How to build the best skate box in the world…
Thursday, August 16th, 2007
| I have been asked probably about a million and one times about the now world renown Amall box and bothered with various questions such as “How do I build one like it?” “How did you do this?” “How did you do that?” “How do you skates it?”. Well the time has finally come and I am going to try and lay it down for you. All in all I don’t think anyone really thinks that much of it or how much time it really took me to build (keep in mind I built the thing all by myself.) To start out while it is a very simple design I probably wouldn’t have built it if it weren’t for me skating the infamous box at Mac McMeans house in Escondido, CA. It was cool, did a couple grinds. He and Geoff then claimed they had built the best box in the world. I knew that that statement wouldn’t be true for long because I was truly certain that I could build better, and better I did! This is my story, and how to build yourself a clone copy of THE BEST SKATE BOX IN THE WORLD! |
| To start out I figured I lay down the specs first and explain why I decided to build it entirely out of steel. 1. Steel is strong, much stronger than wood from what I can remember. I knew this box would have to stand up to a lot of abuse so steel was the perfect candidate for the job. Also I hate it when boxes have those stupid little holes in the coping to attach it to the wood. With steel I could seamlessly weld the rails onto the frame with no holes and basically never have to worry about the thing breaking down. The only wood that will be used on this box is for the top (and optionally the sides) and those are the only pieces that will ever wear out. The steel frame is virtually indestructible. BEAT THAT!Now onto the supplies and stuff…Considering that all your “suplize” will be based off how big you want to make the darn thing. Please realize that you can not “pin” out on the specs. If you make it any smaller you will regret it. your will have wasted your money and no one will come skate your box because it will suck too bad. So don’t build a bad box, because I will also be pissed at you. Build it by these dimensions or for bonus points even bigger/longer.Total Length: 20′ 1″ (twenty feet and one inch) I would say that the length is by far the most important. If you make the box too short it will become boring very fast. Your box will suck if you make it any shorter than 20ft, guaranteed. I wouldn’t skate a 19ft. box ever, and I certainly wouldn’t skate some little 10 footer and neither will your hommies, so lets just keep it over 20. To be on the safe side I have added the extra inch to keep the box suck line an additional inch away.Box/Frame Height: 20″ (twenty inches) Twenty inches was a nice round double digit number so I rolled with it. If you are a t-dog this will be kind of high for you. You can make it lower but this height will make you better at skating. If you don’t want to be better, that’s fine with me, but there are plenty of 6″ curbs all around town for you to skate with absolutely no need to build a box. If you are feeling ballsy go a head and make it taller, just keep in mind that this is already a half way decent height and you may find later on that 30″ was just way to F–ing tall. Deck/Frame Width: 22″ (twenty two inches) Rails: 1 -2″ I.D., & 1 - 3″ I.D. (1 two inch & 1 3 inch inner diameter steel pipes)Here is where I would say it is ok to mess with the specs. You probably just don’t want to go below a 2″ ID pipe as it is pretty much perfect. The 3″ can be a little big for some skates souls, and it also weights about twice as much, but for some reason slides 10x better than the 2″ side. Anyways Since these rails sit on top of the frame this puts the total box height for side 1 at 22″, and side 2 at 23″. One thing I will say is don’t make both sides the same, that’s just weak as hell. If you can skate it both ways might as well make two different sizes, that will make the fun last all that much longer. You can also opt to change to a piece of square tubing for the ultimate ledge feeling…Just don’t get angle iron, that stuff will kill your shins. |
| Alright as far as suplize go you are going to need an array of things to start out with. If you have to buy EVERYTHING (including tools) this is going to be one expensive build. If you already have all the stuff you are in good shape. Maybe you can rent or borrow some, I don’t know… I’m not a wizard, but you will need the following if you plan to build a box like mine.Tools.MIG welder - You could probably use a heli-arch welder but they make bad welds. I really like how the mig flows, so I got me one of thems. I like Lincoln electric, they are good guys and make good welders. However I’m sure you could get away with using just about any brand. I just have a basic 110 Volt one, if you got a bigger one, more power to you.Angle grinder - These are great. make cuts, grind welds down, clean stuff. You can’t really do a good job without one so get one of these with some good metal grinding wheels and some of those cool sanding/stripping wheels ( a bunch of them!)
Chop saw - Optional but highly recommended. Actually I’m going to say this is a must. This will make your cuts for all of your 1×1 steel tubing precise. Just be sure that you are using a metal cut off wheel to cut the steel with, as wood chop saws will do nothing but kill you. Right angle - These are available pretty much anywhere, it’s just a thing that you can clamp your tubing into and will make sure that your frame goes together square. If you opt to not use one of these your box will suck. No one will want to skate a hazardous box. C clamps - These will be used to hold your steel into the right angle deal, hold various other supports in and secure your rail while you are welding it. Again if you opt not to use these your box will suck. Hammer - To hit stuff with when you get pissed. Flat surface - A flat surface is absolutely mandatory. Garage Level - Used to check and make sure your work is level…crucial. Drill - Used to fasten wood on at the end. Suplize!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Around 60 ft of 1×1 thin walled mild steel tubing - You aren’t building a sky scraper, or any type of race car. This stuff will work perfect. If you get a thick walled 1×1 tubing or even go bigger than 1×1 your box will weigh a ton. It’s already going to weigh a lot if you over do it on the materials you’ll never be able to move the thing. 2 - 21 footers of your choice of galvanized metal pipe - Why the things are sold in 21ft lengths I don’t know, but this is about the only way you can get them. I didn’t have a semi truck to take them home in so I had them cut down to 10.5 foot. Oh and like I said before we used 2″ I.D. & 3″ I.D. and they seem to work perfect. You can play with this if you’d like but make sure to get galvanized because galvanized metal won’t rust. If you don’t get galvanized your pipes will rust and you will have wasted all you money. various woods - Here you can get what you want, but I highly recommend getting some weather-proof skatelite because it is not affected by the elements. If you cheap out and get a regular plywood combo you will need to replace the wood just about after every storm. The wood really likes to buckle up when it’s wedged between those 2 rails. If you aren’t down to spend a grip of cash and get the skatelite you need to go Gloo - This is to glue the wood to the top and or glue plys of wood together. There was a time when our box had no screws in it. All the wood was glued down and this was great because you never have to worry about them popping up and tearing your clothes/skin off. Sheet metal screws - You’ll need a handful of these, hopefully |
| Start Construction… This is really easier done than said, and I really mean that. All you need is some time and remember to measure twice and cut once. Start out by cutting all your little pieces, you don’t have to get all technical with your cuts, as straight cuts seem to work just fine. Weld up one one side at a time. I actually think I made two 10 foot sections first and then welded them together. I got 2 good 10 foot sections made up with no supports at the end first and then put them together and made a support in the middle. I then attached my rails. Since they were cut into 2 pieces I had to weld them together in the middle. If you do this make sure they are straight before you weld them together, a crooked rail will make the box a wasted effort. Once you have all that done you should have something that probably looks similar to this. |
| Once you have all your welding done all you have to do is put the wood on and your set. I put 2 pieces of 3/4 ply wood to make it extra solid (not shown because at first I had 1 layer of 1/2 osb, and 1 layer of 5/8 ac ply). You can use 2 pieces of half I’m pretty sure. All I did was put gloo on the top supports and then glued another sheet to to that. Solid as a rock! For the sides I used OSB which were meant to be merely temporary pieces but have become kind of more permanent lately. You don’t even really have to cover the sides but it looks nicer and your legs won’t get caught up if you take an awkward spill…plus it makes it feel much safer with something on the sides anyways. I did buy this really cool fake hardwood flooring (Pergo) to go over the top, but opted not to use it in the end. I was going to give it a nice coat with this junk I got from tap plastics that puts like a 5 mil thick coating but I never got around to it. Plus I think it would have gotten destroyed since we keep this thing outside, Again this is why I now recommend skatelite, because it will last forever and all of the woods that I used didn’t/won’ |
| When it’s all said and done (or close to done like ours) feel free to skate it. Once you have created something like this people will come far and wide to skate your box. One last thing that I will recommend is getting yourself some heavy duty furniture dolly’s to move the box on. This thing weighs in at probably 800+ lbs and is not easy to move |
| Me: True soul probably close to 2 years ago…before the shoulder injuries. Don’t worry though, I’ll be back. |
| If you build it they will come…tons of people come out to skate it. Some crazy switch up…by Brian Aragon |
| This is why you don’t want to make it shorter than 20ft. It looks short! Backside by Reduta |
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