Make a Skateboard From a Snowboard

I kinda made this project just for the heck of it (and because I thought it might be cool). I had picked up an old snowboard for free from the side of the road and was wondering what to do with it when this idea popped into my head. I figured "why not?" and started working on making it a reality. It turns out that this board is extremely fun to ride, turns a lot of heads, and isn't that hard to make after all. Let's get to work!

Tools and Materials:

- An old snowboard; try to find a stiffer board

- Drill press & bits

- Ruler

- Tape measure

- Angle grinder with cut-off wheel (or a saw of some sort)

- Clear tape

- Washable marker or pencil

- Sandpaper

- Eye protection

- Gloves

- Respiratory protection (not shown)

Board Setup:

What you use all depends on the size and shape of the board you end up making. I made a 28" cruiser-style board, and this is the setup I went with.

- 140mm trucks; I'd recommend using this size or bigger. I used the 140's I had on hand and while the board rides fine it would probably be better with bigger trucks.

- 56mm 90a wheels

- 1/8" risers

- Abec-7 bearings

- Standard mounting hardware

- Chose the shape you want your board to be and sketch it out on your snowboard. I wanted to keep as much of the "snowboard look" as possible, so I sketched out a nose shape similar to that of a snowboard and kept the rest of the board intact. I made my board 28" long. If you can't think of a design this website has a ton of templates to chose from.

- Snowboards are usually made of wood and fiberglass with a metal edge. I highly recommend covering your mouth and nose while cutting, because breathing in little bits of fiberglass probably isn't that good for you.

- Use the angle grinder or saw to cut out your board. Take your time; it's better (and easier) to take a little longer with the cuts than to try to fix a mistake.

- Even if you were extremely careful with the cutting you probably still ended up with slightly uneven (and ugly) edges. If you have a power sander you could use that, but if you don't you have to resort to sandpaper. It'll take a while, but it's worth it to have smooth, clean looking edges.

- Sand the edges using long, smooth strokes until you are satisfied with their look and feel.

- Getting the center line right is essential; if it's off center even a little the truck alignment can get screwed up, resulting in a board that doesn't ride very straight or smooth. Take your time, and check each measurement multiple times. Remeasuring is easier than restarting.

- Measure the width of the board at multiple points and make a mark at the center of each measurement. I did this on the bottom of the board. I found it was easier to measure the width on the bottom because the edges aren't sloped like on the top side.

- Use a straight edge to draw a line that connects all the marks. This line is the center line.

- Measure the distance from the center line to both parallel edges at several points to make sure the center line is in fact centered.

- Now it's time to chose your truck placement. I decided to have the front truck 4" from the nose and the rear truck 6" from the tail.

- Print off some truck drilling templates and check that the templates match up with your trucks in size and hole placement. Position the templates where you want your trucks to be and tape them down with clear tape. I used the templates from this pdf.

- Clamp the snowboard in place on the drill press. I used a small drill bit to drill pilot holes before drilling out the actual truck holes.

- Use a 13/64 drill bit to drill out the truck holes in the locations marked on the templates.

- Wash off/erase the center line.

- This step isn't essential, but it makes the board look much better.

- Use a drill bit roughly the same size as the head of your mounting screws (I used a 5/16 bit) to widen the top 1/8" of the truck holes. Be sure to do this on the top of the board.

- If you've never assembled a skateboard before this Instructable should help.

- I found, surprisingly, that I didn't need to add any grip tape to the board, so you might want to give it a ride to test it out before applying grip tape.