Post #320159 by TikiMike on Fri, Jul 20, 2007 12:33 PM

On 2007-07-20 10:02, Aloha John wrote:
My God TikiMike that is KILLER! I feel like you have practically created the A frame hut that I have in my head, and on various scraps of paper. I too found inspiration from McTiki's. Great job!!

Thanks John! Yeah.. I had it all worked out in my head too. I didn't really make detailed plans, just took measurements and sort of winged it.

I just sent Lake Surfer a message about those stencils too. Are all of the carvings on your posts from his stencils, or just the one pictured? All done with a router too?

I made up/found the other patterns from other places. The one LakeSurfer used was trickier, so I used Adobe Illustrator to draw it out & print it, then used carbon paper to transfer the deisgn to the beams. I started with chisels but ran out of patience. Most of it was done with a router.

What type of wood did you use, redwood? Is there some plywood or something above the lauhala, it looks like it is pretty flat, relative to the spacing on the joists...I'd expect it to sag if wasn't glued or stapled to something?

The wood is just treated Douglas Fir from Home Depot. I used a dark stain and McClosky's Man-O-War marine varnish (satin) on all the beams and joists. You're right, the roof is 3/4" plywood. I put the plywood sheets up on the joists, marked and cut them to fit, and then took them all down. I then used contact cement to attach the lauhala matting. Then I put the plywood back up on the roof. It was a huge pain in the ass to put them up twice, but I wanted the seams/edges of the roof panels to line up along the joists to keep the lauhala edges from coming loose. Plus it gives a more "seamless" look. On the top of the roof I used self-adhesive stips of roofing membrane to cover the plywood seams, then went over the whole roof with roofing sealer. Finally the thatch went on top of that.

Nice job on the mister lines too.

When I bought my float light from Polynesiac and mentioned I wanted to hang from an A frame beam, he mentioned the need to keep water out of it, for electrical reasons. I know we both live in arid climates, but did you do anything to waterproof the electrical in the light?

-John

Thanks... the misters have already come in handy. It was 113 degrees here last week!

I bought the float on ebay, but there weren't any holes in it. I had a local place, Artistry in Glass, cut a hole on top, large enough to get a bulb/socket in there. Plus I had them cut a small "weep" hole (dime size) on bottom to let any possible moisure drip out. They did all the holes with a sandblaster, so I had them frost the inside of the float to give that nice glow, and make the outline of the actual bulb less visible. To keep water out I used a 1/8" thick sheet of rubber from Ace Hardware to make about a 5 or 6 inch disc. I poked a hole through it to run the power cord through and then sealed it to the float, over the large bulb hole, with some silicone sealant. It'll take a bit of work to change bulbs, but it's waterproof (I actually tested it in the rain the other day!) I had plans to snap photos along the way, but I got too excited to finish it. Let me kow if you want some detail photos of the finished product.

[ Edited by: TikiMike 2007-07-20 13:37 ]