# Paint for a halfpipe



## mattsk8 (Dec 6, 2009)

Driftweed said:


> We got until july 4, 2014 (birthday). This could very well be an epic bday party....
> 
> Makes me want to start scouting land lol


Just a couple points, best thing is I can say is plan it out well. If you're serious, you can buy halfpipe plans for cheap and it's probably a good investment if you haven't built one. They're a lot of work, may as well make sure you're not missing anything.

As far as the land goes, must be nice to have a lot available for cheap. Plus I imagine winters aren't too bad over there being that far south so your season is longer than ours is here. 

Our original plan was to try to find some warehouse space here and lease it to build a wooden bowl in; then we did the math on the size it would've ended up at (we'd have needed a minimum of about 2000 sq ft). None of us wanted to invest that kind of money into a skate spot. Cheapest we could find was about $1000/month in an unheated building.


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## superseal (Feb 4, 2009)

Here's our half pipe we had growing up. Totally forget how we built it, but it got done and nobody died in the process.

I remember I was the accountant in charge of collecting weekly dues in order to fund it. Took about a year of savings and we were ready to get air :thumbup:

ahh,...the good old days!

The last pic is another ramp my buddy built in his yard,...drop in ramp with quarter pipe for big air :laughing:


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## mattsk8 (Dec 6, 2009)

superseal said:


> Here's our half pipe we had growing up. Totally forget how we built it, but it got done and nobody died in the process.
> 
> I remember I was the accountant in charge of collecting weekly dues in order to fund it. Took about a year of savings and we were ready to get air :thumbup:
> 
> ...


That's awesome!! I had a 4' wide x 4' tall 1/4 at the bottom of my driveway, we started out w/ a broom handle for coping :laughing:. This guy that lived near me had a 8' tall vert ramp. I think it had 6' transitions, was super hard to ride. The good ole days.

I got out of skating in my teens when the skatepark by me went out of business (about 1990 ish), then I broke my foot pretty bad skating. When I was about 22, a buddy bought a board and that triggered me to get one too. It wasn't until they opened the skatepark near me and I found out about the Fossilnight sessions over there on Wednesday nights (21 and older) that I really got back into it at about age 27. Ended up on the team over there. The 'fossil crew' and I did some tours a couple times a year, was a lot of fun. Nothing crazy, just hitting skateparks from GR MI all the way to Wheeling WV and Louisville and back. Good times. I love skateboarding.

Team's pretty much died off at this point from people giving it up or moving, but there's still a few of us around. We took a trip last spring and hit parks between here and Nashville (amazing outdoor park in Nashville btw), that was fun.

I skated the backyard ramp a bit yesterday before we painted it (still no coping though). Absolutely can't wait to ride this thing when its done!!!!

Here's a good vid that has some nostalgia from the 80s...


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

I need some help to frame one of these on the cheap. Got any ideas, Matt?


https://www.keenramps.com/product-page/tranny-ledge


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## mattsk8 (Dec 6, 2009)

MarkJames said:


> I need some help to frame one of these on the cheap. Got any ideas, Matt?
> 
> 
> https://www.keenramps.com/product-page/tranny-ledge


Too bad you're in VA, I have something here I'd give you. With something like that you'd need to know what they like to skate (tight transitions, taller?). How wide and how tall, plus the transition will make a big difference in how you build it. For something like that I'd be thinking a 6 ft transition (kinda tight)… maybe 8 ft long?

Generically speaking... the way to do it would be to cut the sides (the actual transitions) out of 3/4" plywood, then use 2x4s or 2x6s on 8" centers. Seems overkill but if they're any good at skating something like that is going to see a LOT of abuse. Then sheet the transition surface with 3 layers of 3/8" plywood... the upper deck can be one sheet of 3/4". For the coping, find a steel place. IIRC we used 2" pipe. Here's a good link that gives a good idea. http://www.diyskate.com/mini_03.html


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## MarkJames (Nov 25, 2012)

mattsk8 said:


> Too bad you're in VA, I have something here I'd give you. With something like that you'd need to know what they like to skate (tight transitions, taller?). How wide and how tall, plus the transition will make a big difference in how you build it. For something like that I'd be thinking a 6 ft transition (kinda tight)… maybe 8 ft long?
> 
> Generically speaking... the way to do it would be to cut the sides (the actual transitions) out of 3/4" plywood, then use 2x4s or 2x6s on 8" centers. Seems overkill but if they're any good at skating something like that is going to see a LOT of abuse. Then sheet the transition surface with 3 layers of 3/8" plywood... the upper deck can be one sheet of 3/4". For the coping, find a steel place. IIRC we used 2" pipe. Here's a good link that gives a good idea. http://www.diyskate.com/mini_03.html


Got it. If it were to be 8' long, do I need a center support that mirrors the 3/4 ply ends, or can it stand up without a center support (assuming 2x4's)?


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## mattsk8 (Dec 6, 2009)

MarkJames said:


> Got it. If it were to be 8' long, do I need a center support that mirrors the 3/4 ply ends, or can it stand up without a center support (assuming 2x4's)?


I'd do it without a center. Just make sure your 2x4s are on 8" centers through the transition.


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## Sir Mixalot (Jan 6, 2008)

How's the ramp holding up Matt? 

On a side note my friend Mike is the owner and founder Ramptech.:thumbup:


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## Lettusbee (May 8, 2010)

This is the first I've seen of this thread. Love it!
I've been debating how much of my shop to devote to a half pipe. 
Fourteen foot to bottom of trusses. How tall can I go?


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## mattsk8 (Dec 6, 2009)

Sir Mixalot said:


> How's the ramp holding up Matt?
> 
> On a side note my friend Mike is the owner and founder Ramptech.:thumbup:


The ramp is actually holding up really well. It's been back there for about 5 years now and aside from the decks up top (single sheet of 3/4" ply) it's still rock solid. Unfortunately I didn't ride it much at all last summer, but we've had a lot of fun over the years with it, some pretty good crews over quite a bit. I will say... the barn paint worked well!!

That's cool about your friend, I see their ramps around a lot!!



Lettusbee said:


> This is the first I've seen of this thread. Love it!
> I've been debating how much of my shop to devote to a half pipe.
> Fourteen foot to bottom of trusses. How tall can I go?


14' ceiling... I'd say you're good for at least 7.5 ft tall . How wide can you build it? The width you have would make a difference too, because a 8' tall half pipe that's only 12' wide (for example) can be tough to do any tricks on.


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## Lettusbee (May 8, 2010)

mattsk8 said:


> The ramp is actually holding up really well. It's been back there for about 5 years now and aside from the decks up top (single sheet of 3/4" ply) it's still rock solid. Unfortunately I didn't ride it much at all last summer, but we've had a lot of fun over the years with it, some pretty good crews over quite a bit. I will say... the barn paint worked well!!
> 
> That's cool about your friend, I see their ramps around a lot!!
> 
> ...


Shop is 50 x 100, so limiting factors are more in the realm of cash and how much space do I want to take away from equipment. Theres a nice little corner that is 30' x 20' that isn't being used much. (Junk Pile) 

I was going to spend some time going to the local skate parks and figuring out which ramp would be the best fit then copy it. It's understanding the Transitions and the flats needed that I don't have the experience to just build it in my head.


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## mattsk8 (Dec 6, 2009)

Lettusbee said:


> Shop is 50 x 100, so limiting factors are more in the realm of cash and how much space do I want to take away from equipment. Theres a nice little corner that is 30' x 20' that isn't being used much. (Junk Pile)
> 
> I was going to spend some time going to the local skate parks and figuring out which ramp would be the best fit then copy it. It's understanding the Transitions and the flats needed that I don't have the experience to just build it in my head.


Need to connect you with my friend Jon in Denver, awesome guy, a skater and a (very good) finish carpenter. He's built a lot of ramps and if you skate you guys should hang out anyhow. In my opinion... I'm picturing a 16 to 20 ft wide half pipe that's around 4 to 6 ft tall in your shop. If you built a 4 ft tall half pipe and had 4 ft decks... you'll need all of 30 ft for the length of it, and even then you might have to go with 3 ft decks up top. Figure 8 ft for the flat between the transitions... might be able to shrink that a little but it gets to be pretty tight if you go much smaller than 8 ft flats on a 4 ft half pipe.

Depending on what you like to ride... you can have a lot of fun on a 4 ft half pipe. A good friend near me had a 3.5 ft tall half pipe in his backyard that was 20 ft wide and it was a riot to ride. Spendy venture to do it right though once you figure 2x4s on 8" centers and all the plywood and coping.


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## mattsk8 (Dec 6, 2009)

Lettusbee said:


> Shop is 50 x 100, so limiting factors are more in the realm of cash and how much space do I want to take away from equipment. Theres a nice little corner that is 30' x 20' that isn't being used much. (Junk Pile)
> 
> I was going to spend some time going to the local skate parks and figuring out which ramp would be the best fit then copy it. It's understanding the Transitions and the flats needed that I don't have the experience to just build it in my head.


But in reality... for me personally I'd build it as tall as possible. But going much higher than 4 ft might be tough because the taller you go, the longer it gets. 30 ft seems like a lot of room until you start breaking down how big the footprint ends up being. So with 30 ft, the only way to go higher is to make the transitions tighter and the flats shorter. If you go too tall you end up with something hard to skate.


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## Lettusbee (May 8, 2010)

mattsk8 said:


> But in reality... for me personally I'd build it as tall as possible. But going much higher than 4 ft might be tough because the taller you go, the longer it gets. 30 ft seems like a lot of room until you start breaking down how big the footprint ends up being. So with 30 ft, the only way to go higher is to make the transitions tighter and the flats shorter. If you go too tall you end up with something hard to skate.


I seem to do a little better on ramps that have a little vert at the coping. 
The mini ramps were always easier to lose control and less time to plan your fall. 

However, I probably have about 20 hours of ramp time versus 5000+ hours of street time. It was all I did from 9th grade to a year after high school. Still skated a lot in my 20s, but by 30s it faded. Always had a couple of boards to ride, but never left the driveway. 

I want to get a ramp in the shop, because I need the exercise, and I want to try to spark some interest in my kids. Get em off the screens in the winter. A 5 or 6 footer would probably be ideal. Go too big and they'd just get intimidated. Plus, that's a good point about the footprint with the decks included.


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## Easy Gibson (Dec 3, 2010)

I can't believe I just found this thread!


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