Festool this - Strawberry Tower project

[awdriven]

Think it would be hard to hand saw it? My pull saw has a really flexible blade, it would wander.  Looks like I oopsed the image urls in my last post - fixed them.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Should be easy work for my Lie Nielsen dovetail saw.  [cool] ..... are you sure you want to do this ? ? ?

 

[awdriven]

Sure, let's go pointy. I am sure

 

[tiralie]

I think it would look better mated up with a half inch thick piece instead of three quarter?

I thought the 3/4  would look better but after looking at your Sketchup model I agree the 1/2" looks a little better. It's lighter and not so heavy looking.

are you sure you want to do this ? ? ?

ya, I agree no button on top. Although I like it, it looks a bit like the top of a pagoda. Actually the whole tower has that feel to it.

Tim

 

[awdriven]

Thanks Tim, very helpful to have  a little design input near the end of the project - I've been staring at it too long!

I've got about 75 strawberry plants going, most with 2 to 8 strawberries growing on them. The trick to choosing a site is that I'll have to find something that allows each side to get reasonable sun.

 

[waho6o9]

+1 for pagoda. Nice project, thanks for posting.

 

[jonny round boy]

The trick to choosing a site is that I'll have to find something that allows each side to get reasonable sun.

You mean you're not putting it on a motorised turntable, so they all get the sun?  [doh]

[big grin]

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Ok, just so we're very clear and it's official and notorized, you want the square button cut to give it the full pyramidal shape?

 

[awdriven]

Is there a supplemental Domino instruction manual handy that I can use to solemnly swear?

 

[Ken Nagrod]

Top cap modified and complete including the sanding out of some blade tear out that could be seen but not felt on the two long grain beveled faces.

Again, barrel distortion in the lens.

 

[awdriven]

It looks fantastic, especially for something that the birds are going to be decorating soon!

Ken and I should be able to meet up tomorrow and we'll drop this on top of the 3/4 inch base piece I glued up and then decide if the base piece needs to be planed down a little in thickness.

I used a couple 5mm dominoes to register the glue-up this time, so it would be necessary to plane a little off each of the two faces, or the dominoes might get uncovered.

If it is easier for you, Ken - I can just give you a 7 foot length of 1x4 stock that would be less fuss to run through the planer. Cutting and gluing it up is easy.

 

[Ken Nagrod]

2 foot length is good enough to avoid dealing with the removal of snipe marks.

 

[awdriven]

Placed it in the yard today - it's just pending installation of the cap piece.

Leveled it, filled 'er up with topsoil and transplanted the strawberry plants into it. I'll post some more pictures in the next day or two with the plants in there - but it looks kind of thin. I think it could hold a hundred little plants! (I think I put in about 65)

 

[tiralie]

Great work, nice pics.
Tim

 

[awdriven]

'Planted' pictures still to come - Ken dropped off the cap pieces and I installed it this weekend. It was a bit tedious because I was going for a centered, snug fit and that meant that it wasn't as simple as finding center and slapping down the MFS.

After cutting the mortice, I fixed the flat piece with four stainless screws driven down into the 2x4 uprights. Then I drove four screws upward into the pyramid section from below. The two faces didn't mate perfectly, possibly because screwing down the flat piece may have distorted it a bit. Since I had already glued a number of other joints, I broke out the TiteBond II again. Put the clamps to it and its looking pretty good now. I just need to sand the edges to flush them and remove some glue residue.

In terms of performance, the plants seem mostly to like the planter. I am still getting flowers and strawberries. The top tier soil does tend to dry out more quickly because it has more exposure to air and sunlight and is also just a smaller mass of soil. Those plants are 'ok', but not as happy as tenants on the lower floors. I'm hoping that if I can get the top plants to bulk up in size, the foliage will shade the soil. Soil washout was a bit of a concern to me, but so far it is seeming not to be much of an issue. It took about half a yard of soil to fill.

Thanks again to Ken for the help on this! The top really finishes it nicely. Everyone who has seen it really likes it.

 

[mparka]

whoa... what an incredible skill and effort!  I gotta keep my wife from seeing this thread over my shoulder.  Otherwise, it is definitely going to be added to "Honey, do" list..

 

[awdriven]

Thank you! It's been holding up well and now that the heat wave is over, the strawberry plants are happier - but someone/something keeps eating my strawberries before I can pick them!

I am getting a little separation of some of the top-pyramid pieces. The other lower glue joints seem to be doing OK. I'm going to fill in the minor gaps with some sealant. and clad that top part with some copper when I have the chance.

 

[awdriven]

I just ordered some new plants to re-populate the tower for this year. I have some survivors, but finishing the project in July was really far from ideal for the plants.

This year I am going to get them in early and give them a healthy helping of organic fertilizer to get them nice and bushy.

Some leaf coverage should help retain more moisture in the dirt. It should also help prevent soil washout. I did see some soil get washed out of the tower, but without leaf cover I am not surprised it happened.

There's still plenty of time to build yours

 

[awdriven]

I'll try to get some pictures up soon - I planted about 100 bare-root strawberry plants into the tower a week ago and gave them a good shot of fertilizer. I'm getting some new growth on just about all of them.

 

[sochart]

Hi everyone. Do you have a sketchup copy of the plans please ?.