DIY (Fake) Quarter Pipe

The children’s ministry at my church needed a skate board ramp as part of their stage set design so I built this fake quarter pipe according to their specifications. *Please note: this quarter pipe was not built for actual use. It is only meant for show.* In other words, do not build this quarter pipe, attempt to skateboard on it, then sue me when things go tragically wrong.

Now that we got that out of the way, here’s how I built this fake quarter pipe.

With a jigsaw, I cut out a piece of plywood to resemble a ramp

Then used the cut piece as a template to cut out the second piece.

My handsome hubby decided to hang out with me in the garage, which is a rarity, so I was grateful for the company and extra set of hands. Here he is sanding the edges down so that the ramp shapes matched (almost) perfectly.

We used 2×2 furring strips to connect the two plywood sides together. My first attempt wasn’t very successful. I drilled pocket holes and tried to attach the furring strips from the inside, but I only had 2″ pocket hole screws on-hand and they were too long, so they poked out the other side. We decided to drive the screws from the outside instead. I usually like to hide my screw heads, but in this case, the exposed screw heads look like rivets and actually add some ‘raw, skater street cred’ to the piece. Yay for happy accidents.

We joined the two side pieces together using the furring strips to create a frame, like this:

Then we laid a piece of 1/4″ plywood on top for the ramp. The thin plywood is pliable enough to bend, so we just used a little muscle to bend it to our will. I love that about wood. Here’s where that extra set of hands really helped. Adam held the plywood down while I screwed it onto the base frame. Real skateboard ramps have coping, but since this is just for looks, I decided to forego that detail.

“Alright, Mr. Demille, I’m ready for my closeup.” #namethatquote

Woohoo! Skateboarding for Jesus!