 2x4;
plates 4 pcs 71" long
cross members 14 pcs 9.25" long
studs 7 pcs 22.5" long
blocks use scrap
Put all your plates together on edge and, lay out [mark] a stud every 12 or 16 inches.
|
|
Nail your two stud walls together. Join them together by toe nailing the cross members to the plates, top of every stud and a few on the bottom. Two solid nails.
Nail on the top and end blocking. Don't pound so hard you knock your cross members off. We're not finished nailing them yet.
|
|
Cut your 1x8 foot plywood strips to length. When you nail them on, nail one end on well and perfectly flush to the end and top corner of the framing. Rack the framing to shape the square, perfectly cut plywood. That means lever it, hit it with a sledge, just get it to square up to the ply and then nail it off.
|
|
Do the ends first. When they are nailed up you can nail off the cross members. One or two nails into the studs. This kills any lateral give in the box. Then sheet the sides, then the top.
The top sheeting should be just a little narrower than the box and don't nail the center of the sheet where you will be skating. Nail around the edge where the coping will cover. The inside edge of your coping may have a little welding bead down it and we don't want the coping pushed out. The side and end sheeting should be up a little bit on the frame . The frame will sit on concrete or asphalt better than the edge of the plywood will.
|
|
A box built like this is solider than Betty Boop. Talking brick shit house and heavy. Needs some sort of wheel to come up and down the driveway easier. Stay tuned.
|
consensus of opinion: [how does it skate?]
- coping is nice and long
- grinds smooth
- perfect height
- one side coping comes up a bit short but doesn't matter
- wide enough to manual
- feels really sturdy
- pretty heavy (easiest to move with 2 people)
this box ended up at the skatepark and the city workers put a sheet metal top on it because the 1/2" ply broke down.
advertisement
|
