Teaser Reveal

Well, the minion and I spent a few hours working in the garage today and were able to put the PVC spirals and the random wire hanger bits together to make...

...some curved brackets and hangers for our Halloween lanterns.

The curved brackets are attached toward the top of the fence columns.  There are two curved brackets on each fence column.  I also made some toppers for the fence columns today.  I think it gives the fence columns a more finished look.

Here are a couple of pictures of the lanterns as it started to get darker.  I was able to play around with my webcaster gun today too. 

Cemetery Fence 2.0 Is a Go.

The first day of October was warm and sunny.  I spent a few hours with my minion finishing the assembly and painting of the last four or five cemetery fence sections.  We got the fence set up and in place.  Next Saturday we will tackle the fence finials, lantern hangers, and maybe the fence column toppers.  My minion wants to try his hand at tombstone carving and I have a corpse or two to make.  The last few Saturdays before Halloween are going to be busy.  I hope we continue to have weather like we did today.

Here are a few shots of the cemetery fence as it stands right now.  The first is looking East to West.  The second is looking West to East.  The third is a straight-on shot at a full fence section.  The construction is scrap PVC lengths for the vertical bars, scrap 1 X 4's for the top two horizontal bars, and scrap 2 X 4's for the bottom horizontal bars.  Everything for this fence (including the columns) was free scrap except for the brackets bolted to the columns and the paint.  Hopefully the extra time that it took to "over-engineer" this cemetery fence will translate to a long life for it.

Here are a couple of shots with Emma Sue the littlest zombie added for scale.  The fence looks to be strong enough to keep even the most determined of the living dead safely confined.



Cemetery Fence 2.0

Some of you may remember that last year I scored about 10 of these plastic columns from my employer.  My intention was to use them as fence columns for a cemetery fence.  I put together a bunch of eight-foot fence sections using PVC pipe (also free from work) and scrap 1 x 3 wood.  I used small metal brackets to attach the fence sections directly to the columns.  All this was done very last minute and while it looked good (we got a lot of compliments from people driving by), it wasn't extremely solid.  Now for the error part of the trial and error system.  The columns are hollow plastic and are in two sections.  the bottom section is about 4 feet tall and is open at the bottom.  the top section is about another 2 feet tall and is open at the top.  One week before Halloween we had a major rainstorm.  During the night, the top sections of the fence columns filled up with water, making them top heavy.  When the wind hit it was all over.  We woke up to find every fence column tipped over and many of the fence sections broken.  I threw out all of the fence sections and put the columns away (only after cutting a hole in the bottom of all the top sections so that water could not collect in them), vowing to learn from my mistakes in the next year.  Well next year is now.

I decided that the surface of the columns was too uneven to attach the fence sections directly.  I bolted a section of 2 x 4 to the columns with a nice wide bracket at the top and bottom.  The height of the 2 x 4 is the same as the space between the bottom and middle rail of the fence sections.  I squirted some Great Stuff behind the 2 x 4 to fill in all of the nooks and crannies and give the 2 x 4 a more solid base.

Here you can see how the fence sections will sit on the brackets.  There is still a lot to do on this project.  I will post more on my progress in the next couple of days.

Please Consider Me as an Alternative to the Landfill.

I have received a reputation around my workplace as a Dumpster Diver.  Many of the conversations I have with my co-workers begin like this:  "Hey, Phil.  We were going to throw this away.  Do you want it?"  Well this reputation really paid off recently when I scored these babies.  Can you say, "Cha-ching!"

These are hollow plastic columns, finished to look like stone.  They look awesome.  These will be the posts for my cemetary fence this year.  I will space them about eight feet apart with some PVC pipe panels in between.    Because they are hollow, I can see myself wiring up lighting, speakers, and even fog machines inside them.

Here is a picture of one with my son added for scale.  They are almost six feet tall.  I scored about twelve of them.  More than enough to encircle my small front lawn.

Being hollow, they make an excellent storage spot for all of the PVC pipe that I also rescued from the dumpster at work.  You know, it's true what they say; it's not the pay but the perks that make a job worthwhile.