I had calculated that I would need a total of twenty lengths of 4″ x 4″ x 8′ pretreated lumber and twelve lengths of half inch by six foot rebar. The rebar would be cut in to three to provide two foot lengths to pin the lumber in to place. I already had a spare can of the green wood preserve so I’m going to use that up first before purchasing anymore, afterall it was my mother-in-laws budget and I was trying to get the job done at the best price possible. As far as my labor cost, that’s a no brainer, that’s traded off by looking after the children! Once complete there will be some kind of oil based stain that will cover the whole construction but the tone or color can be decided upon later.

With the materials in tow and a selection of power tools, chop saw, electric drill and numerous hand tools my first job was to map out the boundary of the planter box. The patch of land behind the mobile home was pie shaped to a certain degree meaning that the planter box could be slightly wedged shaped so as to reduced the effect of the angle on the remaining land between the mobile home and the planter box. I needed to know to what degree the angle would be and the person best qualified to decide that would be my mother-in-law, afterall when all is complete she would have to live with the end result.

The block wall that seperated the mobile home estate from her trailer was approximately eight feet tall with a concrete base that spread loosely below. This in effect reduced the growing room so we had to make sure that there was enough soil at ground level at the small end of the wedge so that the plant roots could travel deeper if required. Another requirement was to leave enough room between the planter box and the mobile home, so the placement of the first stake would be at this critical point. With string attached to the first stake, the second stake position and angle of the planter would be determined by the taut string once hammered into place.

Now that alignment was set I could remove any soil that would hinder the placement of the first 4″ x 4″ and continue to a length of twenty feet or two and a half lengths. I then cut the corresponding lengths that would tie into the block wall, these had to be cut a little short due to the foundation concrete that spilled out from underneath. The next five layers were cut block wall style, overlaying each seam to strengthen the total constuction with no vertical seams.

With all the layers of the first planter box in position I had to drill the first set of holes that would pin the construction into place. The rebar was of half an inch in diameter therefore I would drill holes of 5/8″ to allow slight misalignment as I drilled through the layers. The spade bit would drill through the four inch thickness and index to the next layer whereas I would remove the top layer and continue with the drilling until the full six layers had been drilled.

Starting from the bottom layer each level was restacked using lengths of rebar to align each set of holes. As the levels got higher I was finding that the clearance hole of 5/8″ was coming into its own. By the time the sixth layer was set in place the rebar had to be hammered down to fully secure the sections and finally sledgehammered the additional length of rebar into the soil to give it a solid construction.

With the rebar fully hammered home the rebar was punched below the surface of the wood by approximately one inch so that a plug could be inserted to give a finished appearance. This was simply 5/8″ dowel rod cut to length and hammered in to complete the look.

With the main planter box in place I could turn my attention to the secondary planter, this would consist of only three boards high giving enough depth to house tomato plants. The totally length for this box would be twelve feet and adopting the same procedure the construction went smoothly with no major problems. The green colored timber eventually gained a stain that would give it a redwood color and blended it nicely with the block wall to the rear.

I found that even though the rebar had been set to a good depth there was still a little movement in the planter boxes but once back filled with the remaining soil it placed enough pressure to eliminate any movement. I knew that I still had to place flagstone and this would account for two to three inches in depth with the levelling sand, locking in the bottom board.

Since starting this project the planter boxes have remained in good shape and the only movement is with the plugs that cover the rebar tips, these have moved just 1/8″ proud of the main surface which I put down to soil movement and swelling of the wood due to moisture.

My next step is to build the arbor that will adjoin the privacy fencing that allows the rear of the coach to be that more private.

In the past, I have always struggled to support the timber and when I’m in the process of planing any lumber I have to use the Workmate that I have. The construction of my particular model has been streamlined over the years for quick production compared to the original model that I had when I was living in England. The original was a cast aluminum frame if I remember correctly, compared to the stamped sheet metal that today offers, obviously a sign of the times with trying to turn a profit. The fixings are nylon and eventually get stripped from the worm gear from the constant tightening until the top is no longer held down, making clamping a hit and miss affair. This reduction in clamping capabilities adds more frustration to the job at hand, so now that I have a little spare lumber from the Jungle Fort project I can utilize this material for the base construction reducing the overall cost of the bench but first I have to decide what size the top will it be.

To keep the overall expense down I decided to make the top from one sheet of 3/4 inch plywood from Home Depot, the birch faced. If I made the overall length sixty inches by twenty four inches I have three laminations with the center laminate made up from the end of the sheet. I decided to cut the length of the bench off of the sheet with a Skil saw using a straight board as my fence, clamping it into position to control the cut. Support for this operation was again my rather worn Workmate plus a couple of roller supports.

Once I had the two main lengths for the bench top cut I could split the remaining material to produce the center part of the lamination. This three part lamination would give me a sturdy two and a quarter inch thick bench top with a single glue joint for the middle section. As you can see from the photo the three pieces are laying on top of my machine stand with our faithful puppy close by just for extra support!

Now that I had the boards cut for the top I would have to glue them together but first I needed as flat a surface as possible. For this I decided to use my table saw as it had the extra wings for support and they were of the cast iron variety giving a good flat surface. Firstly I would have to remove the knife blade and fence so that I would have a completely flat surface, this was a simple operation with only a couple of bolts to remove. Next I waxed the surface of the table saw so that the glue residue would easily chip off and laid paper underneath to catch the drips of glue once clamped together.

With the set up now ready, the first board was positioned centrally to the table and all clamps opened up ready to do their job. Titebond waterproof glue was liberally applied to the surface and a notched spreader worked the glue evenly over the surface. The two off cuts that would supply the second sandwich of the work top were worked into position with the joint coated with glue to lock the two together. A final coat of glue on the second layer and it was time to place the last board on and start the clamping process.

I decided to clamp one end first to stabilize the three layers and it would allow me to push the inner section so that the joint would be tight together before clamping the free end. With the layers locked in the rest of the clamps were applied using mixing sticks as pads to reduce marring to the work top. Fortunately the wings of the extension were skeleton style so I could clamp between the ribs otherwise the throat of the clamps would have been too shallow.

To apply weight to the middle I used the full clay boxes that would be used for my clay modeling project, these weigh in at 60lbs each so three of these were more than enough to hold the laminate of plywood down. If I didn’t have these at hand I would have had to clamp two by fours across the width that had been cut with a slight positive curve to apply the necessary pressure to the middle part of the glue up.

I had glued up the bench top during the morning so after four hours the top was sufficiently cured so that I could unclamp and trim the edges of the top.

The width would be as wide as possible, all I had to do was remove the uneven edge on my table saw. As you can imagine there was plenty of weight with the whole sheet condensed into a twenty four by sixty inch top. It was important to set out my roller supports to catch the sheet as it came off the table saw as I would not have any control after it past beyond the anti kick back knives. I made sure to re-wax the cast iron top of the table saw to ease the amount of pressure needed to move the board and I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was. This allowed for plenty of control while I pushed it through the saw blade and resulted in a crisp clean cut.

For the ends I would have to use a portable power planer as this would be the best way to get a decent finish without too much effort. Any adjustment could be made with a hand plane but I didn’t hit any snags and ended up with all edges smooth and square. For now I had a top and I could move forward and construct the base from the spare lumber, I will eventually edge the top with pine before fitting it to the base but first I have to get the basics together so the next stage is the base.

The endless options that it has to offer far outweighs the amount of time that it took for me to construct, mind you little hands had a lot to play with the construction as well.

Helping with the ratcheting of the bolts, placement of the climbing wall rocks, bringing nails and screws to the construction site, it all brings back those memories that will last a lifetime. So now that it is finished, what’s next?

With any large construction project it is important to ensure that all bolts are kept tight and during the course of the construction the timbers have shrunk and expanded with the bolts loosening up to where they need to be cinched tight again. I had noticed that the swings had been slipping when in full flight with the tell-tale signs of wear around the hangers. I remember when I had tighted these bolts up initially and how difficult it was to wind them in to the full depth, probably because of the moisture content of the timber but now that it had dried out fully it was far easier to lock up tight again.

The first thing that I wanted to do was to tighten the swing hangers and this also meant greasing to eliminate any squeaks that had worked in during the period of play. All the bolts holding the main frames together would have to be checked as would the slide installation. The roof tarp had remained firm during the winter storms and all the high winds, not even popping any of the press studs which is quite impressive as the palm trees were banging against the side of the house at the height of the winds. The bolts holding the climbing wall rocks and the grab handles were all checked and the climbing rope will have to be knotted again to take up some of the slack gained through use. The picnic table cover need a quick wipe to remove dust but apart from that everything is still sturdy as a rock.

A couple of hours saw all the bolts checked and tightened, regreased hangers with swing seats and covers wiped. I had noticed a little of the redwood stain missing in some areas so I will touch up and refresh these areas. I had not coated the rungs of the monkey bars with any preserve or redwood stain but had noticed over the winter that a little mold has set in because of the dampness associated with the beach. To combat this I will have to coat with preserve and then cover with redwood stain. The redwood stain will eventually have to be rubbed down to remove the roughness so that it doesn’t tear little hands when in use.

With all this taken care of the Jungle Fort is once again ready for a full season of kid mania and that doesn’t mean just mine. Since the construction it has been a worthy competitor to the local park with school friends and pre-schoolers enjoying the construction and all in the safety of our own backyard.

So what’s next on the construction horizon, I think it’s time to make a work bench so I don’t have to keep working on the floor. The good thing is I have some timber left over so that will take care of the frame. If your interested, check back on a regular basis and see where I’m at, until then enjoy!

I had noticed during the drying process that the end of the log had started to split and by that time it was too late to think about coating the end to stop the quick evaporation. What I should have done in the first place was to coat both ends of the sawn log with some spare latex paint to even out the evaporation and this may have reduced the amount of cracking. I would estimate that the cracks had penetrated a full one inch into the log at this time. The project that I wanted to do called for a piece eleven inches long by three inches by two and a half inches which would be marginal with what I had to work with. With the hardness of the timber unknown to me I had decided to use a base made from one inch thick figured oak that had been lying around and I knew this material would give a base that would be hard and durable.

My first task was to cut a flat on the tallest side and with a few stubs left over from branches that had been trimmed off, this provided the stability needed to run it through the bandsaw. I had also placed a wedged piece of pine along the length to stop any grab from the blade as an extra precaution and feeling confident I took the first step to cutting a flat on that side.

With that first freehand cut I was pleased with the flatness and could then cut another length off at right angles to give me a square face for marking out the blank. I set the fence of the bandsaw at three inches hoping to get the overall width that I needed and cut off the excess strip. I found there were only a few inclusion of bark and I felt confident that most of this would be lost during the shaping process. I had already decided to use the figured oak block for the sole of the cabinet scraper so the thickness for this blank could be reduced to one and a half inches. This face would be the one that I would glue the oak block to as there would be no inclusions just solid wood. I was well pleased with the drying out process, the wood cut cleanly with no grab from the bandsaw and the surface was dry to the touch.

Now with the blank cut out I will sand the faces to flatten off and glue the one inch of figured oak to the face that would be the sole of the scraper. I’ll use a couple of wooden none marring clamps to glue the chunk of oak on so as to keep a minimal glue joint, once cured I would cut and sand the block to the size required.

I had photocopied the layout from the magazine as a quick guide to laying out the design on the block of wood, firstly, so that I would not mess up the magazine and secondly, as a working drawing it was bound to end up grubby. With these plans I then enlarged the photocopy to fit within the block size that I had and with both front and plan views enlarged I could scribe on two controlling lines on to the wooden blank. These lines would be the centerline of the cabinet scraper and a longitudinal line or the line that would cover the breadth of the tool. This would allow me to center up the photocopy and also control the placement of the photocopy for the outer edges of the tool. On each of the photocopies I notched out on the centerline and on the longitudinal line that would correspond to the scribe line on the block of wood for ease of placement.

With the photocopies prepared and the scribe lines in place I sprayed each with a Super 77 contact adhesive by 3M so that the paper would stay in place while the profile was cut on the bandsaw. Each profile is cutout but the resulting offcut is not discarded but re-taped into position so as to provide a stable platform for the next operation. This method was used for the top and front face profiles removing all the excess timber leaving a rough shaped blank ready for carving.

To shape the handles I mainly used a three quarter inch paring chisel rounding off the edges so the feel was good between thumb and forefinger. The shape of the handle nestled nicely in the palm of my hand giving it an overall feel of good balance and control.

To further shape the handles I used a wood rasp to fine tune the radii and cleaned up the shape with various grades of sandpaper. Where the wood had cracked during the drying process I filled with a five minute epoxy resin. This enabled me to go back in and reshape without having to wait too long. The resin worked well with the coloration of the wood and the various gray tones that ran through the grain, stabilizing any further shrinkage and possible disaster should the handle splint in two. I know I went into this project with a “It doesn’t matter attitude” but now that I’m enjoying the results I want it to work.

Once I had the shape I further shaped with a garnet based sandpaper which is as coarse as it gets to take out any lumps from the resin.

With all the body form complete apart from a final smooth down with fine sandpaper I next marked out the blade holder which at this moment is still attached to the main body of the scraper. The blade holder has an overall thickness of 5/8 of an inch at the top and would be cut on the bandsaw at an angle of 85° that means an angle tilt of the table of 5° taking off the slice would then make the blade holder. I flattened the face of the body of the scraper with a small block plane and checked with a straight edge to make sure it was flat. The blade holder was flattened by rubbing on a sheet of sandpaper because the minimal thickness made it awkward to hold in a vise. I could have held it down with double sided tape but I still had the photocopy of the blade holder on the outside that I still had to shape to so I opted for sanding.

The blade holder was offered up to the body to make sure that the two faces met squarely without too much of a gap so that when the two are screwed together there will be less material to remove from the bottom of the scraper to realign. I wasn’t too concerned with the faces being completely flush as most of the face on the blade holder would be removed to create the throat and clearance for the wood shavings.

I was now at a stage where I had to make the blade of the scraper, for me this is not a problem. My main occupation involves clay modeling and with this type of job I use many different thicknesses of spring steel to form the resulting clay shapes. I had some spare 0.032″ thickness of blue spring steel and I was able to shear a piece three inches by two inches to give a reasonable size blade ideal for this application.

With the blade size now determined I could scribe a line around the blade onto the blade holder giving me the outline where it would sit. From this scribe line a parallel line of 1/8″ was placed inside indicating the position where the material would be cut away to give clearance for the wood shavings and allow 1/8″ for the blade to seat and be held in position. The throat would taper from 3/16″ at the bottom to 3/8″ at the top giving plenty of clearance for the shavings to pass through, for this exercise I just chiseled the material away from both ends rather than cut on the bandsaw.

With the clearance now cut I then rebated the 1/8″ shoulder that would retain the blade in position once screwed to the main body. Plenty of care had to be taken when I approached this as the depth of cut was only 0.030″ so that the blade would remain clamped tight, if I overcut the depth then I would have to shave the face of the blade holder down so that it would secure the blade tightly. I resharpened my chisel and gingerly cut each shoulder down checking numerously with the blade until the depth was correct leaving the faintest feel of the blade above the blade holder. Satisfied with the result I could now use the still attached photocopy to drill the positions of the screws that would attach the blade holder to the body.

The screws that I used were two 1 1/4″ sheet metal screws easy to find from any hardware store, make sure they’re pan heads though so that they sit on top of the wood once tightened. The clearance hole was put through on the drill press so I had to drill the pilot hole with a drill gun because of the slight angle. The face of the blade holder was at 5° so with the hole being square to that surface there would be a slight change in angle and I needed to keep the pilot hole square to the pilot hole to eliminate any slip once screwed together.

The design called for a 1/4″ thumbscrew by 2″ but I opted for a 3″ bolt instead because it is much easier to find and there will by little resistance when operated to flex the blade so a thumbscrew is not absolutely necessary. The nut I made from a piece of 1/8″ steel plate and tapped in the thread, with the nut being square it will be a lot easier to rebate in with only four sides to be aligned.

The clearance hole for the bolt was marked out on the back face of the main body and this was set at 3/4″ above the baseline and on the centerline. Once the clearance hole was drilled the bolt was inserted and the nut attached so the outline could be marked on ready for rebating. The rebate is easy enough with a 1/4″ chisel and it doesn’t have to be completely flat at the bottom of the rebate, the important thing is to retain the nut in the rebate tightly rather than to be loose.

The final finish for the cabinet scraper is a liberal coat of boiled linseed oil with all excess being wiped off after several minutes and a coat of paste wax. The blade had a 45° angle placed on and a burr to aid in the removal of wood shavings as described by the article. I’m not so sure that this is the best way as I always refer to my clay modeling experience where the steel has to be square with no burrs but I will try it both ways. The thing with placing a burr on the tool is if it is too curled the edge will not cut as the edge has returned on itself whereas a square edge will always remain sharp. I would be interested in anyones thoughts on this but I have tried it out both ways and it cuts like a charm, now all I really need is a good old gnarly project!

I found when fixing the grab handles the use of a pilot hole for the bolts and a little grease on the thread made it easier to ratchet the bolts into place and also prevented the timber from puckering up when winding them in tight. This ensured the handles ended up with a nice flush fit eliminating any rocking effect from ill fitted handles.

These handles from Detailed Play Systems are made from a high quality plastic and seem to be able to take plenty of abuse from the children, even though they are very smooth they offer plenty of grip with finger ridges inside. I would imagine that they have been tried and tested for being outside in the elements but only time will tell if they will crack or become brittle. I have tried pulling on them and they have been very secure but they are very slick so any moisture on them will increase the slipperiness of the surface so I have made a mental note to warn the children to be extra careful on those damp days.

All in all I have fitted a total of four sets of grab handles to all the openings and I’m glad I did as they hang out of the entrances calling to each other, much to my anxiety!

An additional item that I forgot to mention during the construction of the ramp was adding an assist rope. I didn’t anticipate that this would be so integral to the ramp but to my surprise this turned out to be a very important item. The ramp was quite steep and the rope is a must for young children who want to climb up and with the addition of the grab handles at the top it completed the overall safety for this item.

My children straddle the rope and haul themselves to the top where they then hold onto the grab handle while they lift their leg back over the rope and step onto the decking, all in one seamless motion.

With all the grab handles taken care of and all ropes in position the roof tarp was the one item that would keep the intensity of the sun off the children during the summer months and reduce the wind and drizzle during the winter. I had opted for the mega size roof tarp purely for this reason and I wasn’t disappointed with the choice. The material was marine grade and I had gone for a solid green color so that it would blend in with the surrounding foliage. I didn’t particularly want to draw attention to the structure just incase it would offend anyone, if it were a candy stripped top there would be no hiding the fact that this was a big Jungle Gym.

The roof tarp was a large 59 inches by 160 inches and would be held on with stainless steel snaps. The female part of the snap was already incorporated into the fabric of the top which left the male portion of the snap to be fitted to the rails that had already been installed for the roof. The first task was to place the roof tarp over the ridge of the roof and equally space it along the length as there would be approximately a gap of one inch per end.

The tarp then being stretched over the outer rails and clamped into position while the same procedure was used for the other side. This allowed for adjustment without any of the snaps being put in place. I needed to keep an equal amount of overhang per side and I knew there would be a little stretching involved when I started fitting the snaps. With the roof tarp finally dry fitted I clamped the tarp to the ridge rail so there wouldn’t be any sliding while I fitted the first side of snaps.

To find the position where to drill the pilot hole for the screw I stretched the roof tarp and pushed the attached snap to make an indentation on the outer rail leaving a perfect circle. This would provide the guide for the pilot hole and a simple one screw operation to fix the first snap into position.

I continued to use the same procedure for all the snaps on the first side and kept the tarp parallel to the bottom edge of the outer rail. I didn’t want to over stretch and have the tarp snapping askew on the rail. I was estimating that when I started to fix the second side down the tarp would line up parallel to the outer rail as well. I knew that the lengths cut for the roof rails were all correct and had been assembled correctly so there was no reason not to line up.

With the one side now snapped in place I could undo the clamps holding the tarp to the ridge rail and give an extra pull to release any wrinkles in the roof tarp before lightly clamping again. I again marked the position of the snap by indenting the outer rail but made sure to pull the tarp down as far as I could. I was hoping that they’d still be enough slack so that I’ll be able to snap both parts of the snap together. It was important to have a taut canopy but not that the snaps would come undone at the slightest pressure. With all the snaps in place the roof tarp ended slightly higher up the outer rail on the second side but parallel and the canopy had good tension. The real test would be during the winter when the storms start blowing in off the ocean, then I would find out if it would hold securely.

With a few minor elements to put in place, trapeze swing, disc swing and rope ladder this major construction project will come to a close and all that will be required is the annual maintenance of checking the bolts and an occasional coat of redwood stain, an amazing job when I look back at the photographs of the original pile of timber.