John Pollman
Member
- Messages
- 1,332
- Location
- Rochester Hills, MI
Hi folks!
Been busy the past few days and that's a good thing.
My son is a big time skate boarder and spends quite a bit of time skating every week. He's been skating for about four years I think and his main hangout is at an indoor skate park here in Rochester. I've gotten to know the owners pretty well and done some work for them on their home as well as some additions at the park. Each October they have a big competition and it's usually packed. They like to keep the park "fresh" and add something or make changes fairly often but there's a limit to how often they can do it. Well this year they decided that they wanted to remove a small ramp and three-stair unit and in its place build a new quarter pipe at a ninety-degree angle to the original and connect the two with a "bowl corner". As I said before, I've built them some ramps and such before but nothing this ambitious. He just hit me with this a week ago on the September 25th. Their "Shred-Fest" competition is on October 23rd! I knew it would be tight but told them that I should be able to get it done but I'd have to get going NOW.
I immediately got busy doing some research on building these things and getting a material list together. It's pretty complicated but nothing I can't handle. The biggest thing is that this is a pretty good size project for the time frame and I'm only ONE guy. I've got it pretty well figured out except for getting the 2-3/8" steel tube coping bent into a roughly 81" radius arc. After MANY phone calls and not being able to find someone to do it I figured I may have to cut it back to 2" thin wall pipe and buy a tubing roll former at Harbor Freight. Luckily I finally found a place that I know can handle roll forming the larger diameter pipe but I haven't heard back from them yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
A On Wednesday morning I got busy with the demo work on the existing ramp and prepared to start construction on Thursday. By Wed. afternoon I had everything removed and was ready to go. I was at the BORG bright and early Thursday morning and got the first load of stuff. Two grueling twelve hour days in a row and here's where I'm at...
This is the "three-stair" and ramps that I removed...
3 stair by Budster48309, on Flickr
I spent most of the day Thursday making the template and cutting all of the ribs in preparation for assembly on Friday. Here is a progression of pics...
Here's where I was at by the end of the day Thursday...
qp1 by Budster48309, on Flickr
And here's what I did on Friday...
qp2 by Budster48309, on Flickr
qp3 by Budster48309, on Flickr
qp4 by Budster48309, on Flickr
qp5 by Budster48309, on Flickr
Sorry for the poor quality of some of the pictures but I snapped them with my cell phone because I forgot my camera. I was pretty tired last night but I'm sure that I'll be able to be finished in plenty of time for the competition though. If my source comes through and can roll form the coping, I'm shooting for completion by next weekend. That will give the kids a couple weeks to break it in and get used to it. Seems to be going pretty smoothly and I think for a one-man job I'm happy with the progress. I'll post some more pics later as completion nears.
Take care!
John
Been busy the past few days and that's a good thing.
My son is a big time skate boarder and spends quite a bit of time skating every week. He's been skating for about four years I think and his main hangout is at an indoor skate park here in Rochester. I've gotten to know the owners pretty well and done some work for them on their home as well as some additions at the park. Each October they have a big competition and it's usually packed. They like to keep the park "fresh" and add something or make changes fairly often but there's a limit to how often they can do it. Well this year they decided that they wanted to remove a small ramp and three-stair unit and in its place build a new quarter pipe at a ninety-degree angle to the original and connect the two with a "bowl corner". As I said before, I've built them some ramps and such before but nothing this ambitious. He just hit me with this a week ago on the September 25th. Their "Shred-Fest" competition is on October 23rd! I knew it would be tight but told them that I should be able to get it done but I'd have to get going NOW.
I immediately got busy doing some research on building these things and getting a material list together. It's pretty complicated but nothing I can't handle. The biggest thing is that this is a pretty good size project for the time frame and I'm only ONE guy. I've got it pretty well figured out except for getting the 2-3/8" steel tube coping bent into a roughly 81" radius arc. After MANY phone calls and not being able to find someone to do it I figured I may have to cut it back to 2" thin wall pipe and buy a tubing roll former at Harbor Freight. Luckily I finally found a place that I know can handle roll forming the larger diameter pipe but I haven't heard back from them yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
A On Wednesday morning I got busy with the demo work on the existing ramp and prepared to start construction on Thursday. By Wed. afternoon I had everything removed and was ready to go. I was at the BORG bright and early Thursday morning and got the first load of stuff. Two grueling twelve hour days in a row and here's where I'm at...
This is the "three-stair" and ramps that I removed...
3 stair by Budster48309, on Flickr
I spent most of the day Thursday making the template and cutting all of the ribs in preparation for assembly on Friday. Here is a progression of pics...
Here's where I was at by the end of the day Thursday...
qp1 by Budster48309, on Flickr
And here's what I did on Friday...
qp2 by Budster48309, on Flickr
qp3 by Budster48309, on Flickr
qp4 by Budster48309, on Flickr
qp5 by Budster48309, on Flickr
Sorry for the poor quality of some of the pictures but I snapped them with my cell phone because I forgot my camera. I was pretty tired last night but I'm sure that I'll be able to be finished in plenty of time for the competition though. If my source comes through and can roll form the coping, I'm shooting for completion by next weekend. That will give the kids a couple weeks to break it in and get used to it. Seems to be going pretty smoothly and I think for a one-man job I'm happy with the progress. I'll post some more pics later as completion nears.
Take care!
John
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