So today I came across some bamboo wooden mats that I believe are used to place food on like on a dinner table or something. I honestly don't know what they are for, but I know what I'm going to use them for!

I've been wanting to make a half pipe or mini ramp for a while now, but just never did it because i never found the right type of wood to use. Well after playing with these bamboo mats I've decided to make a mini out of them!

Here is a sketch I've made on paper.

The ramp will be 6ft in length and 2 feet in width. One of the sides will have a hip on it and the other will be flat or like a fun box. The ends will be like a quarter pipe or mini ramp and on one end I would like to have part of it higher than the other part for variety.

So far I only bought one mat, but will go to the store and get another one tomorrow. I've already cut away the fabric surrounding the sides and I've given it a light sand.

I plan on making a large rectangle frame for this to sit on and then cut out the shapes of the quarter pipes and hip so that all I have to do is lay this bamboo on top of it and glue it down.

It's totally ride-able even now and the cracks do not interfere withe the fingerboarding, but I would like to get some wood filler and fill in all those cracks and then sand that down to have llike a perfectly smooth finish.

I think I'm pretty serious about this project and spring break is next week. So I'm going to try and make a goal of getting this done before spring break is over.

I also want to get a few of those chinese plants (trees) and put them in possibly grind-able beds to give the whole ramp an Asian theme.  

I also already have the metal coping for the rails on the mini ramps too. Check out the pics.

Sick!! but i could see a problem regarding the bumps on the mat. :/

That looks so big! And yeah I agree LazyFingers the bumps could get annoying

Seems like the "bumps" would feel kinda like tiles, but yeah it'd probably be best to fill them. Also, with the trees, you mean those little bonsai trees? You might be able to get some fake miniature ones at a craft store if you want it to fit in a planter, but if you want a full sized one, that'll cost you anywhere from hundreds to thousands.
Great idea though, and the design is sick. Will be watching this thread for sure!

i like the idea but I'm not sure bout the surface. keen to see where this project leads

I think the surface is what makes it awesome!

If it ends up anything like the drawing it will be so sick!
The 'bumps' will be fine to ride on, i made a quarter out of strips of wood a while back  

Zach wrote:

i made a quarter out of strips of wood a while back

And that's hella sick!

My grandma has a bamboo mat that my bro and I use to sleep on when we have too. So fun to ride on but it's not so fun to sleep on. I have shaped it into a spine before and it's hella fun.

Yeah dude that'd bee prime those little bumps will make it way sicker.

[update]

Today I just picked up the other half of the bamboo mat.

I've also taken off the yellow fabric that used to surround the edges and gave it a light sand.

Here you can see a preview of what it should look like when completed. The roll over in the middle is actually from an aphlikshun roller over ramp underneath.

There is also a picture of the coping which I'll be using too.

I've also been looking a prices for fake bonsai pants and boy they are extremely expensive.

This is my up and coming spring break project so stay tuned for updates in the future.

Also the gaps in the wood do NOT affect fingerboard performance at all. I honestly thought that they were going to interfere, but its not annoying at all and actually feels pretty epic!







I bought the bamboo mats for like $5.00 each at a thrift store.

I'm also thinking that maybe a rainbow rail over the roll over in the middle might be the perfect addition.

Looks great, can't wait to see pics of the finished ramp

Update.

Today I wanted to make some good progress on my project so I got to work and started getting things done.

I kind of changed things from the previous version I had in mind. Now the roll over is to be across the whole ramp since I want that rainbow rail over it and I decided to make one side have a bank and the other side be a quarter. To give it some variety I made the bank side have two different heights 4 and 6 inches and the quarter side have two heights as well with those being 6 and 8 inches.



Before I make most ramps I like to get an idea of how high or what shape the ramps will be. Here is a pencil trace out of what the shape I want the quarter ramps to be. I accomplished this by curving the bamboo material until I got the desired shape for the quarters that I wanted and then I set a thin piece of particle board next to the bamboo curve and just traced that shape onto the particle board.



This is what the frame of the park/ramp is like. It consists of some beams of 1x2's and a thin sheet of plywood. I haven't actually made the frame yet and that's because I don't know how big the frame needs to be because I haven't set down the bamboo strip yet. Once I set down the strip of bamboo then I'll know just how long my ramp needs to be.





Here is the bamboo strip rolled up. Interesting how it takes up so little space.



Here is my work area. You can see the templates that I've cut out of the thin particle board. I did this with just a simple jigsaw.



Here I was testing out the curves on the quarter ramps. Surprisingly that all came out very well and I'm happy with them.







I used the templates as guides for tracing out the shapes on the thicker pieces of wood then used a jigsaw to cut them out. They all came out pretty much identical which is a good thing. Also all of the wood used for this was just wood that I picked up for free from some dresser drawers that someone was throwing away.



Here you can see the roller over and the wooden pieces which will make up the skeleton of it. I used 6 pieces, which might be a bit of an overkill, but if anything it will just make it more sturdy than before. I doubled up in the middle and put two pieces of wood there because when I put in the rainbow rail I want to make sure the rail actually gets fitted into the wood below.





This is what it looks like with all the pieces on it minus the bamboo.





It was pretty exhausting to do this, but I'm sure it will pay off.

Hopefully I can do more in the next few days.

Peace!

Wow, looks amazing!!

this is a really interesting an cool project! great to see so many pictures an great detail in this thread nice work!! cant wait to see the finished product!

What I did today:

Cut the long thin plywood board down to the right size to fit the bamboo width.

Cut out the middle sections of each ramp so that each ramp will have extra support.

Tacked together the small and large bank ramps together.

Took off the cloth backing of the bamboo since I didn't feel as if I needed it.

Interestingly I like to tack together my ramps with hot glue and then later use liquid nails to permanently seal them together. Since I like using particle board nails and screws just don't work too well for me.





Cost so far:

Thin piece of plywood and long 2X1's $20.00 already had the longer thin piece of plywood.

Bamboo pieces $10.00

Metal coping round $3.00

looks amazing man might try it later

Here is my update.

Today I glued all of the quarter pipe pieces together and I glued all of the roll over pieces together. All I have to do now is cut the bamboo in the middle and lay it on top and build the frame.

YES!!!!!!       
I RECOMEND GOING TO MICHALS AND BUYING 3 PLY BIRCH AIRCRAFT VENEER TO PUT ON THAT MONSTER!!

Daaannnnggg.

Effing radddd

Wow, looks awesome!
Can't wait to try it

looks so good

Sooo nice.

Trent Witcher wrote:

YES!!!!!!       
I RECOMEND GOING TO MICHALS AND BUYING 3 PLY BIRCH AIRCRAFT VENEER TO PUT ON THAT MONSTER!!

^this.

You've done such an awesome job on the frame, it would be a shame not to finish it equally well, and plywood is definitely going to feel and look better than the bamboo. Go ooooon, you know you want to!

The 3ply will be bendy enough that you could use fairly small tacks if you're worried about the particle board crumbling. It can take tacks if you're careful with it.