Simple Skateboard Rack

This simple skateboard rack can be easily customized for up to five skateboards and can be built with a single 8' x 2" x 4" piece of lumber. If you're able to find a nice, surfaced piece of wood you should only need a miter saw or even a handsaw and a drill to build this. I'll be using a piece of cedar from a local reclaimed lumber store that unfortunately needed a little cleaning up.

Step 1: Preparing the Lumber

This piece of cedar was fairly rough and had some damage to it that needed cutting out. I started cleaning it up by running it through the jointer and planer. After that I ripped the worst of the damage off at the table saw. The final width was roughly 3.5" wide and a little over 1.75" thick.

Step 2: Cut the Pieces

With the board cleaned up, I started by cutting the back piece to length. I then cut all the 45° angles for the smaller front pieces. Here you could definitely make adjustments depending on how many boards you wish to display.

Step 3: Trim the Top Edges

Once all the pieces were cut, I trimmed a little off the top lip of each to help prevent them from chipping when skateboards were placed on the rack.

Step 4: Glue the Pieces

Next I marked a few guidelines for positioning the front pieces with roughly a 3/4" gap between each piece. I then glued each of the front pieces onto the back using Titebond Wood Glue. Setting up the clamps was a little annoying as the pieces wanted to squirm around a bit, but it turned out fine in the end.

Step 5: Clean the Glue Joints

Once the glue had completely dried, I used a card scraper and some sandpaper to clean the glue joints.

Step 6: Drill Mounting Holes

Next, I drilled a counter-bore hole in the top and bottom of the rack for two 4.5" Heavy Duty HeadLok screws. I drilled these so that roughly 2.5" of the screw would extend out the rack for mounting to the wall.

Step 7: Apply the Finish

For the finish, I used a coat of boiled linseed oil followed by several (6-7) thin coats of homemade wipe-on-polyurethane (a 1:1 ratio of Clear Gloss Minwax Polyurethane and Mineral Spirits). I sanded lightly between roughly every other coat.

Step 8: Attach Screws for Hanging Helmets

Finally, I predrilled and added two cabinet screws (the HeadLok screws would also work) to the bottom of the rack for hanging helmets.

Step 9: Mount the Rack

To mount the rack I located a stud and predrilled a hole for the top screw. I then hung the rack with only the top screw with it just barely loose (so that it could still be rotated). After leveling the rack on the wall, I marked where the lower screw should go and rotated the rack out of the way in order to predrill the hole. Finally, I added the lower screw and tightened the top screw.

Step 10: Hang Your Gear

That was pretty much it! This rack was for a friend of mine, and while it was pretty simple to build, I spent a little extra time on the finish which I think turned out pretty nice.

If you have any questions, please leave them below and check out the free plans if you're interested in building one yourself.

Step 11: Parts List

• 8′ x 2″ x 4″ Cedar
• 2 - 4.5″ Heavy Duty HeadLok Screws
• 2- Cabinet Screws (or 2 - 4.5″ HeadLok Screws)
• Wood Glue
  

Step 12: Tools Used

• Magswitch Magnetic Feather Board
• Power Hands Push Stick
• Card Scraper
• 10″ Dewalt Compound MiterSaw
• Grizzly G0691 Table Saw
• Grizzly G0586 Jointer
• Ridgid R4330 13″ Planer
• Craftsman 17″ Drill Press

Step 13: Plans

Free PDF and SketchUp Plans can be downloaded from our website.

Comments

[BekahW2]

can you use a shelf to make this rack?. and how deep would you make the cuts for the boards to sit in?

[surfari1]

What length did you cut the individual pieces to make space for 5 boards?

[AaronE24]

thanks I think I'm going to build this next chance i get. Though I wonder why you didn't just use the dato on the table saw, to minimize the number of parts and glued seams to clean up? I'll use my dato.

[AroundHome]

You could, but many people don't have dado blades and the reclaimed lumber store I went to only had 2x4 cedar :). Dado blades are usually 8" instead of 10" and using them to cut at an angle puts a lot of stress on the saw/arbor/etc. You could also use a normal 10" blade and make several passes per slot with it and then clean it up with a chisel.

[Djjazzyjasper]

what decks are those?

[badmammajamma99]

could this rack hold a 38'' longboard and a 42'' longboard?

[AroundHome]

My friend is using it with a 37" board with no problems. If you can find a little wider board (or avoid the rot that I had), then I don't think you'd have any problems.