Love it

Here is my update.

So some of you guys are saying to go with some bendy plywood from Micheal's. Now I've been there, but how thick of wood are you guys talking about? And would I be cutting it into tiny squares like on the black river ramps or what? Maybe I'll try this on my next project since I already planned on using the bamboo.

Now the original bamboo sheets I had are only 3 feet in length each and since my ramp is 6 feet long I soon realized that they wouldn't complete the job. Because I got those bamboo sheets at my local thrift store and they didn't have anymore of them I went to Ross and got a longer bamboo rug to use.



Its 4ft by 6ft so I will have to cut it in half because my ramp is only 2 feet wide and even though it won't reach the full 6 feet since I'll have two halves I'll just join them together to make the total length of the ramp. So the lighter bamboo sheets will have to be used for another project.

This is me taking off the cloth backing because I don't need it for the ramp.



This is the frame of the ramp while I was working on it. All of the ramps will sit on the frame. Normally it wouldn't take that long to make, but I don't have a nail gun and I'm only using a jigsaw so this actually took a while to put together.



This is the completed frame. The whole park will sit on this when its all put together. I used screws and counter sunk them with a drill bit. I plan on painting everything black except for the wooden bamboo.



This is the underside of the frame. I placed these 1x2's approximately every foot to ensure that its solid and can take a beating. I like having my ramps and parks to be very strong and durable. The black piece of wood was just a scrap piece that I custom cut to fit in there because I ran out of the other pine wood.



Little by little its getting there.

looks super sturdy. good luck!

Sunday Update!

Here is my progress so far.

After building the frame I then glued all of the ramp skeleton pieces onto the frame with liquid nails. I use liquid nails simply because i don't want to deal with nails or screws on certain pieces. The frame however is held together with screws.



My method for putting ramps together quickly is to use hot glue to tack them together and then go over the joints with liquid nails later for a permanent bond. If I mess up the ramp using hot glue I just use a heat gun to undo it and then retry it again.



Here I cut the bamboo with a jigsaw at just the right length so that it will lay flat on both bank ramps. I test painted the side of part of the ramp black and I will do that for the rest of the ramp as well.



I sanded the sides of the park and have filled in any holes and cracks with wood filler. I will have to resand again before I paint.







Here I've cut the other bamboo sheet to allow it to make the two quarter pipes. If you take a peek inside the ramp I've glued in some scrap pieces of wood for extra support. Since it will be covered up nobody would ever know that they were there. You can also see how my bamboo isn't long enough to complete the ramp this will be addressed in the next pic.



So I got this bamboo wood from a thrift store and they had 3 rugs, well I had bought 2 of them thinking it would be enough for the ramp. Later when I realized that it wasn't enough I went back to the shop only to find out that the 3rd rug that they used to have was sold.

So I've had this problem now for a while and it is trying to find some other bamboo that matches the current type that I have. I actually bought some other bamboo rugs from my local ROSS store, but the bamboo is of a thinner type and not the right color. So after not being able to match my bamboo I looked online. My bamboo seemed to look yellowish so I bought a yellow bamboo rug. When I got it in the mail it wasn't in the best shape and the color didn't really match, but it does have the right thickness.

I want this ramp to look super nice so I've decided to try again online and so I bought another rug from ebay that is of a more natural color and not a yellow color. Hopefully when it comes in the mail it will work perfectly.

Here is the yellow type. I don't want to have to use it, but I might have to if I can't find anything better.



And I found a plastic banzai tree for under $15. It will be placed on the ramp as decoration when not in use. I was going for an oriental theme with the whole project so hopefully it matches.

Holy balls
That looks so sick!!

especially with the bonsai tree

I really love these build threads that are popping up lately. Great work!

Epicness! I can't wait to see this finished. It's looking really, really nice

Looks really awesome dude!

Looking good Eric!

Sunday Update!

Today I sanded all of the sides of the park. I did this because last time I used wood putty and filled in holes or cracks and so by sanding it I was able to smooth everything out.

The next thing that I did was just to reinforce everything with extra wood.

In this first pic it looks kind of like a weird collage since there are just tons of randomly placed pieces of wood everywhere. And I admit that it doesn't look like the work of a craftsman...  but, the extra beams are simply just there for extra support and will not be visible.



I need to contact Airflo Dave and order a custom rainbow rail to fit nicely over this hump!





And I think I know how I'm going to solve the bamboo shortage problem. The last bamboo mat I ordered doesn't exactly match the color, but it rides almost identical to that of the current type that I'm using. For that reason alone I will be using it. So a small section will have a bamboo part that is just slightly a different color than the other parts. Oh well. Its very hard to match a certain color wood with another.

So the next step is to get started on the babmboo and get the rail.

[update]

Just to let everyone know that this project has not been abandoned.

I've been reluctant to continue work on it though until I had the rail for it.

So I messaged Dave at airflo and he cooked up this awesome rail.

Check it out!

http://instagram.com/p/otogg_lSih/#




Once I get the rail the rest of the park will be a snap to finish.

So expect to see this completed soon and expect to ride this at the Texas Rendezvous event July 19th 2014! Also shout out to Airflo for being a sponsor of the event!!!

Looks damn Great !
Do you have something to fill in the gutter in the bamboo mat ? To make it more smooth ?

What you should do, is putting 1 or 2 sheets of veneer on top of the bamboo mat

dude thats gonna look soooo freaking nice

[update]

Today I decided to get to work on that park of mine since I now have the rail from Airflo Dave.

I glued the two big sheets of bamboo on it and drilled the holes for the rail. Then I cut two custom fitted pieces of bamboo from another sheet to fill in the missing parts on the quarter pipes.

I also cut the quarter pipe coping. All I really have to do is finish it up.

looks nice but it seems bumpy.

Okay here it is guys.

I just glued in the rail TODAY and now I'm calling it pretty much done.

I filled in the cracks with sheet rock putty and then stained it and coated it with polyurethane.

There are a few places that I though were it could have looked a little better, but it really doesn't matter now because I'm done with this. Whew

There is this one spot however that I think I'm going to sand down and fix, but that's about it.

It's super fun though and the rainbow rail that David made is perfect!

The park will be available at the Texas Revdezvous if anyone wants to ride it.

The dimensions are 6 ft by 2 ft.

Damn that's actually quite nice! I wasn't sure how it was going to come out as seen in some of your previous pictures, mainly because of the bamboo mat, but was I ever wrong! Looks amazing and I love the way everything came out for it! Glad I could build the rail for it!

OOOHhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh my GOD that is siccckkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkkk

If you're planning on keeping that outside for an extended period of time, I'd recommend putting some 3 in 1 household oil or some synthetic motor oil on a rag and wiping the top of the rail down with it. Let that "soak" for a minute or 2, then wipe it off with a paper towel/ clean rag and maybe polish it with some steel wool. This will help keep the rail shining and avoid any potential rust. If it's staying inside mainly, just rub a little steel wool on it if you notice any sort of small surface corrosion. You should be okay though.

ooooooh dang that looks super fun dude! great work

Holy cow that thing looks so nice

Love it!!  

yeah that turned out way better than i was expecting! nice work dude!   

Yeah wow surprised me too, make a video