Building a DIY Public Concrete Fingerboard Park (Part 1)

Project Conception & Preparation

• 💡 The creator aims to build a public DIY concrete fingerboard park in Auckland, New Zealand, inspired by parks visited in Germany and New York.
• 🛠️ The process involves creating silicone molds from existing fingerboard ramps and then pouring concrete into these molds.
• 💰 Limited and expensive silicone necessitated careful selection of which ramps to replicate for the molds.

Mold Design & Construction

• 🎯 Selected key ramps for molding, including a quarter pipe, bowl corner, jersey barrier, and a brick-patterned ledge.
• 🚧 Prepared the original ramps by sealing off holes and lines and constructing custom wooden boxes around them.
• ✨ A unique design element was added by integrating Azie Berlin pool coping pieces into the quarter pipe mold for a distinctive look.

Silicone Application

• 🧪 The silicone, a two-part mixture (100:5 ratio), was prepared and poured into the sealed wooden mold boxes.
• ⚠️ The creator underestimated the required amount of silicone, resulting in only a few molds being fully completed in this phase.
• ✅ The completed silicone molds were left to cure for several days before the next steps.

Location Scouting in Auckland

• 🔍 A crucial step was finding a suitable public location in Auckland for the park, aiming for a central spot that wouldn't be immediately removed by authorities.
• 🏙️ Explored various potential sites, including Victoria Park and areas with existing graffiti, weighing visibility against accessibility.
• 📍 Identified a few promising locations, but the search for the “most perfect spot” continued, considering factors like height and surface.

Concrete Pouring & Curing

• 🏗️ After the silicone molds were ready, the boxes were reassembled, and a non-stick agent was applied before pouring the concrete.
• 💧 The chosen concrete, believed to produce the smoothest ramps available in New Zealand, was carefully poured into the molds.
• ⏳ The newly poured concrete ramps require a minimum of 72 hours to cure within their molds before they can be removed, which will be shown in the next video.