Old School Skateboard

Back in the old days there was no such thing as going to your local skate shop or mall and buying a skateboard. If you wanted one, you had to make it yourself! In this Instructable we're going to make one from nothing but a piece of scrap wood and an old roller skate!

Before your proceed with this Instructable, it's helpful to watch our short instructional video on How to Make an Old School Skateboard. There's lots of tips and tricks that can only be explained well through video.

Once you've finished, head on over to Step 2 and let's make it!

To build an old school skateboard you need to find two main components. A section of wood and a an old roller skate. The section of wood should be roughly 3/4" thick and be roughly 4.5" wide by 15" long. But those are just suggestions. You can make it bigger or smaller. After all, you're going to ride it!

Items List

1 Section of wood
1 Old roller skate
8 Short wood screws

Remember, this is a custom project, so you'll need to work with the materials you have and the skateboard you can find and modify these instructions to suit your needs and design.

Find a section of paper. It needs to be bigger than the design for your skateboard by at least a couple of inches.

You're design can be ANY design. Its all up to you. Let your imagination run wild. Just remember, the more complex you make it, the harder it will be to cut out.

Draw a line down the center of the paper. This line represents the center of your skateboard. Now draw half of the skateboard out on paper. It doesn't matter which side, but only draw half, because we'll flip the pattern over to make an exact mirror.

Using some scissors cut out the half design to make a paper template.

Now that you have your template made, find and draw a line down the center of the board.

Using some painter's masking tape, tape the center section of your template to the center of the board.

Using a pencil, trace the template half onto the skateboard. Without removing the masking tape, fold the template over so that it is on the opposite side of the board and trace a mirror image of your patter to complete the shape of your skateboard.

You're going to need to cut out the board following the pattern that you just traced on the top. You can use an number of different tools to do this. If you have a band saw, that would be perfect. In this Instructable I used a scroll saw that can be had for less than $100 from your local big box store. You can also use a jig saw or a hand saw if you don't have any power tools.

Cut just outside of the line by about 1/32". This way you can use a sander to bring it down to the line for a perfectly smooth edge. I used my belt sander to do this, but a section of 80 grit sandpaper attached to a wooden block of scrap wood is all you need to get this done.

I wanted my board to look super slick, so I used my router to round over the edges of the board. This is completely optional.

If you don't have a rounder and still want to do this, you can round it over with a hand file or a rasp.

Most old roller skates come apart with nothing but a screwdriver or a hex wrench. You'll need to figure out how the plates are attached to your particular roller skate and remove it.

Then if possible, remove the trucks from the plate.

Using your preferred tool such as a hacksaw, demel or sawsall cut the roller skate plate in half. It is most likely made from a cheap pot metal and will cut extremely easy.

Use a grinder to grind off any burrs and rough edges (without a grinder, sandpaper will do the trick).

Most likely your plate only had four mounting holes in it. Once you cut it in half, it will only have two on the front and two on the back. Use a drill and drill two additional holes so that you have a hole at all four corners of the halved plate.

Use the plates as templates to mark and drill holes in the bottom of the skateboard. Make sure not to go all the way through!

Use 8 wood screws that are shorter than the thickness of your plates and board combined and attach the plate halves to the skateboard's bottom.

Now its time to reinstall the trucks! You're complete!

From here it works just like any other skateboard. You can paint it before you install the trucks if you want a more finished look, and you can also install grip tape. Of course one would argue there was no such thing as grip tape back then so why would you?

If you liked this project, I bet you'll like some of my others! Be sure to follow me here on Instructables and visit my website at TheGeekPub.com. Consider subscribing to my YouTube Channel at YouTube.com/c/TheGeekPub!