how to make the top of a wooden box slideable?

[rocklobster]

my friends and i have built a bunch of wooden boxes over the years and they skate really well... they grind well and have solid construction....

we usually use plywood (6 ply) to make our boxes and use slotted iron to cope the sides but this doent make the box really good for sliding, ie you cant learn bluntslides and lipslides on them....

is there anyway to make wooden ledges really good for sliding?  we considered using marble tiles as the top layer but that would be insanely expensive to do....

thanks in advance....

[Edward Penishands]

are you fucking serious?  i have a problem not sliding out on wooden boxes.  go really fast and push through the slides.

[rocklobster]

are you fucking serious?  i have a problem not sliding out on wooden boxes.  go really fast and push through the slides.

are you serious??  wood sucks to slide on, especially plywood......

[cheep]

paint the top in a high quality exterior paint after sanding it smooth.  after the paint drys, wax wax wax

[H8R part 4]

buy that plastic shit all the ramps are getting covered with it nowadays, it lasts forever and its slides without wax.

[Edward Penishands]

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are you fucking serious?  i have a problem not sliding out on wooden boxes.  go really fast and push through the slides.

[close]

are you serious??  wood sucks to slide on, especially plywood......

yes i am serious.  you aren't going nearly as fast as you need to for those tricks.

[EricLogan]

skated this spot and made some makeshift ledges out of planks and these pieces of wood that were like, particle board with that fake wood grain looking veneer shit on the top surface, sooooo slick, so good. Grinds also for a while if anyone's stuck with the same building materials at a spot.

Hopefully this is helpful.

[rocklobster]

skated this spot and made some makeshift ledges out of planks and these pieces of wood that were like, particle board with that fake wood grain looking veneer shit on the top surface, sooooo slick, so good. Grinds also for a while if anyone's stuck with the same building materials at a spot.

Hopefully this is helpful.

that sounds like it might work, but particle board / chipboard is not the most durable material in the world, so my concern is that it will chip, which will in turn make the box not so great to slide again.....

[H8R part 4]

my motto has always been if it isn't grinding or sliding, just go faster!   

[rocklobster]

alright so the solutions are as follows:

-go faster
-use high quality paint for the top layer
-use wood that has its top all shiny
-go faster


next question:

would using screws with plywood damage the plys and make it easier to split?  the boxes ive made in the past have used nails and for durability's sake am considering using screws instead....

plywood is the most readily available material so im sticking with that.... if pine was available i would use it....

thanks to all for the suggestions so far....

[Tarquin]

just wax the shit out of it

[EricLogan]

alright so the solutions are as follows:

-go faster
-use high quality paint for the top layer
-use wood that has its top all shiny
-go faster


next question:

would using screws with plywood damage the plys and make it easier to split?  the boxes ive made in the past have used nails and for durability's sake am considering using screws instead....

plywood is the most readily available material so im sticking with that.... if pine was available i would use it....

thanks to all for the suggestions so far....

I've always used screws

and for the slickness issue, I've considered buying a 1/4 inch sheet of plastic and cutting it to size. If I fallow up on this ever, I'll report back. I just get a boner thinking about a grind box with a recycled plastic top layer, best shit ever

[Edward Penishands]

alright so the solutions are as follows:

-go faster
-use high quality paint for the top layer
-use wood that has its top all shiny
-go faster


next question:

would using screws with plywood damage the plys and make it easier to split?  the boxes ive made in the past have used nails and for durability's sake am considering using screws instead....

plywood is the most readily available material so im sticking with that.... if pine was available i would use it....

thanks to all for the suggestions so far....

they make wood nails now that you hammer in but have these grooves so they hold just as well as screws.  pretty nifty for building skate shit.


it's the highest up nail in the picture that i'm talking about

[rocklobster]

im looking at angle iron right now..... how is mild steel as coping, to grind and slide on, and is it easy to drill holes into it?  most of the time i use slotted iron but it gets bent out of shape easily, so we always need to replace it.....

[tysj!]

im looking at angle iron right now..... how is mild steel as coping, to grind and slide on, and is it easy to drill holes into it?  most of the time i use slotted iron but it gets bent out of shape easily, so we always need to replace it.....

If you're gonna go the angle iron way, I'd say galvanized steel would be best.

[tanhoe]

havent those nails been around for a while? they do work really well for ramps and shit

[EricLogan]

Expand Quote

im looking at angle iron right now..... how is mild steel as coping, to grind and slide on, and is it easy to drill holes into it?  most of the time i use slotted iron but it gets bent out of shape easily, so we always need to replace it.....

[close]

If you're gonna go the angle iron way, I'd say galvanized steel would be best.

I have never even thought of the different types of angle iron, I usually get whatever they sell at Home Depot or whatever I can find, and if desperate enough, old bed frames.

I'll back you on waxed plywood sliding shitty, but most metals you can adjust to so long as it's not aluminum.

[rocklobster]

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im looking at angle iron right now..... how is mild steel as coping, to grind and slide on, and is it easy to drill holes into it?  most of the time i use slotted iron but it gets bent out of shape easily, so we always need to replace it.....

[close]

If you're gonna go the angle iron way, I'd say galvanized steel would be best.

[close]

I have never even thought of the different types of angle iron, I usually get whatever they sell at Home Depot or whatever I can find, and if desperate enough, old bed frames.

I'll back you on waxed plywood sliding shitty, but most metals you can adjust to so long as it's not aluminum.

friends made a box 2 years back with aluminum coping and it was the absolute worse thing to skate.....  ollie to truck lock to face full of ground.....

[sweatloaf]

Pour a 3 inch thick foot 16 inch wide strip of concrete. It will make the box kind of heavy.

[Edward Penishands]

havent those nails been around for a while? they do work really well for ramps and shit

local shop built a 3 foot quarter pipe with them and it's solid as a rock.

[rocklobster]

how would sheet metal (mild steel) as a top layer for the ledge?  just a thin layer (probably 2mm at most) to protect the top layer from chipping and increase slidability..... 

would it be better to screw it on or glue it on the top layer?

[tysj!]

Again. Mild steel I think would eat the shit out of your trucks if you tried to skate it, unless you use 8 candles to wax. This is why I suggested galvanized steel.

Masonite slides pretty okay unwaxed, so waxed should make it a lot better. I think one of my friend's boxes had this on top a while ago and it slid pretty fine. A cheaper route than steel for sure as prices are going up as far I know.

[Gomez]

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are you fucking serious?  i have a problem not sliding out on wooden boxes.  go really fast and push through the slides.

[close]

are you serious??  wood sucks to slide on, especially plywood......

[close]

yes i am serious.  you aren't going nearly as fast as you need to for those tricks.

i agree with penishands on this one. you can't half step to those tricks like you can with basic grinds and shit like that, well, not on wooden boxes. our school lets us skate during lunch/ brunch and we have a wooden box there and after just a little wax it slid perfectly for lips/ blunts. you need speed.

[H8R part 4]

for long lasting assembly, use both screws and nails and use wood glue.
when attaching the angle iron, use some kind of adhesive(glue, silicone, chalk) in addition to screws this way it will never fall off. 

also, weather proofing it(i.e. thompsons water seal) will help it endure rain/sleet/snow and also helps it make the surface a bit slicker.
*warning, do not skate weather proofed wood with even the slightest bit of water on it, you'll die!*
 

[rocklobster]

we are going with a piece of mild steel sheet metal for the top of the box, which should mean its going to be durable and slideable....

im getting the measurements done this wed after an exam and placing an order for the materials on the day itself so we can start building it come saturday.....  ill post pics when its done, should be rad.....

nothing stokes me out more than building and skating a solid ledge....

[Munty Flumple]

You can actually get strips of recycled plastic that they make bus stop benches out of. Just call around to the hardware stores, they can cut it to length. When building a box, you just make the measurements such that the plastic strip is flush with the top sheet of the box. These plastic strips usually come in a width of 6-7 inches.

[GhostBusters]

Screws are better, no questions asked.

Top layer of particle board with a few layers of spar varnish and sanding. Rock solid and smooth.

[rocklobster]

Screws are better, no questions asked.

Top layer of particle board with a few layers of spar varnish and sanding. Rock solid and smooth.

i never believed in using screws till yesterday when i finally finished constructing 2 boxes...  it takes a lot more work because you have to drill first and then screw, but the boxes are looking solid as fuck....  i think we used close to 100 screws and under 10 nails...

we got a piece of sheet metal for the top layer of the box which should protect the top layer of wood from chipping and give really good slides....

ill upload pics soon....

[mrbagman]

I've never tried it but I feel like a sheet of masonite would work the best.

[rocklobster]

sheet metal top, costs around 40 bucks and it made the top of the box amazing to skate.....