Since, I bought untreated lumber for the man-style garden trellis' that I made, I had to do something to extend their life in the weather. After going through the remnants of 4 can's of spray paint and barely getting one of them done(I also had a numb/sore hand from squeezing the top of the can that long) my wife convinced me it would be simple to use the 1.5 gallons of left over grey paint we had from when she painted the back study to paint them by hand.
Yeah...easy...kind of ...but also time consuming. It might not look it in the pictures, but these things are not small...6 feet tall by 3'8" wide...with a lot of cross hatching to paint.
At the one hour point, I revealed to my wife how at one point, I had been thinking of buying some nice quality, THICK rope(not string...ROPE) to use to make the middle portion of the trellis, but I had found the cost of good rope to be intimidating.
At least rope wouldn't have had to be painted.
It didn't take long for my wife and I to revolutionize a new technique...or at least bring it back in to vogue...the 'goop and spread'. Mr. Miyagi would not have approved. The finished product has a fair amount of running, and easily visible brush marks.
Here is where the rationalization comes in...we managed to convince ourselves that the added texture would help plant vines grow up the trellis, and once the plants were on it, no one would see the drip marks anyway!
Let's hear a Hell Yeah for efficiency. Or laziness.
Either way...I'll be able to sleep tonight.
Dang, I didn't read this before I made the comment below or I wouldn't have bothered. At least you'll be good for this year.
ReplyDeleteI never would have thought of any kind of oil..,I suspect now that I have shown my wife I am not 110% incompetent(at least in a function over form case), these wont be the last I make. She is making hints about putting some along our chain link fence to act as a privacy screen from our neighbors dogs. This type of project is up my alley...once everything was cut to length, just kind eye ball it together...I didn't break out the tape measure and calculator to equally space the cross-hatching.
ReplyDeleteI was originally thinking stain/varnish, but one of the guys at work convinced me paint would be easier, and I had planned on spray paint, but that was a pain in the rear. Next time, whether it's paint or oil, or stain, I put it on when the wood is all laid out instead of after it's put together.
the oil is a good fit, especially if you cut the pieces and then oil and then assemble. You can make a kind of a trough out of a couple 4x4's and or enough bricks, lay visqueen in it, fill it with oil and just dunk. Drip dry, let it stand in a bucket or old butter tub to collect excess drippings, and assemble.
ReplyDeleteKeep an eye out for old broom handles and etc, those are the kinds of things that work well for this stuff. Also bamboo. Looks like you will be busy!
A dunking trough...bloody brilliant.
ReplyDelete