| How to Recycle Your Skateboard Into a Hat Rack Oct 1st 2012, 14:00 After a decent long time of many kick flips and Ollies, your trusted board may be ready to retire. Although you could just throw it in the garage or let it gather dust, repurposing it into a hat hanger can serve as an ideal tribute to the wonderful times you shared together in the past and gives it another opportunity to be useful to you. You'll need to do a little work to ready the skateboard for its new role but all in all, this exercise doesn't take very long and the final result will impress your visitors when they hang their hat. - Clean the skateboard. Remove the skate park grime and grease from the board, as you don't want this transferring to the wall. Gentle mild detergent and warm water should do the trick. Also decide whether you'd like to keep stickers intact or not and remove or touch up any stickers or emblems on the bottom of the board. The bottom of your board will be on display so if you have any rad stickers you wanted to display or new artwork, add them now.
- Remove parts of the skateboard. You won't need the wheels, so remove them using an electric drill. Also remove all screws from the deck as you'll be adding new screws when mounting it to the wall.
- Attach the hat hanging hooks to the board. Plan where the hats will best fit (perhaps an even three or four hooks across the board will work well). Attach as instructed by the hook packaging, either by screwing in or adhering to the board. Avoid placing hooks over the deck holes, as these are going to be needed for the mounting process.
- If drilling holes to add the hooks, take care to find areas of the board firm enough to handle the drilling without breaking the board.
- Another alternative to attaching hooks is to use hooks that are usually hung over a door or similar high spot. Such hooks could simply hang over the top of the board and can be easily shifted for adjusting the weight and placement of hats as needed. This leaves the board intact too. On the downside, these hooks might not be as stable as ones firmly attached to the board.
- Create the mounting system for your skateboard hat hanger. The idea is to drill a longer screw through the deck hole and into a wooden block. This block will then be mounted to the wall. To make the block:
- Obtain mounting blocks that will be used for the skateboard deck. You can either head to the hardware store and explain that you need two or three 2" (5cm) chunks of wood for mounting a skateboard, or you can grab some scrap wood for your project and measure it for yourself.
- Ask the hardware employee to cut three 2" (5cm) x 1.5" (3.8cm) chunks from the piece of wood you choose. Either way, confirm that you have 2" (5cm) pieces of wood, which tend to be the best size for mounting.
- Sand the blocks. If the hardware store doesn't do this for you, use sandpaper to sand down the blocks until smooth before proceeding.
- Map out the areas where you will place the screw posts in order to mount them to the wall. Typically you will need two or three holes for the most secure fit.
- Drill the screw posts into the blocks in order to create a ½" pre-drilled hole. You will need to create holes on one side of the mounting block in order to screw them into the wall.
- Secure the deck to the blocks using the 3-4 inch (7.5cm-10cm) screws. Drop the screws through the deck holes and drill them into the wooden blocks. Be sure you drill them into the side that does not have the pre-drilled area.
- Check for studs. Use a stud detector, or knock on the wall. If you knock to hear hollow sounds, then it's good. The stud detector will beep if there is a stud. If you come across a stud, move your wall placement out or in accordingly.
- Check the wall for before mounting the board for stability beams or other areas of construction that may impede mounting the board on the wall.
- Install the screw posts into the wall. Match up the pre-drilled holes to the area where you will mount the board.
- Using the same screws, line up where the blocks will be located on the wall. Use a pencil as your guide and a level to ensure they aren't crooked.
- Drive the screws approximately 3/4" into the wall so they are slightly protruding. This will provide a shelf to hang your blocks.
- Push the skateboard up against the blocks into the wall. Use a hammer to gently tap the board into place. For extra hold, consider placing one drop of liquid nails inside each block hole for a more permanent fit.
- Test the strength with a hanging hat. Go and find a favorite hat and hang it up. The result should be a firmly held hanging hat and your wonderful old skateboard on display for all to see.
- You might like to consider mounting multiple boards throughout a room (such as a mud room, man cave, garage, etc.), that can be used not only for hats but hoodies or other gear, even for hanging skateboard gear.
- This method can also be applied to old skis, snowboards, snowshoes, hockey sticks, or any other sports gear you'd like to turn into a hanger.
Edit Warnings - Check the wall for electrical wires before drilling.
- Always wear eye protection when working with power tools.
Edit Things You'll Need - Old skateboard in need of a new lease of life
- Cleaning gear (mild soapy water, soft cleaning cloth, etc.)
- Additional stickers (optional but here's the chance to give some good stickers a permanent home)
- Electric drill, and any other tools used to fix skateboards with
- Hat hanging hooks of choice (either ones that need to be affixed or ones with enough weight to hang over without falling off)
- Wooden blocks for mounting (dimensions discussed above)
- Sandpaper
- Saw (optional but needed if you're DIYing the mounting)
- Screw posts, available in craft or hardware stores (screw posts are often used in book binding, so if the store employee looks lost, mention how they are often used; before purchasing the screw posts, check to make sure the number of posts match the number of screw holes in the deck.)
- 3"-4" (7.5cm-10cm) screws for drilling through deck holes (use only new ones)
Edit Related wikiHows | |
No comments:
Post a Comment