How To Build A Mini Ramp with Billy Rohan

BILL ROHAN: Hey, what's up guys?
My name is Billy Rohan, and we're here to show you today
how to build a mini ramp.
And we're going to be building one that's 4 feet
high and 12 feet wide.
You want to have a good hammer to start out with.
You can find all these tools at Home Depot or Lowes.
An impact drill is going to be key, especially if you're
drilling the ramps together.
You're also going to want to have a jigsaw for cutting the
transitions.
Also, very important is to have your Skilsaw because
you're going to cut a lot of 2x4s when you're building a
mini ramp, so you definitely are going
to need one of these.
Also very key is a tape measure.
You want to have a good assortment of drill bits.
This is a level.
You want to be on the level when you're building, so
that's really important.
What this is called is a chalk line.
And the chalk line is used so that when you put your 2x4s in
later in the building process you'll be able to see where
they are under the plywood.
It's good to have a pretty heavy duty pencil.
I got this one from Team Pain.
But you're going to be writing on wood, so a standard pencil
isn't good.
This is a carpenters pencil.
Next up, your actual wood supplies.
So whether you're building a 12-foot-wide ramp or a
24-foot-wide ramp, you're generally going to use plywood
and 2x4s for your most standard ramps.
Our ramp we're going to build in an 8-foot section and a
4-foot section and combine the two later.
So right here we had to measure the length of the 2x4s
along with the transitions.
So it's really important that your 2x4 goes to the
transition, and the distance between the two is 8 feet or 4
feet, depending on the sections that
you're going to build.
A lot of people, they'll use string and a pencil and try to
run it from one end to the other and come up with a nice
circumference, but that's actually not the
best way to do it.
I'm going to introduce you to Curtis here.
Curtis is getting ready to build a transition right now.
CURTIS RAPP: On this particular ramp, we're going
to do a 7-foot transition.
So put one screw in the middle at 7 feet.
So this whole 2x4 is going to pivot at that point.
Drill a hole, the pencil's going to fit right in there.
And so you started out at 3 and 1/2 inches, that's the
height of the 2x4 that's going to be at the bottom.
Mark it out, get your pencil in there, and then you just
drag it along.
It just pivots nice and perfect, yeah.
You've got a perfect tranny.
BILL ROHAN: There you go.
It's about to drop.
To save yourself some money, just flip it on to the other
side and then you would trace over it.
So the next step in building a ramp, you're going to want to
mark the transitions.
The standard is usually every 8 inches, but since we're
doing this as a temporary ramp, we're going to do it
every foot.
So you're going to start out with the bottom one.
You want to make sure that these are level.
When you go to put in, that this is flush with this.

Anytime you're going to put in a 2x4 into plywood, you want
at least two screws.
Most people use three when they're building a ramp,
especially if it's going to be more permanent.
So we're going to go ahead and use three in this, even though
it's temporary.

You always want to start with your front and back so that
the rest of the 2x4s fit in well.
Now, this is where the lines come in that we drew.
The reason that we drew those lines is so that we don't have
to measure it every single time we put in a new support.
Since we're going every foot instead of every 8 inches,
it's good to use two 2x4s every other one so that way
you have extra support.
All right, so since the ramp we're building is 12 feet
wide, we're building two sections.
Our section that we just worked on is 8 feet wide, this
section's 4 feet--
4 plus 8 is 12.
So this is the flat bottom.
It's really a very basic bit of carpentry.
You take a 2x4 on either side, you square it out to a box so
you'd have one, two, three, and then four.
In this ramp we're going to use 8 feet of flat.
Some ramps are smaller flat if they are tighter.
It depends how you like it.
If you like it with a lot of flat, like we do, it gives you
more time for setting up.
So we're going to have 8 foot of flat on this ramp.
So when you start your flat bottom, you're going to start
with a rectangle.
It's going to be 4 feet long here, and 93 inches here.
On your middle section your 2x4s are going to be 45 inches
long, so they're different sized 2x4s than the outside.
And you want these 2x4s to be every 8 inches.
This is the coping.
This is the most essential part of the mini ramp.
This is a 24-foot piece of coping, and our
ramp's 12 feet wide.
So we're going to cut the coping in half and use one on
each side of the ramp.
Whenever you're going to cut coping, you have to have a
metal bit for your saw.
You can't use the same one as the wood or it will destroy
the saw and the bit.
You always want to make sure also that your coping is 2
inches at least.
You don't want anything smaller than 2 inches.
It's a really good size for your trucks to lock into for
smith grinds and stuff like that.
CURTIS RAPP: All right, so this is our deck.
The deck is just what you're going to stand on, and some
people do 2 feet.
I like 4 feet.
You can get some standing room.
They're not exactly the same as the flat bottom.
They're a little smaller because they've got to fit in
between the templates.
What you do is you make it 94 and 1/2 inches so it fits
in-between the template and can butt up
right against the coping.
There's going to be 4 feet from the coping, plywood will
fit right on top.
Put the studs every 16 inches.
There's going to be 3/4-inch plywood on it.
That's it.
BILL ROHAN: So there you go.
We got the skeleton ready to go.
And we're going to continue to put the skin and the other
layers on at the next location.

All right, so we got here to the spot, and we're having to
build on a slope.
So we have to build a false floor first, and then once
we're done with that then we can get started with the ramp.
So it'll be a little bit of a mission, but it should take
about an hour or two to finish up, I hope.

All right, so right now we're getting the other two
transitions to connect it to the flat bottom, and then
we'll be able to start plying this ramp.
It's really important when you're getting to this part of
building the mini ramp where you connect the transitions to
the flat bottom that it's all level.
So you want to push it up.
You guys can push this up.
When you push it up, then you're going to screw in right
there from the transition to the flat bottom.

You do about four of them in there and you should be good.
How these 2x4s made a transition and a flat bottom,
there's a line that's a perfect guide for your plywood
to match up with.
And that's when you start using the
2-inch screws for shooting.
Every sheet's going to have at least four screws--
four screws on each rim going across.
When you put your transition first layer up to the flat
bottom layer, you can stand on it.
And you always want to work from the bottom up so that it
doesn't get warped in the middle.
So you just start with your first 2x4, second 2x4, third
on up so that it bends with the wood rather than starting
on the top and going down.
You want to basically have a screw at least every
foot on your ply.

So now we're moving into our second layer of ply.
A lot of people try to get away with using less wood, but
it's good to use a 1/2-inch sheet of ply, and then another
1/2-inch sheet of ply.
And then your third layer, whether it's Masonite Indoors,
or Ramp Armor, or whatever it is.
But it's good to have three layers so that you don't break
through and then hurt yourself.
So you want to start on the flat bottom and then
work your way up.
Our top piece here is going to 16 inches because we put our
center piece 24 inches on either side.
So on our second layer we used a sheet of plywood in the
exact middle of the ramp.
You don't want it to follow seam-over-seam.
And so you could layer it seam-over-seam which a lot of
people do, but it's not going to be as solid of a ramp.
So if you change the structure of the plys so that they don't
go over each other, you're going to have a
much stronger ramp.
So this is the platform we built yesterday.
We just slid it in, make sure it's flush with your
transition, and then give it a couple of screws in there.
You want to make sure that it's level as well so that
your platform isn't sitting at an angle.
And then once you get it locked to the transition, you
put a couple 2x4s in and then screw those into the corners
so that it's supported well.
When you go to put your screw in for the coping, you want to
have a longer drill bit.
Usually about 6 inches will be good.

So the reason you put a smaller screw there-- that's a
3/8 size bit--
is so that the screw head doesn't go through as well.
All right, so it's a total of eight holes that you have to
drill into the coping.
We do one every three feet, so we do four holes that you
actually are putting the screws into.
The other four holes are countersinked so that the
screw heads go through the coping.
All right, so we're almost finished with our second
layer, and then we're going to move on to our third layer
which is the Ramp Armor.
Ramp Armor is a composite material.
It's super strong and also very smooth, so it's perfect.
It's made for skate ramps.
On this one I like to start at the top with it right up to
the coping because it's easy for it to slide down.
But if it's your third layer, it's usually
going to be all right.

All right, so these guys are finishing up the deck.
You want 3/4-inch ply when you're decking the ramp,
because you don't want to fall through it.
You're going to have all you and your friends standing on
it, so it's good to get real thick plywood.
Even 1 inch thick is fine for the deck because you're not
bending it.

So this is the finished product.
We got the ramp done and we ended up having
it done a day early.
So we're all really excited about it.
Now the best part is we get to skate it.
Also check with your neighbors and make sure you have an epic
party to celebrate your new ramp.

MALE SPEAKER: Is that all right?

MALE SPEAKER: It looks good.
MALE SPEAKER: Sweet.
Well done.
MALE SPEAKER: I'm psyched.
I'm so psyched, dude.