Building a Cedar Arbour

[Frank Pellow]

(post 1 of 11)

Off and on, over the last few weeks, I have been constructing a cedar arbour at the garage side of our house. At just about the time I started, my wife Margaret had an operation on her right shoulder and still has only very limited use of her right arm, so I have mostly been occupied elsewhere. However, I completed the job yesterdayday. Here is a photo of the finished arbour:

Arbour 45 -Finished -small.jpg

Also, last evening Margaret prepared dinner for the first time in 3 weeks, so we have a lot to celebrate.

As usual, I will describe the construction by extracting text and photos from my weekly journal.

[Frank Pellow]

(post 2 of 11)

2009, Oct 18:

This week, I got a start on building an arbour in our side garden. I am building it to a plan:

Arbour 00 -Arbour plan cover -small.jpg

I?m sorry to say that the instructions with the plan are not very good. However, the drawings are OK, so I should be able to figure things out.

The upside down metal post supports at the corners of the template in the picture below show the location that opted for:

Arbour 01 -Template for positioning holes in the location chosen by me -small.jpg

One pounds the supports into the ground then bolts the posts into the square on top of the supports. The theory is good.

Arbour 02 -Driving in the first stake support -small.jpg

But, in practice, it is very hard to hammer in the supports in such a way that protruding squares at the top are properly aligned. Obviously others had encountered this problem as well, because I later discovered a variation of the support that has a square that is bolted to the top and can aligned after the support has been driven into the ground. The two different types of supports can be seen in the photo below:

Arbour 03 -Replacing the type of stake support -small.jpg

I discovered the problem after pounding one of the original supports all the way in and the other about three quarters of the way in. I dug out the one that was three quarters of the way in, but dinged it up so much that I could not return it to the store. I then purchased three of the adjustable supports leaving one non adjustable one in the ground. Of course, it's possible to achieve alignment for a square with three adjustable and one non-adjustable support.

After I had pounded two of the adjustable supports all the way in and the other about half way in, Jill from next door came to check up on me. She liked the look of the arbour but not the location. By the way, Margaret had not been enthralled with the location either. Both Margaret and Jill had expected the arbour to be at the side of the garage, not to the side but in front of the garage the way that I had placed it. However the arbour is quite wide at the top and that coupled with the wide overhang from the garage roof means that it is not possible to place the arbour entirely on our property if it is beside our garage. Jill said that she would be happy to have a portion of the arbour on her property and that she is not planning to move anytime soon. Who am I to argue with both Margaret and Jill? So, I needed to move to location of the arbour. I was able to extract the support that was only half pounded in but, unless I was prepared to dig major holes, I need to abandon the three supports that had been pounded all the way in. With the two adjustable supports, this was easy because it was possible to remove the square at the top, dif down a bit, pound the support in further, then cover it up.

Arbour 04 -Abondoning the old site and pouning the support stakes further into the ground -small.jpg

This was not the case with the non adjustable support and it is still there waiting for me to do something about it.

[Frank Pellow]

(post 3 of 11)

Meanwhile back in the shop, I cut the 4 Eastern White Cedar posts approximately to length and sanded them with 80 grit paper, then put green preservative on the very bottom of each:

Arbour 06 -Sanding the posts with 80 grit paper -small.jpg Arbour 07 -Treating the bottom of the posts -small.jpg

I pounded four adjustable post supports into the new location, squared them, then tightened the bolts. I expect that they will need to be adjusted when I get around to placing the posts in their final positions.

Arbour 05 -Squaring the rotating stake support tops at the new site -small.jpg

Here are the posts temporarily in position with boards clamped to the top approximately in the position of the real top boards:

Arbour 08 -Temporary set up to see if folks like it -small.jpg

Both Jill and Margaret approved!

[Frank Pellow]

(post 4 of 11)

The wood for the trellis screens at the sides is supposed to be knot free, but I could not easily locate a source of knot free cedar. I did have a 2x6 dressed clear white pine board on hand, so I used it.

Arbour 09 -Cutting 1x1 lattice pieces out of a piece of clear pine -small.jpg

Next, I rounded over the edges of the posts with a 1/4 inch roundover bit on a hand-held router:

Arbour 10 -Rounding over the edges of the posts -small.jpg


2009, Oct 25:

I did a little bit of work this week on the arbour. First of all, my neighbour Norm had a solid iron bar and, with it, we were able to easily extract the post support out of the ground. We didn?t even bend the support getting it out.

I should mention that all the cedar for the arbour comes from the Perth area of Eastern Ontario. Some of it was given to me by my daughter Kristel because they had it left over when they moved in the spring. The rest comes from a big load that I bought at Lanark Cedar about a year and a half ago. Except for the 4x4 posts, the wood is all rough sawn. For the most part, the wood is in very good shape.

Arbour 11 -Except for posts and lattice, all parts were made from 2x8 rought sawn Eastern White .jpg

Every piece is being sanded with 80 grit paper and, in cases where I am not rounding over the corners, I am sanding the knife edges.

Here, one of the two side screens is being assembled on the floor:

Arbour 13 -Assembling a screen section on the floor -small.jpg

Mostly I used spiral galvanized finishing nails at the joints but in a few places I used screws intended for use on cedar decks. The plans called for uneven spacing of the horizontal pieces but (probably because I am a mathematician) I prefer even spacing.

[Frank Pellow]

(post 5 of 11)

As I said earlier, the instructions are not very good. Here is a case where they are worse than just "not very good", rather I consider them to be suggesting dangerous use of a table saw. Here are the instructions:

Arbour 14 -post cap from plans.jpg

The instructions that I am questioning are these: "the template is full size so you can set your tablesaw to those angles in the drawing". We are talking about three different cuts here all to be made on all 4 sides of a 7" x 7" x 1.5" piece of wood. There are no specific directions about angles or of the cutting sequence. I figured out how to safely do two of the cuts on my saw, but the only way I could see making the third cut would have required the construction of a jig in order to be safe. I did not want to bother making such a jig , so I shaped the pieces using my router for the third angle. This third cut was not quite what is in the plan but it is close enough. Here are pictures of the three operations:

1: angled at 12.5 degrees Arbour 15 -Post cap piece-angled cut on all 4 sides -small.JPG

2: 90 degrees in 4mm from edge Arbour 16 -Post cap piece-straight cut of a part of the angle on all 4 sides -small.jpg

3: router bit with 15 degree angle and 2.25 inch diameter Arbour 17 -Post cap piece-use router to cut the remaining angle on all 4 sides -small.jpg

update: In a similar thread on another forum, Michael Kellough told me of a safe way to do the cuts using just the table saw and no jigs. I'm not sure why I didn't think of it but am sure that I would not have been the only one who was confused. I tried Michael's steps on a scrap piece of wood and I show them in post #26 in this thread.

[Frank Pellow]

(post 6 of 11)

Outside, all the posts are now installed. First one post was installed and leveled, then the other posts were aligned to it. A drywall square came in very handy, as did a very long clamp.

Arbour 18 -Aligning one post to another -small.jpg Arbour 19 -Aligning and leveling a rotating stake support tops one final time -small.jpg

The top parts of the supports had to be adjusted again, but I expected to have to do that. Also, a few shims had to be inserted between the posts and the supports.

[Frank Pellow]

(post 7 of 11)

2009, Nov 1:

I continued to make slow but steady progress on the arbour. The instructions and diagrams showed that somehow pieces of ? inch dowel were involved with the post caps, but I could not determine exactly how the dowels were to be used. So, I came up with something that would work and utilized 1 inch dowel rather than ? inch. I decided to drill a hole for the dowel into the top of the post then right through the cap and into the beam above it.

Here, 1 inch holes are being drilled through the centres of the parts that will be used to make the caps:

Arbour 21 -Drilling hole for dowel in the cap pieces -small.JPG

Using a small piece of 4/4 wrapped with a few layers of masking tape in order to simulate a post with a loose fitting cap, I hammered trim into the bottom of the caps:

Arbour 22 -Hammering the cap trim that will surround the post into place -it is to beslightly lo.jpg Arbour 23 -A Cap from the bottom -small.JPG

Next, I screwed the cap tops into position:

Arbour 24 -A Cap from the top -small.jpg

[Frank Pellow]

(post 8 of 11)

Unfortunately, I nailed the trim to the wrong side of one of the caps. This gave me the opportunity to make use of a small cat's paw that I have been carrying around in my main tool box for at least a couple of years:

Arbour 25 -I goofed with this cap and put the trim on the top insterad of the bottom -small.jpg

This is the first time I have ever used the tool, but it sure came in handy when I needed it. I managed to salvage both the wood and the nails. The cat's paw pulled the nails right through the so, when re-applying the trim (this time to the correct side of the cap piece), I had to use screws.

Arbour 26 -Reassembling the cap -this time with the trim on the correct side -small.jpg

The next task was to cut all the posts to a uniform level. The instructions suggested that I might want to use a circular saw to to do this job. I don't want to use a circular saw when standing on a ladder, so that was out. The alternative offered in the instructions was a hand saw and that would have worked. But, I guess that whoever wrote the instructions had never heard of either a Festool or Bosch jig saw with long, wide, strong, and guided blades. I first scored each post on all 4 sides then cut all the way through. The results were very good!

Arbour 27 -Cutting the tops off the posts with a jig saw -small.jpg

Next, the screens were attached. I want them to be easily removable. The instructions claim that they are, but I could not figure out how they managed this in spite of looking very closely at all the drawing and the pictures. So, I screwed 2 small blocks to the bottom spline, then I attached the bottom of the screen to the bottom cross rail with screws through the two blocks. Two more screws, through the top cross rail into the top spline, completed the job.

Arbour 28 -Attaching the screens -1 -small.jpg Arbour 29 -Attaching the screens -2 -small.jpg

[Frank Pellow]

(post 9 of 11)

Using a partly completed cap as a guide template, 5 centimetre deep 1 inch diameter holes were drilled into the tops of all the posts. Then, the completed caps were placed on top of all the posts with the dowel extending up above the cap about 5 centimetres.

Arbour 30 -Using partly completed cap as a guide for drilling a hole in the top of the posts -sm.jpg Arbour 31 -Attaching the screens -3 -small.jpg

Four beams, four braces, and six rafter pieces were cut with a jig sawafter transferring the full size fancy end patterns to the wood using tracing paper:

Arbour 32 -Cutting beams, rafters, and brace having first used tracing paperr to transfer the ap.JPG

I made a small drilling jig then used it to drill holes to accept the dowels into the bottoms of two of the beams:

Arbour 33 -Drilling holes for dwels in the bottom of a beam -small.jpg

Six centimetre deep 42 millimetre wide notches were cut into the top of these two beams just above the position of the posts. I had previously milled all the lumber to be used for the beams, rafters, and braces to 40 millimetres so this left 2 millimetres of play with each notch. Here two beams are in place on the posts and the other two beams are being checked for position in the notches.

Arbour 34 -Marking location of notches to be cut into a cross beam -small.jpg

[Frank Pellow]

(post 10 of 11)

2009, Nov 5:

I completed the arbour today.

After cutting all the beam and rafter pieces to length and shape and assuring myself that the notched beams fit properly on the posts, I moved the operation to the deck outside the woodworking shed. The plans called for the rafters to sit on top of the beams and to intersect with each other with notches on the top of one set and on the bottom of another set. I decided to do something slightly different, that is, to cut small (1 centimetre deep) notches in the top of the beams and in the bottom of the rafters:

Arbour 36 -Letters written in bottom of notches -small.JPG

I think this looks a little better and it makes for easier positioning of the finished rafters on the beams on their final position on the posts. And, it will take fewer screws to hold the rafters in place. Notice that I lettered the notches just in case the pieces turned out not to be fully symmetrical (it turns out that they were symmetrical, but it is better to be safe).

Here is the bigger picture that the above close-up was extracted from:

Arbour 35 -Laying out beams and rafters on my deck -small.jpg

And here is a photo of all the rafters in position o the beams and intersecting with each other:

Arbour 37 -Final layout before routing and sanding beams -small.jpg

Now that I knew everything had been cut properly, it was time to route chamfers on the top edges of all the beams and rafters and to sand everything (to 80 grit). Many sanders were put to use:

Arbour 38 -Many sanders were used -small.jpg Arbour 39 -A chamfer was routed on the top edge of the beams and rafters -small.jpg

I used the guide that you see attached to the router in order to navigate past the notches.

[cranbrook2]

Nice work Frank it looks great !!

[Frank Pellow]

(post 11 of 11)

There were no instructions about how to mount the braces. I decided to drill two 3/8 inch holes part way through the wood on both ends of the braces leaving about 4 centimeters of wood in the bottom of each hole. Here the holes are being drilled on my drill press:

Arbour 40 -Drill holes into braces -small.JPG

A coat of Sikkins Cetol stain was applied to all the beams, rafters and braces then left for about a day to dry. I will apply a second coat to the entire arbour in the spring.

Arbour 41 -Beams, rafters, and braces stained -small.jpg

Today, in spite of the yucky weather, I attached everything. Happily, the job took very little time. No screws at all were used to attach the beams to the posts -the dowels and deep notches did the job and, just in case, the braces to be installed later will secure the beam assembly to the posts Because of the notches in the beams, it was possible to hold all the rafters in place with only 6 screws.

Arbour 42 -6 screws secure all the rafters -small.jpg

The red arrows point to the screws.

Finally, the four braces were screwed into place. The heavy rain made this difficult because I had to look up to screw the braces into the beams.

Here is another of photo of the finished arbour:

Arbour 43 -Finished -small.jpg

[Blaine in Kitchener]

Frank

Nice job on the arbour. I built the exact same one about 4 years ago and it has stood up well including one move when I rebuilt my deck a year and a half ago.
I know what you mean with the plans, I thought they sucked too.
038 (600 x 450).jpg

Blaine

[kcjones]

Nice job Frank the arbour looks really nice.

[callee]

Looks great Frank! I'm not especially interested in arbours, but I just love your posts!

I was especially tickled by the following line:

Originally Posted by Frank Pellow

The plans called for uneven spacing of the horizontal pieces but (probably because I am a mathematician) I prefer even spacing.

You mentioned once that you are able to produce such detailed posts easily because you keep a personal journal, and so you can just cut and paste from it. I'm curious if the line in parenthesis is in your journal entry as well? Nothing important, just my odd sense of humour that gets a great smile out of thinking you were perhaps reminding yourself that you are a mathematician!

[Rick Thom]

Impressive result.
I hadn't thought about using the metal post supports for this job. It's almost a sure way to find exactly where your underground utilities are buried.. LOL.
When it's time for planting, suggest you call in 'Ed in Leaside'. A sample of scooterman's botanical skills..
btw, glad to learn that Margaret's on the mend and feeling better.

[Frank Pellow]

Originally Posted by callee

Looks great Frank! I'm not especially interested in arbours, but I just love your posts!

I was especially tickled by the following line:

The plans called for uneven spacing of the horizontal pieces but (probably because I am a mathematician) I prefer even spacing.

You mentioned once that you are able to produce such detailed posts easily because you keep a personal journal, and so you can just cut and paste from it. I'm curious if the line in parenthesis is in your journal entry as well? Nothing important, just my odd sense of humour that gets a great smile out of thinking you were perhaps reminding yourself that you are a mathematician!

Thanks, and yes the line in parenthesis is in my journal. So it would appear that I was, indeed, reminding myself.

[Frank Pellow]

Originally Posted by Rick Thom

...
When it's time for planting, suggest you call in 'Ed in Leaside'. A sample of scooterman's botanical skills..
.

The sample is very impressive. My plan was to plant clematis since it does well in shade and the area gets only a limited amount of sun but I will, indead, talk to Ed.

[Ed in Leaside]

Originally Posted by Frank Pellow

The sample is very impressive. My plan was to plant clematis since it does well in shade ...

The sample is a John Cabot Explorer (or is it Exploder ) pic taken in '03. Clematis should do well, and easier to maintain.

[John Bartley]

Nice work guys!

Frank,

Thank you for posting your build in tutorial form - it's a great reference.

cheers

John