Tree/fence interface

[Screwdriver]

Have an awkward fence to replace. It needs to go through a couple of trees.

This one is a bit more tricky. Had to sweet talk a neighbour into letting me plant a post on his side of the fence. Soon became clear the string was never going to hold it though.

So I tried a bit of cardboard but it was a bit too floppy.

So I used a couple of feet of 8mm steel bar.

I was a bit wary of bending it cold in the flypress but a few good bonks got the right angles and the gradual bend was much easier.

Gets a bit tricky when there's a half circle bit it's pretty much where I want it.

I'll rebate the ends into the arris rail and screw/bolt through so the C section acts as a joining piece.

One for the top rail, one for the bottom.

Then I'll weld a support bracket to take both C sections to the mid pole. It's all I could think of. Probably come up with something easier tomorrow but it will be done by then so...



S.

 

[Screwdriver]

Instead of having a bracket on the end of the arris, I'm fitting an angle plate screwed in from the rear.

Good welding practice and it's nice to be working on thick plate steel for a change!

Obviously, I am going to make the fit a lot more consistent.

OMG, I am posting pictures of my welding skilz!

Still, no one's ever going to see it (I'll know it's there).

Ordered up all the feather edge from Wickes because they had 10% and 15% off for Monday only. They had no stock of the 150mm wide boards I wanted. This is despite my calling their cust servs, finding a store with sufficient stock and buying it click and collect. They had been sent the wrong type apparently.

When stuff like that happens, I like to turn on the charm and see if I can make something positive from it.

"We have been sent 100mm boards by mistake, would you like to order those instead?"
"Hmm. No thanks, I really want the 150 wide ones. But I am in no rush, would you be able to deliver in the near future"
"I'll ask the manager....Yes we can deliver on Thursday. We're really sorry etc."

Awesome, I was struggling to find some transport anyway. Wicks are the cheapest place around, then there's an extra 25% off, then they will deliver for free! Result.

 

[arther dailey]

Thats a good service from Wickes,nice one!

 

[Screwdriver]

Ladies and gentlemen. I give you the TreeHugger™

Course, you'll never even know it's there...

Screwd.

 

[rtbcomp]

Don't forget to make some more, each slightly bigger than the previous one to allow for the tree to grow.

Good job though, not many people would go to that trouble.

 

[slim_boy_fat]

What was wrong with a chainsaw?

 

[winchman]

Tremendous

 

[thinfourth]

Treemendous

I could see a theme taking root here.

 

[brightspark]

just LOGGED on and noticed this POST

 

[Wendelspanswick]

You realise that some poor sap in a 100 years time is going to find that with his chainsaw while cutting down the tree* and is either going to spit on your grave or come round and kick your cryogenicaly frozen ass!

*I once found the handle from a galvanised bucket embedded in the crook of a tree while sawing logs, it completely knackered my chain. I reckon someone hung the bucket on the limb of a tree and it grew over the handle.

 

[rtbcomp]

 

[Kent]

Don't let the tree grow into it or it might ring bark it and kill it. Removing metal from a tree is a total mare had it here on a big sycamore. Clever job

 

[Screwdriver]

Thanks but I don't need to worry about it becoming embedded. I have 5-10 years at most.

Can't see in the pics but I pulled out an old iron grid which had become embedded in the root. Also, this tree had become infested with ivy. Here's how it was before I started...

 

[WorkshopChris]

View attachment 107780

Somewhere i have seen photos of a forest with all sorts of old bikes and bits of kit abandon after the war, all with trees growing trough them. Maybe Belgium?

 

[MCKDAVID]

What was wrong with a chainsaw?

share your thinking..... 30 secods work for a stihl, or twa days metalwork....also good fun..... décisions decisions...


I likee metalwork, but I likee ma chainsaw more.....

 

[Screwdriver]

share your thinking..... 30 secods work for a stihl, or twa days metalwork....also good fun..... décisions decisions...

I likee metalwork, but I likee ma chainsaw more.....

Not my garden. It's two doors down from me, bordering my neighbour. Felling a 15m tree in a 4m garden would be a bit more tricky than a 30second hack. Theres a shed right next to is for a start, a low wall to several adjoining properties and only a few feet to my garages. It's also smack bang in the middle of the boundary, took me a week to sweet talk the neighbour into letting me put a post his side of the fence, would take a lot longer to negotiate the costs involved in cutting it down and removal. Assuming of course you could persuade the council to allow it, the whole of Ealing is a conservation area...

I could have put two posts in one either side but they'd have to be a long way out to miss the roots (the post I put in was a lucky spot between two main roots) but the posts either side would have to be very substantial being end posts plus you'd need a sort of outrigger system to carry the boards up to the tree - and even then, there would be a gap in the fence between the two trees leaving an ugly sight line...

 

[Kent]

Thanks but I don't need to worry about it becoming embedded. I have 5-10 years at most.

Can't see in the pics but I pulled out an old iron grid which had become embedded in the root. Also, this tree had become infested with ivy. Here's how it was before I started...

Just saying because it wasn't me who put the iron on the sycamore.

 

[Kent]

View attachment 107780

Wow

 

[cumbriasteve]

View attachment 107780

He must have been going at some speed

 

[Migmac]

Nice work, good to see someone thinking of the trees. Wouldn't of been me, I would of bored a hole through it with the chainsaw!