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Simple Chunky Planter Build

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Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 01 Oct 2021, 12:52

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I made the planter you can see above back in 2007, using my old Black & Decker circular saw as well as a router and jigsaw borrowed from my father. The dimensions (1800 mm × 600 mm) were based on making it out of 2.4 m lengths of pressure-treated timber. The first photo shows what it looked like just after it was made. It's been sat in the garden for fourteen years now and the wood has gradually deteriorated over that time. However, I still like the style of it and I think 14 years is a pretty good innings for something like this, so I've decided to make another one the same to replace it. I'm not expecting this to be a very challenging build: my workshop is a lot better equipped than it was 14 years ago (so I won't need to borrow the router or the jigsaw) and hopefully I've learnt a few things in that time too.

I'm sure I could buy a planter for much less than the cost of the wood for this one, but I like the fact it's something I made myself and, more importantly, my other half likes the chunky style.

Even more importantly than that, Treacle likes it...

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... and so does Bramble (these two photos were taken a year apart: she doesn't spend much time with her paws pointing downwards):

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For most of the life of the planter, the end by the bay tree has been off-limits for planting as it's officially a cat bed. I guess the most effective way to determine whether I've done a good job with the replacement planter will be whether the cats still like to sleep there.

While I'm making the replacement, I decided to make two at the same time, one (almost) exactly the same as the original and a smaller 600 mm × 600 mm square one. Although I could easily just copy the existing design (which was based on some scribbled sketches I did), I decided to model it in CAD. Partly this was to see what the small one would look like and also partly because I quite enjoy modelling things in CAD.

This is the model of the large planter (including a few small design changes which I'll mention later):

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This is what the small one will look like:

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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 01 Oct 2021, 12:53

The wood, which I got today, is 47 mm × 100 mm sawn Tanalith E pressure treated softwood timber. The two planters should both come out of these lengths, which cost me £115 from Arnold Laver timber merchants. I'd ordered 7 lengths of 4.8 metres (33.6 metres total), but 10 lengths of 3.6 metres arrived instead. Given the lengths I want, that's fine. This is the same stuff I used to make the original one (except it was 2.4 metre lengths from B&Q). The base will be plywood; I can't remember what thickness I used on the original, but I'm going for 12 mm for this one as I have some already.

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These lengths of wood will be cut up into 8 × 1.8 metre planks and 32 × 600 millimetre planks. There would have been no spare lengths at all if I'd got the 7 × 4.8 metres I ordered, but with the extra 2.4 metres that arrived I've got a bit of room for error. There are some subtle differences (mostly just which edges are rounded over, but also the presence or otherwise of some cut-outs) between different pieces depending on where they sit in the structure, so it would be easy to make a mistake and cut out something that shouldn't be removed.

I mentioned that there are a few changes I'm making to the design. On the original the plywood was painted in gloss and the gloss paint was also used up the insides (to a short distance below the top of the soil) to try to protect the wood. There are holes in the plywood for drainage and some rocks were put in the bottom of the planter before the soil was added, also to help with drainage. On the new one I've decided to line the planter with some plastic sheet. I think this should be more effective than the gloss paint. The plywood will still have holes in; the plastic will have drainage holes over the plywood ones (I'll probably make the plywood holes bigger and form the plastic into a sort of funnel to go through the plywood holes). I'll still paint the plywood with gloss paint, but I probably won't paint up the insides of the treated softwood. I can't remember what I put on the softwood the first time round, so unless I change my mind in the next few days, I'll just put some end grain protector on the cut edges.

In the middle section of the existing design, there are only two cross planks, which can be seen sticking out of the sides of the planter. To make it easier to line the planter with plastic, I'm going to add an additional (hidden) plank in between the two cross pieces. You can see this highlighted in grey in this image (note that I haven't bothered to model the drainage holes in the plywood base, but they will be there in the real thing):

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After a few years in situ, the long bottom rails of the original sagged a little. While this didn't cause any real problems, I decided that this time I would add a foot in the middle to support the weight better. You can see this highlighted in grey in this image:

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This cross-section through the middle of the planter shows the new foot and hidden middle plank along with groove for the plywood base.

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In case the simple construction method isn't already obvious, this image shows the smaller planter with every other plank removed:

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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 01 Oct 2021, 12:54

Given the weather forecast and the fact that this is going to be a build done almost entirely outside, I think this project may take a while to actually happen, but I can get on with my weighted base box in the meantime.
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 01 Oct 2021, 15:51

The weather this afternoon wasn't too bad, so I thought I'd get the first job done: chopping the planks to length.

I set up my fair weather bench and put four lengths of wood on, pushed as far into the garage as they would go:

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The bench had to be slightly extended rather than pushed all the way in (which made me glad I made those steel arms quite long) so that the 1800 mm cut line would be over the gap (to save me having to raise the boards off the bench or cut into it). I marked the location with a framing square and a pencil:

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I then offered the track saw up and realised that my new chisel rack was going to get in the way:

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Close-up:

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Thankfully, the rack is mounted on French cleats for just this sort of situation, so I just lifted the whole thing off (with tools still mounted) and leant it against the bench on the floor:

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First cut done:

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Completing the second cut gave me a stack of 8 long lengths to make up the sides of the planter:

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Next up were the short lengths. I've got 20 mm dog holes drilled in my bench for cutting stuff square very easily, so I fitted some dogs (which were **just** long enough) and clamped a bit of plywood to the bench as an end stop so I could quickly make repeatable length cuts.

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I'd debated for a while what to do about the length. The planks were 3.6 metres long, so if I cut them into six exact pieces then each piece would be slightly shorter than 600 mm (due to the kerf of the saw). The original planter had pieces that were slightly over 600 mm (presumably the 2.4 metre lengths I bought were slightly oversize) and I wasn't too keen on reducing it more than necessary. After a little ponder, I decided to cut them up to exactly 600 mm, which would give me 30 pieces that are 600 mm long and 6 pieces (one per plank) a little shorter. I need 30 pieces that are 600 mm and two pieces (for the new foot and insert piece mentioned earlier) that are shorter than 600 mm, so all it means is that there are no spares and four short left-over offcuts.

With that decision made, I could cut up all the pieces. With the end stop set in place and cutting two planks at a time, it took me very little time to cut all the pieces. Last time I did this I would have had to measure each piece individually, so this process was a lot quicker second time round!

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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Andyp » 01 Oct 2021, 16:42

I like the look of that.
I used a plastic liner on a large raised bed I made earlier in year. My design left gaps between the horizontal timbers thereby allowing an escape route for any moisture that gets behind the liner. Will design make allowances for rainwater of even condensation collecting behind the liner?
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 01 Oct 2021, 17:19

:eusa-liar:
Andyp wrote:I like the look of that.
I used a plastic liner on a large raised bed I made earlier in year. My design left gaps between the horizontal timbers thereby allowing an escape route for any moisture that gets behind the liner. Will design make allowances for rainwater of even condensation collecting behind the liner?


Hopefully, yes, but I haven't figured out how yet! The only thoughts I've had so far are to make sure there are some holes in the plywood near where it sits in the groove so that any moisture can drip down and get out. I'm not sure whether that's enough though and am very open to suggestions...
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Andyp » 01 Oct 2021, 18:00

Mine didn’t have a base. This is it

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=4660&p=70340#p70340.
And
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=4772&p=72171&hilit=Raised+bed#p72171

It sits on a few bricks. Wire mesh stops the soil from escaping.

Was it the base on your old one that rotted first? That seems to be where your problem will lie.
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 01 Oct 2021, 18:50

Andyp wrote:Mine didn’t have a base. This is it

viewtopic.php?f=26&t=4660&p=70340#p70340.
And
viewtopic.php?f=30&t=4772&p=72171&hilit=Raised+bed#p72171

It sits on a few bricks. Wire mesh stops the soil from escaping.

Was it the base on your old one that rotted first? That seems to be where your problem will lie.


Yes, I think it was the base that went first. Wire mesh is an interesting idea :eusa-think:
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 02 Oct 2021, 11:52

I'm still pondering on this one, but haven't reached any useful conclusions. It's not like I can do much work on it in this weather anyway so there's time to ponder!

I'm keen to keep the (exterior) design as close as possible to the original as I think it's a nice looking planter. That does restrict my options for condensation prevention somewhat though (apart from the obvious option of just making it like the last one, without plastic, and accepting that it might not last forever).

Andyp wrote:It sits on a few bricks. Wire mesh stops the soil from escaping.


How did you attach the wire mesh to the planter to keep it raised off the floor with the weight of whatever goes into the planter?

Andyp wrote:My design left gaps between the horizontal timbers thereby allowing an escape route for any moisture that gets behind the liner.


I don't think gaps between the timbers is really an option as it will change the look of it quite significantly. I can stop rainwater getting behind the plastic by bending the top ends of the plastic in between two of the planks, something like the red line in this drawing:

plastic_path.jpg
(24.86 KiB)


... but that won't help with condensation and doesn't help with the plywood base. I guess gluing the plastic very thoroughly to the softwood would mean there would be no-where for the condensation to go, but that seems like a bad idea for lots of other reasons.

The only other random thought I'd had for the sides is to "stipple" the wood on the inside in some way so that it's not a smooth surface and the plastic only touches at certain points (assuming rather optimistically that the plastic doesn't meld itself to the stipples), so any condensation has a path down to the bottom. That sounds like a lot of work and I'm not convinced it would do the job anyway...

The base needs more thought too I think as I agree with you that this is probably the weakest part of the design. I like the simplicity of the grooves/rebates that hold a sheet a plywood in place, but if the plywood just rots away in no time then that's not much good. With galvanised wire mesh I could support the wire mesh on some cross pieces (e.g. some plywood strips in the same place that the plywood sheet was going to go), but of course there's the risk that they might rot and the wire drop to the ground, which gets me back to square 1.

Suggestions very, very welcome!!!
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Phil » 02 Oct 2021, 12:46

Nice looking planter.

Water, condensation will always be a problem
(that is why I bought a plastic one, it will outlive me :lol: :lol: )
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Andyp » 02 Oct 2021, 17:41

Think I might have misled you there Al.

The wire mesh does not form the base of the raised bed but only used on the ends to stop the soil getting out underneath the end timbers which, by design, are about 6” or 7” off the ground. It also, I hope, will stop rodents getting in. You can just see it in the image below.

Could you, perhaps, use a much heavier grade of wire mesh raised up on bricks with weed suppressing mat on top? This would allow drainage but allow moisture through. It wouldn’t need attaching to the sides at all. Any liner you attached to the sides could then lie on top of the mesh by about 6” all round.
NB I have never tried this, the idea has just come to me.

Image
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby clogs » 02 Oct 2021, 18:24

there's plenty of galvanised heavy welded rebar mesh to shoose from.....
I'm sure there's one that has 100mm squares.....with heavy plastic and or several layers of ground membrane that would support the weight of the soil without the sags........
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 03 Oct 2021, 10:26

Andyp wrote:Could you, perhaps, use a much heavier grade of wire mesh raised up on bricks with weed suppressing mat on top? This would allow drainage but allow moisture through. It wouldn’t need attaching to the sides at all. Any liner you attached to the sides could then lie on top of the mesh by about 6” all round.
NB I have never tried this, the idea has just come to me.


I quite like that idea and this stuff isn't too expensive. I'd still like to try to figure out a way to do it without the bricks: I like the idea (for no good reason if I'm honest) of the base being supported by the sides so if you look underneath you can see out the other side.

clogs wrote:there's plenty of galvanised heavy welded rebar mesh to shoose from.....
I'm sure there's one that has 100mm squares.....with heavy plastic and or several layers of ground membrane that would support the weight of the soil without the sags........


That would be great in principle: the thickness of rebar would mean I could set it into a groove in the body and use it in place of the plywood. However, I think the cost :o might ruin that idea for me!
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 08 Oct 2021, 15:51

Okay, I think I have a plan...

I popped down to the local countryside store this afternoon and bought three of these:

welded_mesh_panels_600.jpg
(44.9 KiB)


The wire is about 3 mm thick (including the plastic coating, so I'd guess the wire is about half that?) and the grid is 50 mm squares. It's stiff enough that I **think** I'll be able to get away with using a few random bits of tanalised timber I've got lying around to support it in just a few areas and hopefully then it will take the weight of the planter contents. I'll put weed fabric over the top and then hopefully won't have to worry about plywood rotting (as there won't be any plywood).

Something like this:

weld_mesh_model_600.jpg
(32.06 KiB)


Now I've just got to decide whether to plastic line the planter as well (with holes for drainage, obviously) and if so, what to do about condensation forming between the plastic and the long planks.
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 09 Oct 2021, 14:48

Yesterday, I bought this mesh from a local countryside store. Hopefully this will give a longer lasting base than the plywood I had originally planned.

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I started by created an initial model of the mesh panel in the CAD system:

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This morning I spent a bit of time playing with the dimensions of the overhangs and rebates to make weld mesh sit with a long edge inside each of the rebates as that seemed a good idea:

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The full model now looks like this (the overhangs are 45 mm, where on the old planter they were 50 mm):

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In the corner of our garden we also had this mesh coiled up (I think it came from my father-in-law's shed, but I'm not certain).

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It's a much finer grid, but not quite as stiff as the stuff I got from the countryside store (although it was still very hard work to uncoil it!) Conveniently, I think there's **just** enough for both planters, so my plan now is to use the plastic-coated mesh as a structural base (with the cross pieces shown in the model to support it) and then put the finer mesh on top to stop stuff sagging through the big holes in the thicker mesh. I'll then add some weed-resistant fabric on top of that and I think that should give a fairly good and long-lasting base. I still haven't decided whether to line the sides with plastic (and if so, what to do about condensation forming between the plastic and the wood).

With all the dimensions finalised, I could start cutting the slots for the joints. I wheeled the table saw out of the shed and use my cheap copy of a kerfmaker on my cross-cut sled to ensure the positions of the two edges of the joint are in the right place (I think I can get away with this as I used a stop to cut all the pieces to the same length, so referencing off the ends should be accurate enough).

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After that, I used the table saw to do repeated passes to remove the stuff in the middle. The blade isn't a flat-top one, so I'll have to clean up the saw marks later.

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Having done the first eight pieces (which form the top and bottom planks of the short sides of the two planters, and which only have the joints cut on one side), I decided to do the remaining 22 short planks with just the edges of the joints cut. I haven't decided yet whether I'll use the table saw to cut out the middle bit or if I'll find another way.

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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 09 Oct 2021, 17:52

In the end I decided to just cut the the middle bit out with the table saw as it seemed easiest while I had it set up. For the short planks I clamped them in groups of eight to speed things up and with that done it didn't take long:

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The longer planks were a bit more awkward so I did them one at a time with my other half holding onto the far end to support the overhanging weight. I still need to cut the middle slots on one side of each of the long planks, but I think I'll do that a different way as I can't take advantage of the kerfmaker so the benefit of the cross-cut sled is minimal.

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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 10 Oct 2021, 18:46

A slow but pleasant day today. I needed to sort out the bottom of the slots, which had a rough finish from the table saw. I could have done this very quickly with a router (I think that's what I did last time), but after a day of table-sawing yesterday, I fancied some peace and quiet. Rather than having ear defenders on all day, I put David Ford on the speakers and set the router plane to work.

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Most of it was relatively straightforward, but there are a LOT of knots in this wood and they were quite hard work. I guess I could have just used the electric router for the knotty bits, but I just persevered with the router plane. Once I got into the routine of it, it was taking me about six minutes to do each piece (with four slots per piece), so it wasn't too bad.

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I've still got to cut and then clean out the middle slot in the long lengths, but routing out the 52 slots by hand was enough for today.
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 15 Oct 2021, 18:16

After a lovely walk round Westonbirt arboretum this afternoon there was still a bit of daylight and it was dry so I thought I'd cut the middle slots in the long lengths. I went through each piece and picked a face that would be on the inside of the planter and then alternated them so that four had the inside face pointing towards me and four had them pointing away. I then clamped them all together with some of the spare pieces in the end slots to make sure all the pieces were aligned.

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I then marked the extents of the slots, deliberately marking them very slightly under-size so that I don't inadvertently end up with a loose fit. I could then use the track saw to cut the edges of the slots:

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I'd left the router plane set up at the slot depth after cutting the end slots. I could thus use it to quickly mark the depths on the front and back planks:

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I then removed the bulk of the waste with an oscillating multi-tool:

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Each plank was then put in the portable workbench vice and the router plane brought the slot down to depth.

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With only eight slots to do, it didn't take me long at all to get them all done.

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I still need to bring them all to the right width as they're a little under-size as I mentioned earlier. I also need to cut a blind slot in six of them, as you can see in this CAD model:

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The image makes it look as if the slot goes most of the way through the plank, but that's a result of the rounded corner on the plank (and possibly modelling the slot deeper than it's planned to be - I can't remember): it's a 20 mm deep slot in a 47 mm wide board so there will be plenty of material left.
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 16 Oct 2021, 11:16

The first job for this morning was to widen the slots slightly as I'd cut them under-size yesterday. I did this by clamping a bit of wood to the planks using it as a reference for a chisel:

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The next job was to get on with the blind slots. I started by marking them out, using the router plane (which is still set for 1/4 width from previous days) for the depth and my combination square and marking gauge for the other sides:

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I started by using my magnetic saw jig and ryoba to cut diagonally along the marked lines:

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I then used the oscillating multi-tool to remove the bulk of the waste:

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I set two of the stops on my router up so that I could use it to cut most of the rest of the waste away. I deliberately set one of the stops a fraction of a millimetre shallow so that I could finish up the (arguably more important) face with the router plane (which, as I said, is still set up from cutting the through slots).

Image

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Finally, I could finish the slots with the router plane and a chisel:

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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 16 Oct 2021, 17:27

I started the afternoon by making the curved pieces. The tops and bottoms of the ends have a curved profile. I started by making a template: roughing it out with the jigsaw and then refining the shape with a cordless-drill-mounted sanding drum.

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I then marked the shape on each of the eight pieces and used the jigsaw to rough the shape out:

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I could then use a template following bit in the router to match the template...

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... and then removed the template and gradually plunged deeper to go most of the way through.

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That left a millimetre or two still un-cut, but that'll get removed when I round the corners over.

I then re-used the template to make the foot, which sits in the middle of the long planter:

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After cutting the curves out, I cut the bar to length with the tracksaw and then held it in my portable workbench to cut some notches in each end.

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I then used a shoulder plane to tidy up the saw marks.

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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 16 Oct 2021, 17:29

The next job was to cut the grooves for the weld mesh to sit in. I've got this 8 mm shank spiral up-cut bit and that seemed ideal for the job:

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I fitted the big fence (from my larger router) onto my small router to help give a consistent cut.

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First up was the rebates, which are cut in two of the long lengths for the big planter...

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... and two small lengths for the small planter:

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Then I just had to cut the slots in the short pieces that form the ends and middle of the planters. I think I was getting tired at this point: my first attempt was in completely the wrong place :eusa-doh: :

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I haven't got any spare wood, but I think there are plenty of places where this can be hidden on the inside of the planter. I'll probably cut a bit of wood and glue it in to protect it a bit from water ingress.

This is where it should have been:

Image
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 17 Oct 2021, 17:14

To sort out yesterday's mistake, I cut a bit off one of the spare pieces. I squared up the ends of the erroneous slot and then trimmed the insert to to size:

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I could then glue it in...

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... and once the glue had dried it could be planed to size:

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The next plan was to work on the cross-pieces that will give a bit of extra support to the weld mesh. These need some cut-outs half-way along each side, at the level of the rebate/slot. I started with the markings on sides with the rebate. To make sure they lined up, I marked these up in pairs with the two rebates facing each other:

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I could then mark the rest of the shape of the cut-out.

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I think I'll cut these slots out with my oscillating multi-tool, but after all the routing yesterday, I didn't fancy another day of noise so I got on with some gardening chores instead. I think it'll be a couple of weeks before I get any more time on this project so for now I've just stacked all the pieces as out-of-the-way as possible.
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby AndyT » 17 Oct 2021, 17:42

I don't think I have ever seen a project where such care has been taken, with low-ish grade timber, to make a utilitarian job rather special. I salute you! When personal satisfaction matters more than speed, I like your style. There's no law that should shoulder planes be for fine furniture only. If you've got it, flaunt it! :)

And btw, have the rebuilding works and Covid precautions at Westonbirt got back to the point where the Friends are able to start milling and selling timber again yet?
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby Dr.Al » 17 Oct 2021, 17:53

AndyT wrote:I don't think I have ever seen a project where such care has been taken, with low-ish grade timber, to make a utilitarian job rather special. I salute you! When personal satisfaction matters more than speed, I like your style. There's no law that should shoulder planes be for fine furniture only. If you've got it, flaunt it! :)


Ha! When I started remaking this, I thought it would be much quicker that the first time, but I think it's going to be much much slower in the end as I'm quite enjoying doing *some* jobs the quiet way instead of the powered way. It's also a good opportunity to practise techniques on something that's not too critical.

Most projects I do, I do for the enjoyment of the project, so speed is never a priority.

AndyT wrote:And btw, have the rebuilding works and Covid precautions at Westonbirt got back to the point where the Friends are able to start milling and selling timber again yet?


I don't think so. I've never bought timber from Westonbirt, but we wandered down to the wood shop area this time & chatted to them. They had a few odd bits but not much. They're planning on setting up a kiln & starting to sell again next year I think.
My projects website: https://www.cgtk.co.uk
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Re: Simple Chunky Planter Build

Postby AndyT » 17 Oct 2021, 19:05

Thanks. I really like Westonbirt, but the chance to pick up some souvenirs used to be an extra incentive to visit. I must go again soon anyway.
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