The Birthday Planter II
Last Saturday I began the day with a stack of lumber and a plan to build a garden planter for my Moms birthday. It was a very simple design and luckily, I pulled it off in time for party.
The design was taken from a gardening brochure which my Mom clipped and asked me to copy. I made it from simple ACQ with pocket hole joinery.
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| The brochure photo my Mom gave me as a request. |
The three (3) leg assemblies were made first. They were very simple until the angled support came up. While it wasnt hard, cutting the steep angle ended up being the most challenging part of the build (that is to say the build wasnt very challenging). I ended up using a square of scrap MDF clamped to my miter saw to hold the board perpendicular to the fence so I could cut the three (3) supports. This did result in my finished piece falling to the floor after being cut. If Id had more to cut I would have taken the time to build a proper jig which would have provided better support.
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| Cutting the steep angle. |
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| The finished leg assemblies. |
Once the legs were done it was time to cut the support slats. Because Id bought 5/4" x 6" x 12 for the slats, I began by cutting them in half. I clamped them all to my BenchMark table and cut through the stack with a pull saw. Unfortunately I cut them 60" from one end, not the 6 from the end I was supposed to. This meant I had three (3) slats which where too long and three (3) which were too short.
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For 12 boards, its easier to bring the saw to the wood than the wood to the saw.
Be sure to bring the saw to the right place in the wood. |
I cut the too long ones to their exact length on my miter saw and used them for the slats on the angled face (the front). For the slats on the back face, I used two (2) too short pieces on each row, with a simple but joint at the center leg. All the slats were attached with DeckMate screws. Scrap 5/4" was used as spacers for the revel between slats.
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| The front slats during installation. |
I closed off the sides with the same 5/4" x 6" slats. Because the front is angled and the side slats run horizontal, I lined them up with the rear slats. To line them up with the front slats I would have had to have ripped the stock to custom width to mach the actual vertical height of the front angles slats instead of the total width of the front slats.
Finally I ran a length of 5/4" x 4" PVC around the top and capped it with a 5/4" x 6" ACQ lip. I used the PVC so that my kids could paint on it for their grandmother.
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The 5/4" PVC is installed, the geotextile fabric is in, Im test fitting
the top cap and I forgot to take photos after this. |
The last part was to install was the geotextile fabric which lines the planter to hold in the dirt and allow drainage. I attached it with rust resistant staples.
Being the idiot that I am I dont have any photos of the finished project. It was still a great success in that it was finished on time and my Mom appreciated it.
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The Birthday Planter II
