You are ahead of me. I’m still working on the ramp!
The cowboys at the ranch on the D&D have finished their first building project. They had to build a ramp so some new horses could be delivered by train. The next project will be a corral to house the longhorns during the cattle roundup in the fall. The small corral in the background can house the horses but not longhorns.
(http://freightsheds.largescalecentral.com/users/doug_arnold/_forumfiles/cattle.JPG)
Git along, little dogie!
And that’s no horsing around!
Jim Schneider said:
Richard to help me figure out your construction (and maybe duplicate) what are the actual dimensions of the wood you used for the posts and cross boards. On a little smaller scale with maybe just 2 pens, this is just what I was looking for.Jim
Hey Jim,
My apologies for missing your post the last time around. The weather has finally reached the point where I’m able to get a bit of work done on the railroad so I haven’t been spending as much time online which makes it easy to overlook some things.
The boards are cedar and are 1/8" thick and about 3/8" wide. The posts are 3/8" square as I recall. 1/2" would be appropriate too but I liked the more delicate look of the smaller ones. I have a few boards used as cross pieces on the faux gates that are 1/8" x 1/4". In most cases I don’t use lumber any smaller than 1/8" for outdoors except for shingles because of durability for outdoors. Don’t be too concerned with being “correct” with board dimensions, etc. on stockpens. Many were strictly homemade utilizing logs, rough cut and salvaged lumber and whatever could be liberated in the area.
Also I try never to rely totally on glue and always use metal fasteners in addition if possible. The pens I built are fastened exclusively with 18ga. steel brads without glue except for some minor detail bracing. In six years outside 24/7 through sun and storm I’ve only had a couple of boards come loose and they were the small bracing that was glued.
That is almost the same dimensions I cut on the table saw only I have some old clear redwood that I’ve been able to use.
I do glue more but I get away with it in our drier climate.
Have you had any problem with your pins rusting?
And here I thought cattle got loaded from eating too much fermented silage!
JUST KIDDING!
David Meashey
Nah, it’s the loco weed!
Doug Arnold said:
That is almost the same dimensions I cut on the table saw only I have some old clear redwood that I've been able to use.I do glue more but I get away with it in our drier climate.
Have you had any problem with your pins rusting?
Doug,
I don’t use my pin nailer except as an adjunct to glue joints where I need much smaller fasteners. Pins by themselves provide shear strength for a glue joint but don’t hold things together well because they lack a significant head. I use the brad nailer and/or individual brads mostly.
The steel brads hold tighter and stay in much better than stainless, etc., because the rust helps wedge them in their holes. It takes a very long time for the brads to rust out and fail except in extreme cases. Six years through wind, rain & sun and the POC’s stockpens are still intact and tightly held together. Also wood platforms almost 8 years old have held up very well without glue as well as some with.
I’ll second the vote for standard brads outdoors. I dissembled the old West Es-Cap-E bridge a few weeks ago for firewood. It was put together with deck screws and reinforced several years ago with brads from my nailer. These brads have been subject to lots of rain and snow and hardly showed any sign of rusting at all when pulled out.