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Daniel Hamilton Mr. Nueburger English Comp 101-101 10 May 2013 Process Analysis Essay Half Pipe In the nineteen sixties skateboarding became popular in southern California. Early into its beginning, most tricks and elaborate riding was done on the street or a flat deck. The neighborhood hills, the streets followed was as vertical as skateboard terrain ever was. The beginning of vertical riding and tricks was born in the mid-sixties. One afternoon a local California kid, that skated with his friends, had the house to his self. His friends and he drained the pool while his parents were out of town. They carved the inside of the pool and started a whole new style of riding. As the style became popular, the need for places to hold competitions grew. Ramps were an inexpensive way to simulate the swimming pool terrain. Although a ramp is much cheaper than a swimming pool they are still costly to purchase. A decent size half pipe can cost anywhere from two thousand dollars to three thousand dollars. On the bright side, if you can come up with the material, building a ramp is simple with the right tools. To build a half pipe that is twenty four feet long, eight feet wide, and four feet tall, you will need approximately seventy five two by fours, eleven sheets of half inch plywood, seven sheets of quarter inch Masonite, sixteen feet of one inch pipe, lots of screws and nails, and probably four gallons of paint or sealer.

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First have a nailer or screw gun ready. Take four of the eight foot two by fours and attach them together to make a square. Do the same thing two more times. Make sure to hold your lumber square when you nail it. Next inside of the squares lay more two by fours all the same way and space them one foot apart. Nail them through the ends. Now you have more than enough support, you can butt the three squares together and attach them so that you have a twenty four foot long and eight foot wide rectangle deck with the majority of the two by fours running from one side to the other, perpendicular to twenty four foot sides. Now the middle square can have two sheets of plywood placed on it and attached. Be sure to line the edges up squarely. Take another sheet of plywood and lay it down flat and freehand with a pencil the radius desired. Draw it long ways on the sheet, it will be one of your sides and a pattern for the other three. Dont forget to include a flat landing platform on each end. I suggest it be two feet wide. Cut the radius with a skill saw and use either piece as a pattern and repeat the process three more times. Stand all four sides one at a time and nail them across the bottom or the outer eight foot squares. Next step takes us back to two by fours. Nail a couple across the back, on the inside of your radius pieces to help them stand. Nail one two by four, edge up where the landing platform and the radius meet. Now nail the two by fours in, edge up, every foot all along the radius. Cut pieces of plywood to fit and deck the landing platforms. Now were ready for the coping. We need two eight foot pieces of sturdy pipe. You only want about a quarter inch of the pipe rising above the deck, dont forget we havent added the Masonite yet. Tack the pipe where you want it with screws through the radius pieces, the nail in another two by four, flat under the pipe. Drill half inch holes at the ends of the pipe and at every two feet. Dont drill all the way through both sides of the pipe, just the face. Next drill quarter inch holes through the back side in

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line with the half inch holes. Finally run screws through the holes and attach the pipe to the two by four you just added underneath. Now our coping is secure. ` The next step almost requires two people. Use the remaining plywood to flex down to

and attach to the two by fours that are already secured at every foot across the radius. Holding everything strait and hitting the nailers without assistance can be tricky. Now that you have a ramp, add braces anywhere and everywhere that seems weak. Also a safety hand rail around the landing platform can be added with a few more two by fours. To finish cover the plywood deck with our sheets of Masonite. For the safety of the user, countersink screws for fasteners. Try to hit your two by four nailers that you attached your plywood to. Also offset the seams in the Masonite with the seams in the plywood so the whole deck will stay stuck down better. Glue can be used anywhere to help the longevity of the fastening composition. Now that we have a slick looking ramp it needs to be painted or sealed. I recommend lifting the ramp on its edge and bracing it up, in order to paint the underneath. This extra step along with setting the ramp on landscaping timbers or blocks will keep our hard work from rotting away.