DIY: Build a Skateboard Rack From 2x4 Stud Wood

I built a skateboard rack to give club room visitors a place to securely store their skateboards and longboards after zipping around campus. It gave purpose to some unused 2x4 stud wood that has been sitting in the club room for years. After making a quick 3d model in Autordesk Fusion, I (an amatuer) worked with a theatre productions teacher and built it in a single afternoon (~6 hours). It stands 4 feet tall and holds 8 boards, including space for 2 electric boards (which have batteries too thick to fit into the slots).

In this guide, I'll walk you through how to build a skateboard rack using nominal 2x4 stud wood.

Here's and overview of how I did it:

1. Make a CAD (optional)
2. Obtain materials
3. Mark and cut wood
4. Mark and drill wood for dowel joints
5. Assemble joints with dowels, wood glue, and screws.

I built this using the aforementioned 2x4 studs and a handful of materials from the wood shop.

1. 22 feet of 2x4 studs (3X 8 ft nominal 2x4 studs, actual 1.5" x 3.5")
2. 44X 1.5" long 1/2" dowels
3. 22X 2-1/2" wood screws
4. Wood glue

I used the following tools in the wood shop.

1. Miter Saw
2. Drill Press: 1/2 " bit, Vice Grip, C clamp
3. Measuring & Marking tools: pencil, eraser, measuring tape, right angle ruler
4. Hand drill w/ star drive bit for wood screws
5. Hammer
6. Router (optional)

Woodworking is very flexible, and cheaper tools and materials should do the job just as well.

Making a CAD model can offer insight on dimensions, joints, and materials prior to building anything. I took some measurements of the studs to verify their size as 1.5" X 3.5" X 8', then modeled the rack and applied a wood appearance.

TL:DR; CAD file attached below

I decided to have the rack stand 4 ft tall (1/2 the plank height) and 1' 3" across, with 2" slots at 6" intervals for the skateboards and 6 " protrusions. It will fit most boards, but might not fit smaller penny boards: anything with a wheelbase less than 15", although the design could easily be adjusted to fit them. Thickness is restricted by the 2" slots, which are plenty to maneuver a board, most of which are 1/2" thick(except for e-boards, which are much thicker and have batteries). For those e-boards and atypical boards, the flat surfaces on top and bottom should suffice. The angle is 30 degrees and help the skateboards rest securely in the slot. The 6" spacing between slots gives plenty of room to manuevre boards in and out without disturbing other boards. The 12" vertebrae make the rack too wide to fit trickboards (I neglected to reference one), so I recommend 9" instead.

To make the CAD model, I just used a plane sketch with the line and measerement tools to define the spine as 3.5" wide and 48" tall, then 6" long straight protrusions on the top and bottom (rib 1, 8), and defined the ribs 2-7 at a 30 degree angle from the ground and 7.25" long at that angle, each with the 3.5" width. I then used the linear pattern tool on the first rib to copy it 6 times along the spine axis at 6" intervals. Then I extruded the sketch by 1.5". I added 3.5" by 1.5" rectangles (the vertebrae) at the top, bottom, and middle of the spine, and extruded those in the other direction by 12"(I recommend doing 9" instead of 12"). I also offset a plane from the sketch plane at a distance of 6", then mirrored the spine and rib bodie(s) across that plane, completing the model.

All of the materials could be purchased at a Home Depot or other lumber store for ~$25: wood <$11, screws $10, dowel pins $3.

The tools might be in your shop, but there's cheaper alternatives:

Miter saw (table saw, hand saw will work)

Drill press (hand drill will work)

1/2" drill bit (wood bit is preferred, but not used)

c-clamp, vice grip (alternatively you can affix the wood to the table with c-clamp, then drill in horizontally)

ruler/measuring tape, pencil, eraser

With a complete model, we got an idea of what materials we need. There is 8 feet of spine, 3 feet of vertebrae, and 12x7.25" of ribs 2-7, and 4x6" of ribs 1,8, plus about 4" for the 30 degree cuts on two of the ribs. That led to needing 3x 8 foot studs, leaving about 3' 5" of scrap wood. We can also count the number of joints as 22 (1 for each rib X12 and 2 for each vertebrae X3), resulting in needing 44 dowel pins and 22 screws.

The dowel pins could be made smaller (e.g. 1/4" diameter), just make sure to resize drill bit and drill depths (if needed).

The wood was simply moved from our club room to the theatre wood shop (I carried them while riding my longboard, and received several curious looks), and I used the dowel pins and screws from the wood shop.

We marked and cut the wood on the miter saw.

To make the spines, mark an 8 foot length in the middle at 4" using the pencil and measuring tape, then cut there. It's worth matching the lengths of the spine with another cut.

Mark another 8 foot length at 7.25" intervals in 12 sections at 30 degree angles on the broad side. If you can't make a 30 degree angle mark, then offset a mark on the other side of the board by 2", and connect the two marks, which will give about a 30 degree angle. Then you can cut at each mark. If you are endowed with a full cutting table with a ruler from the miter saw, you can do as I did and turn the miter saw to a 30 degree angle, then cut the board at 7.25" intervals without necessarily marking the board.

Mark the last board at 6", 1', 1' 6", 2", 2' 9", 3' 6", and 4' 3" then cut at each line. That will make three 9" vertebrae and four 6" ribs.

Note that all saws blades cut at a certain width, so you will want to make all cuts at the same side of the line closest to the factory edge.

After this step, you should have two 4' spines, twelve 7.25" angled ribs, four 6" straight ribs, and three 9" vertebrae.

If you decided to change any dimensions, ensure to mark lines according to your new dimensions.

This is by far the hardest step and led to the most mistakes, due to the difficulty in aligning the drill and boards, and then drilling 88 holes. In the end, most mistakes were recoverable by redrilling the hole in the right position, or just leading to some of the pieces appearing offset or at the wrong angle.

To begin, mark the spines on the broad side (3.5" wide) at 3/4" from each end, and in the very center, then mark each of those three lines at 3/4" from the sides of the board, so you have 6 intersections where you will drill. You can then proceed to drill 3/4" deep holes, keeping the bit centered and normal (pointing straight into the board). Use the C-clamps or vice clamps to fix the board to the table so it doesn't vibrate while drilling. If you are using a drill press, you can mark the board 3/4" down and lock the drill depth to where the bit reaches your mark.

Then, placing the spines next to each other with the holes (or marks) made prior facing each other, mark the thin side (1.5" wide) of the spines starting at the bottom at 3/4", 2-3/4", and 6-1/2", then alternate marking at 2" and 4" intervals (8-1/2", 12-1/2", 14-1/2", ...) until 38-1/2". Mark 3/4" and 2-3/4" from the top. Mark each line at the middle of the board, 3/4" from the edge. These holes will match to the ribs. Drill all of the holes as before.

Mark the ribs (1-7) 1" from each end on the thin end (where the rib will attach to the spine), and then down the center at 3/4". Ribs 0 and 8 can be marked 3/4" from the ends instead, so that all of the holes for each rib have a 2" spacing centered on the rib. The three vertebrae can be marked the same as 0 and 8, just on both sides. Drill the holes, using a vice clamp to hold the boards upright into the drill press.

If you are using a hand drill, a piece of tape on the bit can mark 3/4" drill depth.

With the wood cut and drilled, the rack can be roughly assembled using the dowels to ensure everything fits otgether.

Since the ribs have sharp edges, one could soften them by using a router. We used a 1/8" radius router to fillet the mating edges of the ribs.

With all of the boards complete and ready to assemble, we will use glue and screws to hold the joints together.

Attach each rib from top to bottom by applying wood glue to the dowel holes on both the spine and rib, and on the mating face (the rib side with holes). Then, press the rib as far in as you can with your hand and a mallet. After that, use a hand drill to drive the screws in from the bottom face. It is best to drill in at >45 degree angle from the bottom plane to get a starting hole, then go down to a 20 degree or so angle to drive the rest of the way, holding the ribs securely to the spine. Putting the screw 2" or so away from the corner will pevent the boards from splitting (mine were too close). Do all of the ribs for both sides. Repeat for all of the ribs once again from top to bottom so you have space for the drill.

To attach the left and right sides, glue the dowels and faces as before between the spine and vertebrae (all at once), then drill into the center of the vertebrae from the opposing side of the spine to secure them. Repeat for the other side.

Wipe off any wood glue that squeezes out.

With that, the skateboard rack is complete!

There's some improvements I think could be made to the project.

The vertebrae were too long at 12" (15" wide rack) for trickboards (which I chose arbitrarily and didn't reference), I would do 9" in the future.

The alignment varied with the ribs, even with accurate marks. Using a die punch to center the drill bit and a wood drill bit (which has a very sharp tip for centering) would help greatly.

The wood is left unfinished since I decided it would be unnecessary (grip tape might wear it off as well), but one could certainly paint and finish the project if so desired. I think I'll just start putting some of the 184 free stickers from college to cover the mistakes.

The bottom two ribs are supposed to lie flat against the floor, but were wonky because of the alignment to the spine, so adding variable feet could help make sure it sits firmly on the ground. I will be placing post it's underneath to keep it level(ish).