Hi all, first time rink builder in Rochester NY here. I've got plenty of room, but my property is a bit slanted -- drops about 7" over 20ft one way, and doesn't really drop much the other way. I'm planning on doing a 26'x56' rink this year with 7/16" OSB as the frame (8ft long x 1ft high strips). I understand I shouldn't expect the OSB to last more than a couple years based on what I've read, but I figure since it's my first time, I'll start cheap to learn the fundamentals.

Cheap is good, especially with your first rink. Only thing I'd be worried about is the height of your boards...ideally you want 4" minimum of ice. This means that in your high end, you have 4", then according to your post, you'd have 11" in your deep end. That's still under your 1' tall boards, but gives you almost no puck retention. Also, what if your slope estimates are a bit off? What if it's 8" or 9"? You don't give yourself much wiggle room. I very much subscribe to the "overbuild, especially in year one" mindset so I would consider bumping up the height of your boards to 16". You can get three 16" strips out of one piece of plywood, so you do have to buy more, but not a ton more, and you give yourself that much more wiggle room. Another suggestion...brace the CRAP out of that side. 11" of water isn't a TON, but it's not insignificant either, and the water is not going to be happy to be contained inside your rink. You'll want to use wooden stakes (if that's what you're using) to brace the bottom, but I'd consider adding some diagonal 2x3 or 2x4 bracing at the top of the boards on your deep areas. I've attached a picture to show you.

@five8five - I'm in the process of building my first rink as well and I have a similar pitch. I planned on doing 16" boards or maybe even 24" to be safe.

Thanks Joe and Danny. I have been a little worried about the height in the deep end, and given the cheapness of OSB, I will take your advice and build higher. Not too concerned about pucks at this point, but having more wiggle room would make me much less nervous. I have been planning on wooden stakes every 4' for the most part, but I will add more support on the deep side too. Thanks for the pic. I will try something like that.

I usually go every 4' for support when the water is less than a foot, and every 2' (or more) when it's deeper. With OSB, double-up at the board junctions (I should have taken more pics when I used this approach...I'll look through my old pictures and see if I have a shot where I did this). Basically you'll have one wooden stake, then the end of that board, then the start of the new board, then another wooden stake. The two stakes would be less than a foot apart, with the board junction in between. Does that make sense?

That makes sense. Been drawing it in Sketchup...I think what you're suggesting is like the attached images, right? I was thinking of sandwiching a mending plate in there, driving the screws from the inside. Also, same story on the corners -- one post on each side of the corner, with a L bracket instead of a mending plate.

That's exactly right! I need to learn how to use that thing....you guys are pros!

No kidding eh? I've installed it but that's as far as I got. Too lazy I guess.

Sketchup really isn't too hard to pick up. If you've got an hour you can watch the first three or four videos in their tutorial series. After that, you should be able to do quite a bit. http://www.sketchup.com/learn/videos?playlist=58

What's this 'hour' that you speak of? Must be like the unicorn or mermaid, much talked about but never seen, at least in my house.