SkateBoard Shelf

My Son recently retired his Skateboard, which used to be mine, and was originally given to me by a Skater who used it on an X-Games tour, so, it has history, and he wanted to make a shelf from it, rather than scrap it, or have it fester in a cupboard.

So I decided to make some brackets so it could be made into a shelf. All the materials were out of my scrap metal bin, so cost me nothing.

Materials;

2 old Skateboard Bass Plates

2 Pieces of 4mm steel plate, 8" x 3" (This just happened to be the size of off cuts I had)

2 Pieces 12mm Mild steel rod Approx. 8" long

Old Skateboard deck

Epoxy glue

Tools;

Angle Grinder (But you could use a hacksaw and files)

Drill

M12 Tap and Dye

Welder

MAPP Gas blow torch

Step 1: Tappety Tap

Firstly I tapped an M12 thread onto the end of the 12mm Rods, and then drilled an 11mm hole through the Base plate where the King pin would usually go, in the picture I had the base plate laid flat in the vice of the pillar drill, but I actually ended up drilling through at the same angle as the original kingpin hole.

I then tapped an M12 thread into the base plate through this hole. The base plate is Aluminium so Taps very easily.

Step 2: Bendy Bendy

Next I heated the 12mm rods about 3" from the end with my MAPP gas torch, until it was glowing red, and then using a piece of pipe as a lever, I bent the rods to a 90 degree angle.

Step 3: Mounting the Baseplates

Then it was just a case of screwing the rods into the baseplates, I put some epoxy glue on the thread to lock it, once it was in the desired position, and left it over night to dry.

You could possibly get away without threading the parts, if you didn't have a tap and dye set, and just epoxy the parts together with some epoxy metal, like JB Weld. http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0006O1ICE/ref=pd_lpo_s...

Step 4: Wall Plates

Whilst the epoxy was setting in the base plates, I got on with the other parts, I sketched a rough skateboard shape on my steel plate, and also marked for 3 holes, 2 for the screws and one for the steel rod.

I took the corners off with a cutting disc, and then rounded them and smoothed them with a flap wheel on the angle grinder.

I then used some heat from the MAPP torch and heated the pieces about 2" from the end, and using a vice grip style bending tool, I put a skateboard like tail on them.

Next I drilled the holes, 2 at 7mm which I countersunk, to screw the plates to the wall, and a 12mm hole to receive the bracket. The countersink wasn't as smooth in one piece for some reason, but the screw will cover this.

After all this was done, I gave both pieces a polish with the grinder to remove all the mill scale and marks.

Step 5: Finishing Off

This next bit was fiddly, as I had to hold the bracket in the hole, align it, so it was level, and square with the wall plate, and then tack weld it, without it moving. Once I was happy with the position, I welded it from behind, and then ground the weld flat with a flap wheel. I could probably have made a jig to hold everything nice and square, but my attention span was waning by this point.

If you don't have a welder, you could Braze the pieces together, I suppose. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Bernzomatic-Low-Fuming-Bra...

Finally I gave everything a polish with a wire brush on my bench grinder, gave it a couple of coats of clear lacquer, fixed the base plates onto the old deck using some spare Skate hardware I had, and screwed it to the wall over his desk.

A nice little project, that didn't cost me a bean.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments. And if you have an old Deck, give it a go.