DIY Garden Gazebo from Pallet Wood Part 2 - Trellis Panels and Door

The garden gazebo with its home-made trellis panels and posts is now about to take shape and provide us with an elegant outside dining area, far from the madding poultry. The previous blog article on this project, how to construct the pallet wood posts and frame, can be found here

Construction Continued

The perimeter of the garden gazebo now being complete,  the next stage was to make it chicken proof, starting with:

The Door

This was a rectangular frame of 50mm x 25mm (2” x 1”) wood for the perimeter with two diagonal braces of the same wood to stiffen the structure, to which were nailed laths of about 25mm ( 1”) wide timber. Once checked for fit, the door was coated in linseed oil and then hung in place.

The Trellis

The most time-consuming, but most satisfying part of the project. The trellis comprised a framework to which laths were nailed. The laths were cut to width from pallet planks and I had toyed with several forms of trellis pattern, before finally deciding on a chevron style. The main advantage was that for this design I would never need a lath longer than a pallet plank length. The normal square-patterned trellis would require laths the full height of the panel (normally 1800mm (approx 6’).

The size for each trellis panel was measured. I had decided that the trellis would fit between the vertical posts and be screwed to the top batten and bottom gravel boards that joined the posts. 

The frame of the trellis was made from long pallet planks sawn to 40mm – 50mm width  (1¾” – 2”). A third plank bisected the panel between the top and bottom edges. I made lapped joints at each plank intersection. Normally, the cutting of even such a simple joint can take a little time, but I found that by setting my table saw to a cutting height of half the plank thickness and making numerous cuts at intervals of the saw blade width, the joint could be created easily, accurately and quickly. The faces of the joint resulting from using the saw were not perfectly smooth but, as I was not going to glue the joint, I did not consider this to be a problem. You can find the link to my home-made table saw at the bottom of the page.

The frame was nailed at the joints. I used 50mm (2”) nails.......

........which I bent over on the reverse side.






As usual with a rectangular frame the squareness of it was checked by measuring the diagonals.
 

The fit of  each frame between the appropriate posts was checked before the laths were attached.

To achieve the chevron pattern I made a pair of guides (one a mirror image of the other).  Each guide comprised a short straight plank to which was screwed, at 45º, a pallet plank of 80mm (2¾”)  width. In use the guide was positioned such that the short plank rested against what would be the vertical edge of the frame, the 45º part of the guide would rest on either the frame perimeter or the central plank of the frame.

The first lath to be nailed to the frame was near to the top of the centre plank. I used 40mm (1½” – 15/8”) nails that were just less than the thickness of the lath and frame combined. Leaving the guide in place, the next lath was laid against the opposite edge of the guide and nailed in place. The guide was lifted out and laid against the edge of the recently nailed lath, the position for the adjacent lath being the other edge of the guide. A check could be maintained on the correct angle for each lath by keeping the short plank of the guide against the frame edge.

The surplus length of lath extending over the edge of the frame was removed by sawing flush to the frame edge,  Some of the offcuts were long enough to be used elsewhere on the panel. Once one half of the panel was completed, the same process could be undertaken on the other side, this time using the ‘mirror-image’ guide.

To complete the design, I also incorporated a panel of small square trellis, along the South wall of the gazebo, again using a guide in the same way as with the chevron pattern.

Once completed, each panel  was then put in place between the upright posts a g-clamp holding it to the top batten of the perimeter frame, screw holes were drilled in the top and bottom rails of the panel through which the fixing screws could secure it to the top batten and the gravel board of the framework.

To finish each panel I made and attached a weatherstrip to protect the top edge. The strip was a pallet plank wide enough to cover the combined thickness of  trellis and top batten. The upward facing side of the plank  was chamfered so as to shed rainwater. I used a router with a 45° chamfer bit to produce this but the same result could be easily produced with a hand plane.

Finally, the whole trellis and framework was given a coat of linseed oil to protect it from the vagaries of the weather.

Here’s to fewer intrusions at mealtimes! Now if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film.

All the best and thanks for dropping by. Please feel free to share this article, comment and/or ask for further information.

Bon appétit!

Cheers, Andy
© Andy Colley 2015

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Home-made Indoor Pallet Wood Trellis Planter Part 2 - The Trellis

Trellis is something that we always seem to need a lot of in our garden and it is often expensive and sometimes not very well made. 

When our first lot fell apart we found quite a handy alternative in the faux astragals in the double-glazed units we salvaged from a joiners. This however, has now finally rotted and I thought it would be a good idea to make our own from our plentiful supply of pallet wood. Having made this for the planter, I will now go on to make some more for the garden including an arbour in which we can eat, without the risk of marauding chicks.

The trellis back to the planter was so as to provide a structure up which climbing plants could grow and provide us with more space for growing food indoors. Furthermore, it gave the planter a more 'furniture'-like appearance. We were just in time in getting the plants in from the greenhouse, the aubergines were already touched by the first frosts.

Once again, I used pallet wood planks, Unlike with the planter  I did not plane the faces of the wood. Instead I used a circular saw to cut the wood into  21mm-22mm wide strips. I selected the width so as to obtain the maximum number of strips with little or no waste. I usually obtained four strips per plank.

These strips were secured to an outside frame which provided stiffness to the trellis and provided a means of attaching the trellis to the rear face of the planter. The frame uprights and bottom were cut to about 36mm-37mm (1.5") width and the top portion was cut to 50mm (2").

I decided the bottom of the trellis (the 36mm piece) would rest on the top edge of the planter so that this piece would support the weight of it and any vegetation. The screws used to attach the trellis would not, therefore have any excessive shearing stress placed upon them.

Constructing the trellis.

The uprights of the trellis were to extend to the floor. The uprights were placed onto the workbench, the overall width was the planter rear wall width. The lower trellis edge was laid onto the uprights at a distance of the planter height from the bottom end of the uprights. The wider top trellis strip was laid at the top end of the uprights and the whole arrangement was checked for squareness. These frame pieces were then joined together with two staples at each corner. I found that the staples were not sufficient to hold the structure rigidly enough, but were adequate for a temporary 'tacking'. The corners were then also nailed, the staples prevented the frame pieces from jumping around during nailing. Once these four framing pieces were joined together, the intermediate trellis laths were laid onto the uprights, I used a short piece of wood to set the distance between each lath. The trellis was assembled using an electric stapler (two staples per joint).
 

The laths were then trimmed flush with the uprights.

Without turning the trellis over, the vertical laths were laid into position and stapled to the laths below (two staples per joint). The surplus was then trimmed off.

The lower edge of the trellis was placed onto the top edge of the planter and clearance holes for the screws were drilled through the uprights where they touched the upper and lower outside rails of the base.

I attached the trellis once the planter was in the house.



Now if you'd like to, sit back and watch the film:

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All the best, Andy

© Andy Colley 2014

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