Project Sandbox

As I was saying a few posts ago, I was going to start putting more yard related projects up here. Sometimes work on the yard directly impacts the garden in some way - be it that precious commodity I call 'time', space issues, or a number of things.

Every project seems to start with 'mow the yard'

This time around, it's 'scheduling'. In the mad rush to keep up with the rising heat as we move through into the Spring, I worked hard to get the kids pool ready for swimming - balancing the PH, getting the chlorine 'just right' and getting all the winter debris vacuumed up. However this is also the time when the kiddies venture out into the yard and start causing mayhem.
While waiting for the water to warm to an acceptable swimming temp, they managed to throw leaves, sticks, pine bark, and of course sand from the little turtle sand box.

The Culprit

Little Girl didn't even need to carry it, from it's proximity to the pool she can easily hurl handful after handful into the pool, a cause for much laughter.... for her.

For me, not so much. I set about cleaning the pool, yet again - only the sheer volume of sand took it's toll. Even with careful cleaning of the filter and great care in cleaning out the skimmer every 10 minutes, enough sand slipped through and burnt out the dinky pool pump that comes with this 12ft diameter above grounder.

This wasn't a major deal to me - although I like the pool, and think it's great value for money - the pump it comes with is a teeny little 600 model that pushes around 500 gallons with a tailwind... considering it's big enough to warrant an actual pool vac, and not a ventruri system (hose powered), the pressure you get is abysmal. I had plans to Austro-Engineer a bigger third party pump to their system anyways, increasing it to 1000 gallons and a much bigger filter cart. However, with swimming temps just around the corner I don't have the time to set that in motion.. so... ordering a new dinky pump - for now.

None of this changes the original problem - sand in the pool. No point fixing the pool if the same thing is going to happen as soon as I do. So move the sandbox - so if I have to move it, I have to empty it, if I have to empty it I may as well get a bigger one, and if I have to shell out money for something that might nearly get the job done - I may as well build it myself and get what I want... Then I can finally have the pool cleaned, once and for all, and with the kids swimming in it - I can get back to doing my garden projects!.... It's all scheduling man... all scheduling.

Anyways I'm putting it up in case someone else out there wants to make one for their kids - I was in a race against time for this, we had friends coming over, and of course the kids needing to be seen to, so I was in and out of the house for a weekend. If you don't have twins - you could probably knock this out in a day, at very little cost (to build .. filling with sand... that might be another story).

Design

There are things about the lil turtle I like - has a raised lip and a lid so the neighbourhood cats can't come a-calling, because nothing stops play faster than excavating a cat-turd.
However it's way too small for one kid let alone 2, and Madeline is learning about sand-castles, and the plastic is light - come a good storm the lid blows up and it fills with water. No drainage means that water stays in there, and the freebie sand I got from the farm becomes a solid slab.

So, with those things in mind I formulated a quick plan - no need for drawings - just an idea on dimensions. I decided to let what was available dictate that, though I knew I wanted it no smaller than 4ft square.

Supplies

Pretty basic really.

2x8x10 exterior treated lumber (2)
3x1 1/2 boards (5)
8x4x 3/8ths (bit above 1/4 inch) exterior grade plywood (1 sheet)
4x4 treated post (1)

1 can of exterior deck sealer/stain (semi clear).

Again, you could use reclaimed lumber - and given the time I would have rounded some up from out at the properly I groundskeep, but I had this weekend to do this project and a 1 1/2 hour round trip for lumber was going to eat into work time. If you have the materials use them and save your money for the fill.

The Build

Pretty straight forward - a box with a lid. No bottom (we'll use landscaping cloth) - so pretty much the same as a garden bed (which we covered not that long ago). I let the materials dictate the dimensions - plywood comes in 4x8 sheets - so the top should be 4ft wide. I needed it cut to 6ft so it would fit in the car, so under 6ft. To keep costs under control, I bought two 2x8x10s - so knowing that I'm not guaranteed 10ft, and saw cuts, the width and length should combine to be under 9 1/2.

So if the width is 4ft (plywood width), I can have up to 5 1/2 length. I decide to go with 5. Keep nice round numbers. Given this has a top, and the plywood dictates it's width (and the bottom has to fit inside it) - I decide the easy way is to build the top first to those dimensions (round abouts).

So Hip To Be Square

First up - check the materials. This isn't gonna be french furniture, but it has to be a little better than a garden bed. Plywood comes pretty square usually - but I had them cut it down to 6ft - so to be sure I make sure their cut was good.
If you don't have a square in reach - you can use Pythagoras' theorem to check that the sides are 90 degrees by the distance of the hypotenuse. ARGH MATHS! - hahaha well yes, and no.
If a right angle triangle has one side of 3 arbitrary units, and a height of 4 units - the hypotenuse will equal 5. This is called the '3-4-5 Method' - measure up 3 inches and mark, 4 inches and mark - then measure - if it's 5 inches, that corner is square.. I find this much less messing around than the 'corner to corner' method (if both distances are equal - you're set). Also the 3-4-5 method can tell you how much you're out and in which direction by looking at how much over or under 5 you are. Simple.

Do not adjust your TV!

Last build blog I went into how a 2x4 might not be 2x4 or even the length you wanted - well that straight bit of wood you bought might be straight either! Check this one out. That isn't a tricky angle - it's also not the worst one I had. I sight all my lumber when I buy it, and in this case I chose whichever ones had the most 'straight' length. When I got home I sighted them again and marked where the bows were and used that to work out which bit I'd cut for where. These were the 3 x 1 1/2's for the 'lip' of the lid.

Measure twice, cross fingers.

We're doing a simple box like the raised bed, only we need it to fit INSIDE the plywood area - so what we do is measure to the width of the ply and subtract 1/4 inch (I'll explain below) - now for the raised be we added the width of the lumber so the interior dimension would be where we wanted (remember?) - so if we want this to fit inside our plywood, we subtract it instead. The exterior dimensions will be the size we want.
Now where does that other 1/4 inch come in? Well we want to be absolutely sure that the top of the lid fits - it's much easier to trim down 1/16th of an inch than recut or round over the top so it's all flush and nice. What if there's a ding in the side of the ply we didn't notice? what if I messed up my squaring and one side slants in? Call it 'wiggle room'.

Didn't take long at all!

With the edges cut to length, we lay it out, put glue on the joints and shoot a couple of brad nails in to hold it. If you don't have a nail gun you could use a finish nail and a hammer, clamps, or hold each corner for 1/2 hour.. doesn't matter. I also screwed each side with a 2 inch construction screw to draw the ends in together - I only used one per join because even with drilling a pilot hole the wood was threatening to split.. I only had #8's on me at the time - not really necessary, but I did it. At the moment the top ply is only there to check my measurements - not connected.

Center spar for support.

The plywood I'm using is rather thin, if I had to do it again I'd probably do a bit thicker, but I had weight considerations to deal with. If you put your foot on it, it would break in half and your foot would go through the top. So I added some support. I cut a notch in the center, the width and depth of the lumber with the router. I have one, I had to wait 2 years to buy it, so I'm gonna use it. If you don't have one you use a hand saw or circular saw to make cuts to the correct depth then chisel it out. Again, glued and nailed - the glue is doing the work, shooting a brad in there just holds it together without me having to fetch clamps.

This is out of sequence a little, as it occurred to me that night (during dinner) that just one spar would create a pivot point - the lid wouldn't sit flush - so I got some spare timber I had inside (from another project) and cut 2 smaller spars. This could have been avoided utterly by making 2 originally -but I had a brainfart. While I was there I took some offcuts from the sides and made some mitered blocks on the table saw and added them to the corners.

While that was set up and drying I turned to the base. I measured the inside of the lid, and did the same thing - subtracted wiggle room, subtracted the width of the wall.. cut up the bits.

I was going to buff out the corners with a bit of 4x4 post. But how do you cut it when your blade isn't wide enough? Well you could cut from both sides, but lining up the cut 'blind' is a pain.. so I just turn the post 90 degrees and follow the cut. I make 4 cuts, but it takes less time than constantly checking the other side to make sure it's correct - and gives you cleaner cut in my opinion.

4 corners, 2 blocks.... HUH? Well I decided I didn't want a honking big block in the corner for them to bang up against - so I took it inside to the shop and cut them at 45 degrees on the table saw.
The cuts were a little out (because in this case I had to flip it and cut blind) - so I cleaned it up with a chisel and some sandpaper quickly - no pics of that because around abouts this time we were expecting company and I had to quickly sort the tools, clean up and fire up the grill.

THE GRILL!

It was my birthday last Sunday, then its my anniversary next week, then Wife's birthday a few days after that - so we decided to roll them all into one and buy ourselves a kick-ass grill.

So, day two and I'm happily working away and forgetting to take snapshots... but it's ok, there's nothing here we ain't done before. The base was screwed together with 3 inch construction screws, the corner blocks screwed in as well.
It was given a quick sand, corners and edges rounded. This was more for splinters sake and for finishing than any aesthetic.. I used what leftover sanding pads were in the shop.
We then went and put on the exterior deck stain. I got a semi clear sealer/stain because I like the natural look of wood, and the lumber didn't suck. I also had some 'weathered oak' stain from another project, so I mixed some in to bring out a little more color - the end result was a very nice honey color that I'm rather pleased with. The stain is mainly for longevity rather than eye candy. I applied a couple of coats, I didn't put much time into sanding down between ( because when you apply stain the grain raises - this is more a furniture problem than a 'thing' problem - so I didn't care).

2 layers of landscape cloth finish out the bottom. Same as the garden bed - staple, pull tight, staple, cut.. I didn't put in a solid bottom because it gets wet here, and although the moisture will wick up into the sand - I'd rather that than a mini pool. Also having a wooden bottom and standing water in the bottom will hurt the longevity no matter who much care I put into prepping the wood. Learning my lesson from last time - we used a normal stapler with normal staples - because it's the right tool for the job and nail guns are dangerous.


News flash - everything is dangerous.

Yeah.... I can't even take solace in this being a 'manly' accident. After a day with saws, drills, razor sharp chisels, table saws, and nail guns... I get done by a normal stapler.. not even USING the normal stapler. I was putting staples in it. I broke off the bar of staples to fit them in, one somehow stuck me right in the thumb.

Onwards! plywood is cut to size, glued and a nailed down. A couple of pavers and some bits of 2x6 I have been saving for an upcoming garden project are used to weigh it down while it sets up. After that, we sand it all down, round corners and edges. Test fit the top and bottom to make sure they all go together easily.. they do... and so on we go.

Meanwhile Wife requests that handles be put on the front to make lifting off the lid easier.

A couple of offcuts are trimmed down. Holes are put in the front, and I routed out the back a little. Some plastic based rope I had as a clothesline does the job for a handle. Here's a tip - this stuff frays when you cut it - but you can fix that with about 5 seconds of holding it over a cigarette lighter... the space in the back will hold the knots and the rope passed through the holes...attached to the front.