Project № 5 Sunday 6th of August 2023

Project № 5: Planter

Completion Date: 11 July 2023
Size: 44cm (W) x 44cm (D) x 60cm (H)
Approximate Volume: 64 litres

Materials

This first list is for the box itself.

• PZ Double-countersunk Carbon steel Multipurpose screw (Dia) 4mm (L) 50mm (200 pieces) (£8.53)
• GoodHome Outdoor Light Oak Satin quick dry wood stain, 2.5L (£34.00)
• Rough sawn treated timber (spruce) 47x50x1800 (4 pieces) (£25.88)
• Rough sawn treated timber (spruce) 22x150x1800 (4 pieces) (£37.08)

This second list is for some handles I made for the box after realising how heavy it was.

• M5 Carbon steel Flat Washer, (Dia)5mm (100 pieces) (£13.92)
• PZ Pan head Yellow-passivated Steel Wood screw (Dia) 5mm (L) 30mm (100 pieces) (£4.12)
• Polypropylene Webbing Straps (25mm/10m, Olive Green) (£7.93)

Total cost: £131.45. < Censored >, that's the first time I totalled all this - and that doesn't include the new tools I bought as I was sorely fed up of cutting by hand. Of course, I have plenty of washers, screws and webbing left over, plus half a tin of the stain for future projects. But even so... ouch!

I also added an engraved brass plaque (£12.50). A little bit of vanity, but hell, why not - I made this (the box, not the plaque :D ).

Construction

• One of the 47x50 posts cut into 3 lengths of 60cm each.
• Another cut to have 3 lengths of 40cm each and 1 of 60cm.
• Each of the 22x150 boards cut into 4 lengths of 40cm, with 20cm scrap.
• Boards screwed onto post - board edge to post edge, no mitring and no attempt to line up the edges to the boards given the uneven quality of the cutting and a lack of desire to attempt to sand them straight. Offset by 10cm vertically to give the box some feet and to avoid the posts being flush with the top of the box. Although the pictures won't show this, each plank was fixed at the same horizontal level with the grain following around 3 of the 4 corners, which I thought was nice a nice touch.
• After assembly, I ran an old mouse over the exterior faces and edging to take the worst off the rough cutting given I didn't buy planed timber. No idea what grain of sandpaper it was.
• The 3 40cm posts were screwed inside the box at the bottom to make a floor using some 6x70 wood screws I had previously bought.
• As the box weighed much more than I was anticipating just empty, I bought some webbing which I ran up the inner posts to create carrying handles. These were fixed using washers and pan head screws so hopefully it won't pop off when trying to lift.
• I lined the base and sides with rubble sacks, stapled in place, with several holes pierced in the bottom for drainage.

Mistakes

1. Buying wood from B&Q. As usual, warped wood is the outcome.
2. Buying wood that is too thick. At 22mm, this is pretty thick - previous window boxes I'd made from boards bought from a local DIY shop (which regretfully closed down during lockdown) were ~12mm. The weight is much greater than I was expecting.
3. Attempting to cut the wood with a jigsaw. I'd bought a budget circular saw and cut one plank with it with pretty good results. Then I did some more research and discovered better saws supported rails, so I returned it. In the interim I bought a compound mitre saw and despite it having a 210mm blade, it can only cut to a maximum width of 125mm, and these thick planks I'd bought were 150mm (sigh). I ended up cutting the wood with a jigsaw and despite clamping blocks to try and cut straight I failed. And forget about having mitred edges!
4. Putting it together before I stained it. I took it apart again to stain and despite labelling each post and board, it didn't go back together as well as the first time.
5. Doing this in the kitchen. One mistake I'll probably repeat given I don't have a workshop, but I'll put up screens next time to avoid sawdust going everywhere!

Closing thoughts

I'm sure a real carpenter would be rolling on the floor laughing at the final quality of this box, but I myself am reasonably happy with it - it is sturdy and should last quite some time (and certainly beats the now-collapsing-from-rust metal planter it is to replace). The stain is quite pleasing too, some other flower boxes I made are a dark brown, a bird table I've been working on is more orange than brown. This still stain lets the grain show nicely, while getting rid of the green tint from pre-treated timber.

As with each project so far, mistakes were made, but you can't learn without doing...

This post was first published Sunday 6th of August 2023 and was last modified Monday 7th of August 2023 at 16:17:26.