This little beast was more work to build than anticipated, however the page has been turned. I thought I’d share some pictures of the assembly and installation.
I started with the lower tier of the trellis, fitting the battens into the central rib, and then one pair of legs with associated stretcher:
All the battens employ bare-face tenons on both ends.
On goes the other pair of legs and stretcher:
That completes the assembly of the lower portion. On to the top tier, again beginning with attachment of the individual battens to the central rib:
The remainder of the upper frame is brought together, and then entire assembly is plopped onto the four posts:
Time for some wedging on those post tenons:
Then trimmed flush:
With tenons on the posts now firmly attached, I moved on to putting the stubby shachi sen into place to lock up the corner joints:
The second one driven in completes the outer rod tenon connection:
Then the pins are trimmed:
Another corner – here’s the site of the patch you saw in the first post in this thread:
A look at an inside corner, where there is also a rod tenon and a pair of ‘parallelogram-shaped tapered wedging pins’ (It is quicker to say shachi sen, yes?):
The connections drew up fairly well with the pins in place:
Another corner:
Another:
Considering I spent very little time fussing the fits of those joints, trying to complete the work as quickly as I could, they turned out decently I thought. I had planned on doing a separate beveled cap structure as well, but decided to pass on that plan. That might be a mistake, as I think the cap would have added considerable durability. That said, the cap can be added later if need be, so no worries. We’ll see how the Jatobá hangs in there over the seasons.
The lower tier of trellis has a central beam fixed to the stretchers using double-wedged tenons:
The corner connections of post and stretcher, employing haunched half tenons and wedging:
The upper tier’s central beam is attached using a 0.25″ Ipé peg, and I did simple mason’s miters at the meeting of upper arrises:
I used Jatobá for the wedges and shachi sen, and Ipé for the pins.
I gave the piece a quick an cursory swipe with the plane along the top and took the piece back to my house for the install. The two-tier trellis fit, as it was meant to, upon the Black Locust raised bed frame, now keeping ‘tower of power’ company:
Once screwed down with some stainless 2″ screws, I dabbed some paint on bits of exposed end grain. It’s done!
Here’s a few more shots of the piece:
It’s a climbing gym for plants:
It’s nice to complete the main portion of garden construction for this year. I’m planning to pull the front axle out of my truck and rebuild it in the next week, so I wanted to get the trucking of pieces like this all wrapped up before I lose use of the vehicle.
The garden architecture is a bit of a laboratory for me. I can compare how Spanish Cedar, Teak, Jatobá and Black Locust stand up to the conditions, which in Westerm Mass orbit between well below zero and 0% humidity, to quite hot and 100% humidity. I have various different forms of connections and forms of making the attachments that can also be compared over time. It should be educational. I am looking forward to seeing the plants draped all over the two trellises later in the summer and will post up a pic or two so you can see too. This is all a big experiment I guess, as growing cukes, melons and squash on a trellis is not commonly done I don’t think. I’m a novice gardener so it’s all about learning from experience here.
Thanks for coming by the Carpentry Way.