Allotment Gardening Advice Help Chat
Chatting => Design and Construction => Topic started by: TREGRAHOW on June 28, 2013, 20:02
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A fellow plotholder had a netting tunnel (about 5m x 2.5m x 2m high) as a present from his wife. I am green with envy but, I don't want to pay for some company to make it for me. Essentially it is a pvc conduit frame covered with scaffolding debris netting. I can do that. The price paid for his tunnel (£150) will buy three rolls of netting and all the conduit needed to make 3 tunnels about 15m long. Here's the problem. I can source the netting and the conduit (22mm or 25mm) but I can't find the crossover joints for the conduit. Anyone any ideas?
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Like these
on ebay? (http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/White-PVC-25-mm-Intersection-Box-4-Way-for-Conduit-Pack-of-5-EM25CINT-W/161040120751?rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.m1851&_trkparms=aid%3D222005%26algo%3DSIC.NUQ%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D15989%26meid%3D8702048559248700776%26pid%3D100005%26prg%3D7588%26rk%3D2%26sd%3D281065484473%26#ht_601wt_721)
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Nice try but, I found those myself. The thing I'm looking for is basically two conduit straight connectors fixed at right angles to each other and one above the other. Does any of this make sense? I'll go down the site on Monday and take a photo of one. I found the tunnel "Walk in Wonderwall" but I'm loathe to ask the company if they sell the joints separately. Methinks they have them made especially and would not want to part with any to someone making their own tunnel and cutting them out of a nice little earner. Understandable really. I will crack this - it just might take some time.
Thanks anyway.
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I think I know what your meaning, wouldn't a nut and bolt do the job? or thick string with a coating of PVA glue?
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My husband has built three of these on our plots. He put in a wooden frame to screw the MDPE pipe to at the top, and then he zip tied bamboo canes either side to add to the stability. The frame also acts as the door frame, with the scaffolding debris netting being cut in two at the front, one side trenches in and stapled to the frame. The other flap is the door and is velcroed shut. Each tunnel is about 3m long and 2.5m wide and about 1.75m high. The give in the netting makes it possible to stand up in the tunnel. Cost about £20 each.
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Had a long hard look at friend's netting tunnel and now know exactly what the crossover joints are: open saddle clips that have a single screw hole through them. Put two back to back and at right angles and they can be joined by a small bolt and nut or a short self-tapping screw. A dab of decent adhesive will achieve a belt and braces joint. Simples!! Open saddle clips are dirt cheap as are self-tappers. I reckon I can crack on with this as soon as my netting arrives from Tarpaflex and I get the conduit from a local wholesalers.
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Thanks for all the suggestions - even the one that looked liked scaffolding clamp.
I have my first roll of debris netting from Tarpaflex and I've found a number of sources for the conduit and the fittings. Some local and some online. All I have to do now is rattle off a workable design and work out the number of each type of fitting that I need. Then I have to level a part of my plot and start the build.
I'll make a photo record of the build and upload it when it's finished - unless I make a complete cock-up of it in which case I'll do a lot of swearing, abandon it and blame someone else.
Thanks again for the help.
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I will watch and hopefully learn.
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I'll make a photo record of the build and upload it when it's finished - unless I make a complete cock-up of it in which case I'll do a lot of swearing, abandon it and blame someone else.
My school of building entirely! :D :D :D
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ok
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Use conduit boxes for the connector's, they come in 1-4 way and are ideal.
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Chatting at the electrical wholesalers and he reckons the solid connectors won't give and will quickly become very brittle after exposure to sunlight. Would've been excellent last year though!
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Younger daught has one of those gazebos, so the GCs can tiddle around outside, and out of the sun!
I've been peering at the frame on this as they really are pretty cheap, and could help your ideas!
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Bought one on Friday. £19-99 for a 3m x 3m with a cheap and nasty cover but, the frame is great. We will set it up on our plot tomorrow and skin it with netting. I think it will work a treat. Doorway will initially be an overlap with a few large clothes pegs holding it shut and I'll build a doorframe later. On the proper tunnel it will have to be a properly built doorframe and netting door. Easy enough. (he says).
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Bought one on Friday. £19-99 for a 3m x 3m with a cheap and nasty cover but, the frame is great. We will set it up on our plot tomorrow and skin it with netting. I think it will work a treat. Doorway will initially be an overlap with a few large clothes pegs holding it shut and I'll build a doorframe later. On the proper tunnel it will have to be a properly built doorframe and netting door. Easy enough. (he says).
Great minds, Tregrahow!
Best of luck with this! We use more clothes pegs than the laundry down on the plot!
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Best laid plans and all that! Tried to set up the gazebo and found one of the leg sections missing. Eventually went back to the store and the lady in the Customer Services office simply reached into one of three boxes stood in the corner and pulled out a section I was missing!!! Great service but, a complete item in the first place would have been better.
Agreed with the wife that we would put the thing together on the plot this morning. This morning we've been racing around for items for a grand-daughters' prom outfit and still haven't put the gazebo together. Work weekends so it will be Monday before I get another chance. Stuff to plant out under it will have to stay in pots a little longer.
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Can I ask where you got the gazebo from? I am still weighing up whether to base my fruit cage on gazebos or wood. I haven't seen any cheap gazebos though
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Not much use to you I'm afraid. The store is Hooty's and is off Rose Hill in Willenhall - the Walsall Willenhall not the Coventry one. There must be similar stores near you with 3m x 3m gazebos on sale at around £20. As for making fruit cages they would be ideal with fruit netting attached with cable ties. The same goes for conduit framed tunnels - just cover them with fruit netting instead of debris netting. You're only trying to keep birds out aren't you? You will need some insects in there for pollinating won't you?
Hopefully your problem is solved - all I need to do now is solve my own.
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Ah, ok thanks. The only cheapish ones I have found so far are in Argos and they honestly look like a puff of gentle wind they would collapse! I
Could build a tunnel as I have piping but I want a walk-in one to make weeding etc easier.
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Tesco have their cheepie gazebo on offer at the moment reduced from £21 to £10.50 if that is any help to you.
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Thanks, I will take a look!
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Put the gazebo up and skinned it with debris netting. I only took 4 shots of the build as I became distracted by the goings-on in my right hand compost bin. Hopefully, I can upload the shots of the build and then the shot of my compost bin. It started as a video but, somehow ended up as a JPEG. If I can find the video version I'll post it.
The pix will upload separately (if at all). This is my fourth attempt at doing it.
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GAZ 1+
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GAZ 2+
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VOLE 4
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Most of my pix seem to be too big for the permitted upload. I've never been too big before!! I'll bone up on how to reduce the size of picture files and upload what I have.
Quite simply, my wife and I got on with the job of erecting the gazebo and skinning it but, forgot all about the pix as we became sidetracked by a vole shovelling compost out of my 3/4 full right hand bin. It stands a good chance of being the same vole I accidentally evicted from my left hand bin as I was removing compost for my plot.
I don't want to evict her again so sadly I will have to forego the dubious pleasure of turning the contents of my right hand bin. What she has shovelled out seems to be in very good nick and will be excellent when I am allowed to shovel it out. The video I have somewhere on my phone is fascinating.
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The photo that you intend to upload needs to be 1000 KB in file size, or less. You can upload up to 4 pictures but their total size cannot exceed 3000 KB. A picture size of 640 pixels as the larger dimension is suitable. One such re-sizing program can be found at: http://pixresizer.en.softonic.com (http://chat.allotment-garden.org/index.php?action=seored;u=http%3A%2F%2Fpixresizer.en.softonic.com) - the system will automatically reduce the displayed image size but large images may be too big a file to upload.
I used it and its fine
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First picture of pagoda skinned with debris netting. Wonky legs made a little stronger by forcing them 6" into the soil. Overhanging netting buried in the soil for the moment - don't want to cut it. I'm going to hang fire on erecting actual tunnels. Advised to wait to see if vandals take a shine to my pagoda before chucking more cash at the idea. Makes sense to me.