green house modifications.

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Amilo

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green house modifications.
« on: December 29, 2013, 19:03 »
For the last 2/3 years I have been using a stretched line attached to the frame work of the aluminium green house to tie hemp type cord to so that the Tom's have support without cane's.

This week I have modified the idea so that I have 5 line's along the length and 3 across the width of the roof. I don't have any pic's yet but here is a description...

The attachment to the frame is done by cutting with a small rotary file a widening of the slot of the frame just enough to get in extra square headed bolt in, this bolt will now slide up or down to the place you want it and onto the bolt I made, with thin galvanized sheeting (left over from the roofing of my garage (1mm)) a "L" shaped bracket with one hole for the bolt and another to take a "key ring".

The key rings are used to pass around a continues cable, or something that won't stretch

Thinking about where you want the support cable to go, fit a bolt where you want the cable to go ( I have 22 attachment points), tie the cable at the start, feed it through all of the attached "key rings" and make the last attachment using an elasticated so that the whole arrangement is self adjusting.

The reason for the 22 attachment is that when the cable passes under one of the roof frames I fitted an "key ring" so the the load is spread on as many point as possible, Toms and grape vines get heavy (I hope :)) in the Autumn.
« Last Edit: December 29, 2013, 19:05 by Amilo »

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jezza

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2013, 23:04 »
hi wouldnt it be easier to get sqare headed bolts with the rings attatched saves a lot of cutting horticultural suppliers usually have bolts in   jezza

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Amilo

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #2 on: December 30, 2013, 10:24 »
hi wouldnt it be easier to get sqare headed bolts with the rings attatched saves a lot of cutting horticultural suppliers usually have bolts in   jezza

Yes but my is a lot cheaper and the "L" bracket makes it a little stronger as it acts as a washer.
« Last Edit: December 30, 2013, 10:49 by Amilo »

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JayG

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #3 on: December 30, 2013, 17:10 »
You can buy crop-headed bolts which slide into the channels without having to widen the slot.

Small "L" shaped brackets are cheap as chips as long as you buy them from somewhere beginning with "S" rather than one beginning with "B" and have a pre-drilled hole in each arm, although you may well have to enlarge the hole to take the bolt (the other one is ideal for threading your wires or whatever through.)
Sow your seeds, plant your plants. What's the difference? A couple of weeks or more when answering possible queries!

One of the best things about being an orang-utan is the fact that you don't lose your good looks as you get older

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Amilo

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #4 on: December 30, 2013, 17:53 »
You can buy crop-headed bolts which slide into the channels without having to widen the slot.

Small "L" shaped brackets are cheap as chips as long as you buy them from somewhere beginning with "S" rather than one beginning with "B" and have a pre-drilled hole in each arm, although you may well have to enlarge the hole to take the bolt (the other one is ideal for threading your wires or whatever through.)

Please explain to me how to get the bolt head into the slot without dismantling part of the framing  or opening the slot?

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JayG

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2013, 18:11 »
The head of the bolt is "cropped" - in effect part of one of four sides of the head is missing which creates enough clearance for the bolt to be slipped into the channel without dismantling or modifying anything.

When you screw on and tighten the nut the bolt head turns round and locks into the channel as a normal one would (OK, the odd one refuses to turns and falls straight back out, but a short Anglo-Saxon talking to followed by a little patience soon teaches it the error of its ways!  :D)

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Growster...

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2013, 18:17 »
I had to grind down the ones I bought, Jay, but they eventually worked pretty well.

They just weren't narrow enough to fit in the slots, but like you describe, a good shouting helped considerably...

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Lardman

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #7 on: December 30, 2013, 18:35 »
They just weren't narrow enough to fit in the slots, but like you describe, a good shouting helped considerably...

Mine had also eaten all the pies and were too fat to fit into the channel nicely. I found a good squeeze with the mole grips effective, they're only ali after all. Saved filing off my finger tips.  ;)

Small "L" shaped brackets are cheap as chips as long as you buy them from somewhere beginning with "S" rather than one beginning with "B" and have a pre-drilled hole in each arm

Those are BZP and barely last a season they also make nasty rusty marks having reacted with the ali frame....  I've been Heath Robinson'ing crop bars as Im too cheap to buy proper ones since I bought my GH.  ;)

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JayG

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #8 on: December 30, 2013, 18:48 »
I must have been lucky with my crop-heads - no fitting problems at all (perhaps it's one of these imperial/metrification mismatch thingies?  :unsure:)

No problems with the "L" brackets rusting either (DIY ex-MGB owners probably all know about the magical properties of Waxoyl - everything in my GH which could conceivably rust, including all the bolts and threads, is liberally anointed with the stuff!)

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Growster...

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #9 on: December 30, 2013, 19:56 »
Maybe a swift clout with a Birmingham screwdriver might have helped, but in the end, I was well pleased with the result!

I've just got a new catalogue from the people I bought mine from through the post, so that's a treat for a Monday evening...

:0)

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Amilo

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #10 on: December 30, 2013, 20:23 »
The head of the bolt is "cropped" - in effect part of one of four sides of the head is missing which creates enough clearance for the bolt to be slipped into the channel without dismantling or modifying anything.

When you screw on and tighten the nut the bolt head turns round and locks into the channel as a normal one would (OK, the odd one refuses to turns and falls straight back out, but a short Anglo-Saxon talking to followed by a little patience soon teaches it the error of its ways!  :D)

OK, I can see that the modified bolt will fit into the slot but I think my method is both cheaper and a better engineering solution. Removing a third of the loading area from the bolt head may be just enough for the  bolt head to pull through the frame and deposit the Toms onto the floor :wacko: Also there must be the chance that with the head now with only three sides it may not lock in the grove and allow the nut tightening. As to galvanized "L" brackets rusting :nowink:

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JayG

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Re: green house modifications.
« Reply #11 on: December 30, 2013, 21:27 »
Amilo: It's fairly unusual for a thread on this board to start with a statement rather than a question, although there's nothing wrong with that of course.

As a result there has been a brief discussion about other ways of going about it which have worked for members who have taken the trouble to try to provide helpful replies - speaking purely for myself I suspect that enlarging the channel in what is already a lightweight piece of aluminium metalwork is probably detrimental to its structural strength, and there is no need to take that risk given that there is a much simpler alternative.

Using crop-head bolts the only tomatoes I've ever found on my greenhouse floor after 3 years have been the ones which fell off the plants!



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